Da Hong Pao Restaurant and Bar

If you’re in the mood for authentic dimsum in the downtown DC area, this is the place to go. But they have all sorts of a Chinese dishes beyond the dimsum like roast duck which was pretty delectable also. The only letdown was the siumai which is surprising since the rest of the dimsum that we got were so tasty as compared to this one which seems to be just ground up pork in dumpling wrapper lacking in umami juiciness. We also ate here Chinese New Year eve. We ordered the twin lobster (overpriced at $100 but it’s CNY) and Peking Duck (pricey also at $60).

I was craving for dim sum. This restaurant was closed to the hotel I stayed. It took me less than 10 minutes to drive there, but it took me 10 minutes to find a paid parking spot on the street. The restaurant was clean and the staff were friendly. There were quite a few choices for their dim sum menu. They also sell chinese roast duck. I selected the dim sum dishes from the menu. The food was tasteful and delicious.

We had high expectations but were a bit disappointed. The beef chow fun was really tasty and definitely the best dish. However, came looking forward to the roast duck and it was served cold and was quite fatty. The salt and pepper squid was also really lacking in seasoning.

We had a wonderful dim sum experience on a Saturday morning. The shrimp dumplings, shrimp and chive dumplings, and fried taro dumplings were all excellent—beautifully wrapped with dense, flavorful fillings. The Chinese broccoli was perfectly crisp, and I appreciated that nothing was overly salty since you can season to taste with your own soy sauce. Service was also great, attentive but not intrusive. The pan-fried chive dumpling was decent, though not quite as impressive as we preferred the flat pancake style. Overall a great experience would definitely return!

I wanted to start this review and say I am a native New Yorker born and raised. Every year I travel to DC to visit family and the ONE and ONLY place we look forward to eating at the entire trip is this restaurant here. The atmosphere is unparalleled. I love the fact that the restaurant is big yet cozy. The big windows facing the main road draws in such amazing natural light that just makes your day so much more special. You can tell right off the bat that the standard and hospitality at this restaurant is top notch. Whatever you need the staff will attend to you with pleasure. Yes this place can get very very busy and you may be so so eager to try the food that time feels like its slowing down and get impatient, but remember that the kitchen staff is doing their best to make quality food a