John "Periwinkle Pussycat" P.'s Profile

This review is based on lunch only. I have eaten here for weekday (M-F) lunch many, many times, and have always been completely pleased with their food. 99% of the time, I've had their buffet. The variety is pretty good, and the quality is top notch, exceptionally well prepared and seasoned. Now, I like spicy food, and their food tends to be pretty spicy. If you don't like spicy food, you might be a little put off. If you find yourself having to eat lunch here, and you're a little sensitive to "heat", consider getting a kabob or something from the menu. It is also excellent.
I did go here for lunch on a weekend, once, hoping to find the same buffet in force. Unfortunately, they don't run it on weekends. Instead, they have "specials", which are... shall we say... "authentic". By that I mean, parts of animals we westerners don't usually eat. :-)
As for the "sweets" aspect.... They are pretty. Very enticing, visually. But having tried some of them, I have to say, they're not my cup o'  tea. Not very sweet at all, actually, and they have a kind of pasty texture. If you're hankering for something really sweet, I believe they also usually have zoulbia (or -what's it called in Erdoo... "jalabiya"?)
Anyway - bottom line is that this is one of my absolute fave middle-eastern food joints in the entire world, and I miss not working close enough to it to eat here for lunch anymore. :-(

Week-day lunch-time... Buffet... $10... can't complain too much. Place was not crowded at all -- at 12:30 -- much to my surprise. Used to be, you had to wait for a table at peak hour. Now, having eaten their food, I can't say I'm all that surprised.

They used to be very strong in the South Indian cuisine, but now it seems they have diversified. I wouldn't say that strategy has worked in their favor. There was a good variety on the buffet, but only one or two dishes would I say really stood out as something good. Most were meh. The chicken biryani, for example, had an "off" flavor.

Service was not particularly good. It's almost like they treat it as entirely self-service. I had to flag down a waiter -- or should I call him bus staff -- to ask about drinks. Similarly when we wanted to get the check.

Now here is my big complaint: They list salty, sweet, and mango lassi on the bev card. I asked for salty. Guy says he's not sure they have it, he'll check. He comes back with what was, I could just about swear, a glass of sweet lassi with two or three teaspoons of salt mixed in. NOT GOOD. WTF?

Disclaimer - this review is based on a single experience, 3 dishes, delivered. I will review again after I've had a few more things, but I want to get this down because I'm very excited about this discovery.

Hunan Chef has been at its present location only a short while - maybe a year - but it has been in business at another nearby location for decades, from what I've been told. Allegedly the proprietors have a very good reputation in the local community.

I tried their hot and sour soup, beef lo mein, and chicken fried rice. The guy on the phone - who, by the way, spoke perfect English - estimated a delivery time of 30 minutes, and it actually came in well under that. +1 for underpromising and overdelivering! The food was still piping hot. Both the lo mein and fried rice were perfection. The meat in both cases was tender; all the flavors were popping yet with no hint of MSG or other chemicals. The hot and sour soup was also excellent. It has pork in it -- which was ok with me -- and that was their only option - no vegetarian or seafood hot and sour soup. Noteworthy was their crispy fried noodles: very well done, quite toasty and crisp, not excessively oily -- and absolute not stale or rancid. This should be universally the case, of course, but unfortunately it is not, in my experience.

Lastly, I want to say that I will no longer be patronizing the other near-by Chinese take-away, Happy Family. Though I've been a fairly faithful customer of theirs for years, their food recently took a turn for the worse -- I suspect a change of management, though I don't know for sure -- and it was never stellar. The main reason I kept going back there was for their hot and sour soup. Last time I got theirs, it wasn't so great, and the other food was decidedly meh.

Steaks here are just OK. I kinda like the mashed potatoes, and I like that they don't skimp on the garlic anywhere. The creamed spinach is far too heavy on the "creamed" and thin on the "spinach".

My big complaints about this joint are that they don't have a full bar (beer and wine only) and they don't have espresso. I almost have to laugh at a place that pretends to be a real restaurant but fails on such basic points. Even their wine list is unremarkable. I also think that a small salad -- what does it cost them, a buck? -- should be standard on every entree.

I agree with others who say this place is way over-hyped, over-rated, and over-priced. For prices like these, I expect 5-star service, but unfortunately it's about on a par with TGIF.  Yeah, that bad.  I will give high marks to the bus staff, though -- very efficient and competent.  I just don't see how this place can possibly merit a 5-star rating. I have to suppose that a lot of people have never been to a really good steakhouse.

I'm so disappointed with this place, I feel like giving it just 1 star (lowest rating), but the fact is that the food itself was not horrible. But so many things about it were just utterly disappointing.

First - The dishes do not come with rice. The kabobs come with bread (and it's pretty lousy bread at that), but vegetable plates don't even come with bread. To be clear: each kabob comes with two "sides", and you can opt for rice as one of them. I'm sorry - this is simply not competitive with the other kabob joints in the area. For the same price (more or less), I could eat like a maharaja at Kabob Palace, with bread, rice, and two sides - on EVERY dish - and it would all be excellent quality.

Second - "Sam's" ground chicken kabob. I've never had ground chicken that was ground completely into paste. The texture was completely disgusting. I actually thought I was eating chicken LIVER, which I really don't like. Even the flavor was liver-like. I thought several times that maybe it was actually chickpea paste (since I figured liver was unlikely) and maybe the guy who took my order got it wrong. But double-checking their menu, it's obvious it could only have been the ground chicken. Utterly disgusting, texture-wise. Flavor wise, it was just meh.

Third - and this is admittedly minor - their kadu (pumpkin) was overly sweet. I think they cooked it with prunes. LOTS of prunes. Their chickpea side dish was also distinctly inferior to just about any other place in the area. The eggplant dish was not bad, but had too much "other than eggplants" (onions, etc.) in it for my taste.

As far as I could tell, there are no actual Afghans involved in the operation. I don't want to draw any unwarranted conclusions, but it may perhaps have something to do with the issues I describe above.

it is the perfect neighborhood bakery/bistro/brunch spot.

I had an awesome almond croissant (but note: have it heated; it can seem rather tough when cold).

also had an excellent baked egg.

the accompanying toast is of their own bread, so of course it is superb.

very nice upscale restaurant. nice decor, cool ambiance. great place to take a date. :-)

the food was very good, in my opinion. not the most excellent Indian food you'll find, but more than satisfactory. I had a cocktail - some kind of spicy Alexander-like thing made with coconut milk - which was out of this world.

also had good service. no complaints. and we definitely did NOT feel rushed. in fact, we got to linger a bit even after the bill had been paid.

lastly - it's a good value, at least relative to other similar "upscale" restaurants.

disclaimer: this review is based on one visit, for drinks and apps only.

went on a Sunday evening. had two drinks: piña colada and mai tai. ate the fritters and the saimin.

There was no show. Only the fake lightning/thunder and rain. The rain was cool, but the thunder/lightning was just cheesy.

The music being played over the sound system was Hawaiian "contemporary traditional" -- Iz, Raiatea, Brahs Caz. Now, I like this music ok, but it's not the kind of stuff that evokes the "tiki" vibe which would have been more appropriate. I think they should be going more "exotica" - Arthur Lyman, Martin Denny, Kava Kon, Don Tiki.

The drinks were good: the piña colada was perfectly delicous, and the mai tai was jet fuel. :-)

The "saimin" was a HUGE disappointment. It's like these people had only read a brief description of saimin but had never actually seen it, let alone eaten it. The noodles were completely wrong. I think they were udon. The broth was ok, but overall the dish -- or, I should say, cup -- was boring: broth with some noodles and few chunks of chicken. It was like plain old boring chicken noodle soup, but with udon instead of egg pasta.

The fritters were pretty good -- the outside was really nice and crispy fried -- but the inside was maybe more gluey than should have been.

The  waitress I had was expeditious but not friendly. Not even fake friendly.

I'd go back for some stiff/delicious drinks. And I'd be willing to try the dinner menu.

I don't think I'd go back just to catch the show. I've heard that the music they play doesn't have anything to do with the tiki theme of the place anyway.

Ok - the food may not be the BEST Vietnamese in the area, or the most authentic. I don't care about authentic. The food was delicious. Presentation was certainly 5 star.

I went in a party of 4 adults and one toddler. The staff were very accomodating of our needs. And generally very attentive, available, and helpful. Actually, they gave us a special something extra, which I won't explain -- wouldn't want you to go in there expecting it's the norm. But we didn't ask for anything and never complained, yet they went out of their way to make sure we left with an exceptionally positive memory. (Maybe they overheard me saying "Yelp"?)

Basically, from my experience, the management of Present are very interested in making sure the clientele have a positive, pleasant experience.... and this extends to the cuisine as well. Vietnamese purists might be dismayed. To them I say, get a life.

I'm not saying 9:30 is perfect. I can think of things to complain about. but in total, they wouldn't knock more than half a point of my rating.

If your favorite band was coming to DC, this is the place you'd want to see them. (unless it was some obscure band with only a couple dozen fans.) The sound system is top notch.

sure, the neighborhood is a little sketchy. but jeez, people, this is DC.
anyway, I've been to dozens (and dozens) of shows at this place and never had a problem. felt a little creeped walking to my car alone in the wee hours a few times, but never had a problem.