Han Palace

Han Palace located on Barracks Row offers dim sum and Chinese dishes in a casual atmosphere.  Closest Metro is Eastern Market. For New Year's Day, we wanted dim sum!  We walked over to the fairly new second location of Han Palace (first location is in Woodley Park) and saw it was already quite crowded, so we sat at the bar.  While set tasting menus are available - Option A offers all the dim sum with hot tea for $38 per person with a two hour limit and Option B offers the meat and vegetable entree dishes for $48 per person - we decided to order a la carte.

Q by Peter Chang

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Q by Peter Chang is located in a chic 8,000 square foot palace offering modern Chinese cuisine in the heart of downtown Bethesda, Maryland.  Q stands for Qijian and means "flagship" in Chinese. Keith and I were invited to try the dim sum brunch, available Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 3pm.  Closest Metro is Bethesda.

Maketto

Maketto is a 60 seat restaurant that offers a fresh interpretation of Cambodian and Taiwanese cooking inspired by the people and flavors of those respective cultures. With a small retail shop in the front and extra seating upstairs and outside, we went recently for dim sum, served on Sundays only from 11:30am to 4:00pm.  Closest Metro is Union Station.

Maketto: A Residency

Being huge fans of Chef Erik Bruner-Yang and Toki Underground, we've been eagerly waiting for the opening of Maketto on H St NE.  We even considered participating in the fundrise to own the building that the market would be a tenant in - crazy, right?  Maketto is a joint venture between Chef Erik and Will Sharp of DURKL and will offer an indoor-outdoor environment combining fashion and food inspired by international night markets and global street culture.

Fortune Chinese Seafood Restaurant

This classic Chinese restaurant is located close to the Seven Corners area of Falls Church, right next door to the Home Depot.  Serving traditional Chinese cuisine highlighting seafood specialties, Fortune is also famous on the weekends for its dim sum brunch.

Ping Pong Dim Sum

Last date I was here: 10/29/2010

Restaurant: Ping Pong Dim Sum (http://www.pingpongdimsum.us/)

Location: Gallery Place/Chinatown

Total Rating: 3.95
Food: 4, Price: 3, Service: 4, Ambience: 5, Accessibility: 5

Summary: Serving "little steamed parcels of deliciousness", Ping Pong Dim Sum in Gallery Place, DC is the first American location of this chain originating from the UK. Like tapas or a trendy grazing menu, you order as many or as few dim sum as you wish - lots if you're very hungry, just a few if you’re snacking with tea or cocktails. Beautiful flowering teas and delicious cocktails are on the menu, too, offering a great happy hour spot for the younger crowd. Traditional Chinese ingredients mixed with a modern twist and instantly the Ping Pong flavors are bursting. Closest Metro is Gallery Place-Chinatown.

There have been mixed reviews about the food at this new trendy restaurant, despite the accolades for creative cocktails and exotic teas. This restaurant is great for groups or first dates as, similar to a tapas or sushi restaurant, you can order several small plates to sample and share between the table. Each comes with 2 or 3 pieces. Choose from steamed, grilled, baked, or fried "dumplings" or even soup or salad. The food comes out as it is ready and surprisingly fast. Keith and I shared 7 plates and it seemed to be just the right amount. We also ordered the extra $2 sauce sampler, but it may not have been needed as 3 sauces are already provided gratis and some plates even come with their own sauce. For drinks, I tried the Ping Pong, a $10 mix of Martini Bianco, white wine, Yokaichi Shochu and lychee juice and Keith had the Tennessee Tea Tingle, a $10 mix of Jack Daniel’s, Cointreau, fresh lime juice topped with Coca Cola. Some dishes could have had a little more filling to dough ratio, but all in all, the ingredients and flavors were good and the overall dining experience was fun.

What I ate:

Vegetable Puff

Sautéed vegetables in a honey sauce baked in handmade puff pastry

Pork Shu Mai

Pork and king prawns steamed in an open pastry topped with a Chinese wolfberry

Spicy chicken dumpling

Chicken and vegetables in chilli sauce steamed in translucent white pastry

Scallop and shitake dumpling

Scallops and king prawns with shitake mushrooms steamed in wheat flour pastry

Vietnamese spring roll

Prawns, noodles and vegetables wrapped in rice paper, fried and served with chilli fish sauce

Seafood Sticky Rice Parcel

Rice with king prawns, scallops, carrots and bamboo shoots, wrapped in a Lotus leaf

Lemon chicken

Tender chicken breast fillet with chilli, honey and lemon, served on lettuce

Sauce platter

A selection of three Ping Pong sauces:

Spicy mango, Basil, ginger and black sesame seed, Ginger and garlic