Smashed Cucumber Salad, Umami Nosh, Warm Walnut Potato SaladEgg Drop Hot Sour Wonton SoupDry Spiced Double-Fried Chicken WingsXo Shrimp Lo MeinWok Stir Fried Sea BassSesame Custard (Has no Eggs)Chinese Style 5 Spice Donuts
We were happy to try the new menu items at the DuPont location of ChiKo, a group of Chinese/Korean fusion restaurants. I can’t eat egg yolks, so brought a plus one (“C”) to try the dishes I could not. We enjoyed all the new menu items; my guest vouched for the dishes I could not try).
C’s favorite dishes of the visit were the Umami Nosh (soft-cooked egg, salmon caviar, seaweed) and Egg Drop Hot Sour Wonton Soup, two dishes I could not try. He attacked the Chinese Style 5 Spice Donuts. When he brought home the leftover soup, his partner proclaimed it “sex in a bowl.” I asked no further questions at that point.
My favorite dishes of the evening were the Wok Stir Fried Sea Bass (which I LOVED) ordered without the oyster mushrooms and Dry Spiced Double-Fried Chicken Wings (wonderful savory flavor and perfectly crunchy), although the latter isn’t a new dish. I attacked the Sesame Custard, which does not contain eggs and features a perfect combination of flavors and textures (coconut, caramel, almonds, basil seeds).
The new dishes are available at all ChiKo locations. Scroll down to see the menu.
-JAY
Disclosure: From time to time, we are given free items, meals, or entry to events. Our words are still our own.
Standard menu. They also have a vegetarian and a GF menu.
Thursday, we attended the pre-opening night of the new Silver Diner location in Navy Yard. After 33 years in the DC area, this is their first Silver Diner in Washington, DC proper. They have a Silver in DC (Cathedral Heights), but it is a different concept (more upscale).
Ype Von Hengst (Right)
Silver Diner co-owner and Executive Chef Ype Von Hengst (a TVFN Chopped and Rewrapped champion) was on hand with his CEO and a huge staff. They continuously checked on the diners that evening (bigwigs and media). So, the service was definitely attentive. The baseball-themed cookies as favors were a nice touch for this event.
We’ve dined at and ordered takeout and delivery at various Silver Diner locations over the years. We even covered the opening of an Alexandria location during the pandemic. And, I’ve even ordered the steak dish many times. The Old Bay Wings with Mambo Sauce are new though.
The food was better than anything we’ve experienced at Silver Diner in the past. The steak was perfectly cooked, the wings were crispy and tasty. We tried nicely executed (and yummy) margaritas which had a shot of Cointreau in a tiny lime rind bowl, and the house made ginger ale. Hopefully, this is the normal level of quality for this location and not just the case because it was a heavily staffed and monitored opening event. If the DC location can keep it up, maybe Silver Diner can bring their other restaurants up to this level, from good to great.
Give the new location a try and comment letting us know if they keep up this really high level of food and service.
Pressed opened across the Street from the P Street Whole Foods a couple of weeks ago. I checked it out last week, trying all four of the frozen treat flavors. I enjoyed the Dragon Fruit, Acai, and Golden Rosé flavors, but was not a fan of the Vanilla. The Acai bowl was flavorful, and included granola and good quality fresh fruit. I tried one shot (refresh, which is a tastier alternative to apple cider vinegar), two juices (Citrus 2, and Strawberry Basil Lemonade), one Acai Bowl, and some great and addictive chewie organic tropical mango candy from Candy Kittens. I liked that the two juices were not very sweet, which highlighted their flavors. All three employees (including Asha, the Manager) were personable and helpful.
Pressed is definitely a nice addition to the area, and it is great that it has outdoor seating. Georgetown and Mosaic District locations are coming soon.
-JAY
Disclosure: From time to time, we are given free items, meals, or entry to events. Our words are still our own.
This topic reminds me of my recurring column from many years ago about eating in Arlington when nearly broke. Here are some Dupont Circle specials:
Dawson’s Market free beer tastings on Thursdays (City State are DC Brau are the next two events). Photos of some previous tastings and their event calendar were covered in a previous article. They also have one Friday wine tasting a month at the DuPont location.
Duffy’s Irish pub (which opened on P Street during the pandemic) has dine in 1/2 price burgers Mondays with the purchase of a beverage all night and dine in all day/night 1/2 price wings Wednesdays with purchase of a beverage. Every Thursday from 4pm-7pm kids eat free from the kids menu with the purchase of an adult entrée and drink.
Rakuya has Happy Hour (HH) food and drink specials including $3 shishito peppers or edamame, $5 yakitori, $5.50 gyoza, green beans tempura, shumai, crunchy spice salmon rolls, or spicy tuna rolls. They also have $4-8 beer, $7 glasses of wine, and a few $8-9 cocktails on HH.
Firehook Bakery has Buy One Get One pastries M-F 5-6pm, but not cookies, or cupcakes; it’s items like scones and cinnamon rolls.
Across the Pond has a special on Mondays 4-8pm: $6 hamburger and fries ($1 additional per topping).
The Admiral HH features 3 cheeseburger siders for $10.
Specials from our neighbors:
Chef Geoff’s West end (a few blocks from DuPont) has a number of food on their HH menu like $4 mahi tacos, $6 white truffle popcorn, $12 pasta Bolognese, $5 off of burgers, etc. And, a few $8 cocktails and $10 supermug drafts.
Ted’s Bulletin in Logan Circle during their HH Monday – Friday 3 PM – 6:30 PM has $3 drafts, $5 wines, $7 cocktails, and food specials like $6 fried pickles, $6 French onion dip with truffle potato chips, and $7 chicken parm sliders, $7 bacon cheeseburger empanadas, or Rueben tacos.
Restaurants, bakeries, and grocery stores often have food left over at the end of the day that could go to waste. The Too Good To Go app is a marketplace where you can purchase food from business at the end of their day (or meal service). The items in these bags/boxes can be pretty random, even if you pick up two boxes at the same location (or on different days).
Ala
Le Pain Quotidien
The food is usually already packaged as a mystery bag (or box) when you pick it up during the specified timeframe, but there were some exceptions. I didn’t mind waiting a few minutes if a place put a bag together while I waited.
Rose Ave Bakery
Taim Falafel
Purchasing these deals can be competitive, with new mystery bags/boxes usually hitting the website 15 minutes after the current day’s pickup range ends. As an example, The Cakeroom‘s pickup range is 8pm to 9pm, which means that at 9:15pm on Tuesday, the mystery bags/boxes to be picked up Wednesday will populate on the app. There are exceptions such as Rose Ave Bakery that sometimes drop mystery bags/boxes on the app for same day pickup.
Zenebech
The Cakeroom
Below are mystery bags/boxes I tried:
Ala ($3.99) in Dupont Circle has two pickups with different types of items, afternoon and evening (and I tried both). The above image is from the afternoon timeslot, and contained a Halva Croissant, Apple Tea (loose chopped dehydrated apples), an herbal teabag, Meringues, one Thumbprint Cookie, and Crunchy Chickpeas (dried).
Le Pain Quotidien ($4.99) gave me 3 pastries: a Cheese Danish, an Apple Turnover, and a Pan Aux Raisins. PDQ is much more readily available on the app than other baked goods options and has multiple locations (Dupont, 17th Street, Penn Quarter) you can choose from.
Rose Ave Bakery ($3.99) downtown offers fun Asian American-themed pastries. It is located at The Block DC food hall with Pogiboy, which is also on the Too Good To Go app. My Rose Ave mystery box contained green pastries: two Matcha White Chocolate Donuts, a Pandan Donut (green filling), and a Matcha Chocolate Cookie.
Taim Falafel‘s ($3.99) mystery bag included a Falafel Bowl and Tractor Beverage Company‘s Mandarin Cardamom. Their Georgetown and Dupont Circle Locations are both on the Too Good To Go app.
Zenebech ($4.99) is an Ethiopian restaurant in Adam’s Morgan. When I checked in, they put together a Vegetarian Combo for me with injera (spongy flat bread made from teff). I was lucky enough to score bags from both Zenebech and The Cakeroom to be picked up on the same evening, which was nice, because they are on the same street a few blocks from each other.
The Cakeroom ($5.99) put together a bag of mostly chocolate flavored items. There was a slice of Cherry Cheesecake, two slices of Chocolate Vanilla Cake, and two Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes.
I recommend Too Good To Go in DC (it’s in other cities too) but you need to be open to receiving really random items, especially at Ala. If you get something you can’t eat, share it with a friend. Too Good To Go is definitely a good value, since most of the mystery bags I received were worth 3 to 4 times what I paid.
The COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic has been especially hard on the restaurant industry, since traffic and seating has been reduced across the country. The use of ghost kitchens may be one way for entrepreneurs to expand their businesses and minimize losses during this difficult time.
Philadelphia entrepreneur Aaron Anderson operates several Original Hot Dog Factory restaurants in Philadelphia. He has partnered with Chef Big Rube, who is known for his immensely popular chicken, to open several ghost kitchen concepts (chicken shack, halal burgers, cheesesteaks, and breakfast bars) through Cloud Kitchens, and a brick and mortar restaurant (steak and shrimp) in Philadelphia. Ghost kitchens like Cloud allow for Anderson to invest in innovation because he can open new food concepts without raising funds for the expenses of a full new restaurant.
“Back in the DC area, ghost concepts are allowing for interesting experiments. Although Foster’s Grill in Vienna is known for its Charburgers, they recently launched a delivery-only ghost concept called Chicken Frenzy from their own restaurant’s kitchen. Chicken Frenzy’s menu includes chicken sandwiches, chicken salads, chicken fingers, and wings, as well as onion rings, plant-based chicken sandwiches, shakes, brownies, and chocolate chip cookies. Some of Chicken Frenzy’s menu items have been added to Foster’s Grill.
On a larger scale, Ghostline DC opened in August in Glover Park. Ghostline DC is a multiple-restaurant professional kitchen (delivery and takeout). Some of the items flowing out of Ghostline DC include ramen, pizza, fried chicken sandwiches, cupcakes, breakfast sandwiches, and pastries.
Hopefully, food entrepreneurs here and throughout the country will continue to find ways to stay in business and possibly even thrive during this pandemic. Don’t be surprised if you see more chicken sandwiches (a recent trend) coming through ghost kitchens in the near future.
Do you have some new recipes to share? Have you discovered the best restaurants in the DC area? Do you want to write a comparison article for a particular item or dish (such as best BLTs)? Need some foodie cred? (Good, since that is how we are compensated. ) Then we want you for DCFUD! Send a writing sample to jay (at) dcfud (dot) com, along with a couple ideas you’d like to write about.
Bear Branch Tavern in Vienna runs daily specials. This weekend, their BBT BBQ Big Boi Platter returns, featuring Brisket, Baby Back Ribs, Carolina Pulled Pork, Black Eyed Pea Baked Beans, Red Bliss Potato Salad (although our image features Coleslaw instead), and House Made Pickles. It’s available as a dine in entrée (inside or outside seating) for $20, or as a gameday platter for you and your friends (feeds four adults for around $80).
We very much enjoyed BBT’s BBQ platter! Our favorite items on were the Brisket, Ribs, and Pickles. Of the three BBQ sauces we tried (Kansas City, Carolina, and DC Mumbo), we preferred and fought over the Carolina (mustard-based) sauce, although all three were tasty.
Our suggestion would be to work on the baked beans a bit more. They were a bit undercooked, and black eyed peas may not be the best legume for the job. That said, we ate them.
BBT has a a great vibe and is casual and fun. It’s nice that they have both indoor and outdoor seating. As for the service, the employee who took our order on the phone (Jamie) was great.
Here is their dine-in menu. They have a brunch menu as well. When you visit their website, there is a popup with their daily food and drink specials.
-JAY
Editor’s Notes:
With a chunk of Washington, DC and the metro system closed due to the upcoming Inauguration, some of the more popular Northern Virginia restaurants have been quite busy this weekend. If you are ordering BBT takeout, call a little farther ahead.
As far as dining during the pandemic, BBT has covered heated outdoor seating, and sells branded blankets to help with the weather.
Victor Albisu of Del Campo recently beat Bobby Flay!
Victor’s Tacos!
Old Bay is Big in DC!
Congratulations to Dimitri Moshovitis of Cava Mezze who won 3 awards (Best in Show, People’s Choice, and Best Latin) at the DC Lamb Jam last night! His dish was a lamb shoulder half smoke with mustard tzatziki on a brioche bun. It was fun being a judge at this event!
