Dōgon by Kwame Onwuachi, 1330 Maryland Avenue SW, Washington DC (Southwest Waterfront)
I had blended emotions about Kwame Onwauchi’s return to DC. Whereas I really like his meals, I don’t take rejection properly. I’m the sort of sports activities fan who holds a grudge in opposition to a star participant who leaves city. No, I don’t want Bryce Harper properly with the Phillies. I hope he leads the league in strikeouts and rues the day he left me, er, I imply the Nats. Now think about Harper signed with the Yankees and led them to a World Sequence win. That’s type of what occurred with Kwame. We nurtured him — placing apart the short-lived catastrophe of Shaw Bijou, which we are able to blame on a withering Washington Submit evaluation — and helped get him the James Beard Rising Star award at his subsequent restaurant, Kith and Kin. However then he sort of ghosted us and stopped returning our texts, till our worst fears had been realized: Kwame opened a restaurant known as Tatiana in Lincoln Heart that rapidly grew to become the hardest reservation in New York and was anointed by the Instances as the town’s finest restaurant. Sure, I used to be completely happy for Kwame, whose inspiring story took him from drug-dealing and promoting sweet on subway vehicles to the height of the culinary world. And sure, New York is his hometown the place his mom and sister (Tatiana) nonetheless reside, so it’s onerous to utterly begrudge him that. However I additionally felt like Broadway Danny Rose whose shoppers inevitably dumped him after they hit it massive. DC is no one’s warm-up act. We’re not only a place to work out the kinks in your present so you may take it to Broadway. We have now our pleasure.
Talking of pleasure, it, together with gluttony, are two of the seven lethal sins. But when I had to decide on between them, give me gluttony each time. Feed me like Dōgon did this week and also you received’t hear a peep coming from me. I’m positive you had your causes, Kwame. What chef can resist a great Met opera? Water below the bridge, that’s what it’s. Oh, and ship over one other a type of piri piri salads while you get an opportunity.
Dōgon sits inside the brand new Salamander lodge close to The Wharf, and strolling into the starlit eating room — even on a random Thursday evening — feels just like the sort of hip get together the place I feel somebody could faucet me on the shoulder at any second and ask to see my invitation. There’s additionally a mood-setting soundtrack which fortunately isn’t too loud to make dialog tough.
However sufficient in regards to the vibe. Let’s get to the meals, which is improbable.
The Curry Branzino alone is price a particular journey. The fish arrives completely cooked — flaky, moist, singing with taste — swimming in a coconut curry that chef de delicacies Martel Stone builds with Cajun shrimp inventory, kombu, and bonito. It’s a dish that showcases Kwame’s genius for weaving collectively influences from his Nigerian, Jamaican, and Creole heritage into one thing totally his personal.
Then there are the BBQ greens. I virtually all the time order greens after I see them on a menu and these is perhaps the most effective I’ve ever had. Tender with out being mushy, with an ideal stability of smoke, acid, and richness from the candied onions and bacon. The potlikker — that magical elixir on the backside of the bowl — is liquid gold. I saved sticking my spoon into the broth and would have put the entire bowl to my mouth if Sonia would have closed her eyes like I requested her to.
The Piri Piri Salad is pure pleasure on a plate: tart gooseberries, juicy grapes, and half an avocado crammed with toasted almond butter, all introduced collectively table-side with a zippy papaya dressing. I recall an earlier incarnation of this dish at Kith and Kin, however this one hit even higher (and we did, actually, order a second one).
Mother Dukes’ Shrimp is an ode to Kwame’s childhood kitchen, the place younger Kwame ate shrimp doused in butter, garlic, and Creole spices. The Dōgon model amps up the depth with orange juice, wine, and lobster inventory — fancier, however nonetheless finger-licking finger-food in my guide.
Different highlights included the coco bread (a Kith and Kin holdover that Sheila Johnson particularly requested), Ben’s Bowl (a tribute to Ben Ali that showcases curry-spiced lamb with chickpea curry), and the Rooster and Rice — don’t let the easy title idiot you, it is a celebration of Ethiopian doro wat by a West African lens, with berbere-spiced, juicy rooster over Nigerian jollof rice.
The one miss for me was the Charbroiled Oysters. Not that they had been unhealthy — they simply felt a bit one-note in comparison with the complexity all over the place else on the menu, tasting largely of melted parmigiana.
Dessert shouldn’t be an afterthought at Dōgon, beginning with the rum cake. Mild, moist, and barely boozy like a great rum baba, it’s the type of dessert the place everybody on the desk is carping that they’re stuffed and don’t have room for dessert after which room left after which it reveals up they usually’re crossing spoons like Olympic fencers. The identical goes for the opposite dessert, dubbed Cherries and Cream, which is a loopy melange of scrumptious cherries topped with a flurry of frozen cherry shards.
Is Dōgon excellent? No restaurant is. The costs mirror its luxurious lodge setting, and getting a reservation might make Sisyphus surprise if the trouble was actually price it. However when the cooking is that this impressed, when each dish displays such clear imaginative and prescient and strong method, these quibbles fade away.
So welcome again to DC, Kwame, all is forgiven. No, Bryce, not you.
Score: 9.4/10
Value: $$$$ (Costly — plan on $75-100+ per particular person)
Reservations: Important (through Resy)
Coco Bread
Piri Piri Salad – Cucumber, Toasted Almond, Avocado
Charbroiled Oysters – Croatian Butter, Parmigiano, Pink Stew
Ben’s Bowl – Crispy Lamb, Tamarind Glaze, Chickpea Curry
BBQ Greens – Candied Cipollini, Roasted Garlic, Beef Bacon
Mother Duke’s Shrimp – Holy Trinity, Frenchman Butter, Lemon
Curry Branzino – Coconut Mussel Curry, Crispy Zucchini, Callaloo
Rooster and Rice – Berbere Roasted Rooster, Jollof Rice, Herbs
Cherries and Cream – Spicy Cherry Sorbet, Pastry Cream
Rum Cake – Vanilla Whip, Charred Fruit
