We spent $240 on dinner at Dōgon, one of the buzziest restaurants in DC. The best part was the $63 chicken and rice.
I ate at Kwame Onwuachi's new restaurant, Dōgon, in Washington, DC.
We ordered coco bread, piri piri salad, chicken and rice, oxtails, and rum cake.
Our tasty dinner was $244, and I'm already looking forward to my next meal there.
Kwame Onwuachi was only 25 when he appeared on "Top Chef: California" in 2015.
Just four years later, he was named Rising Star Chef of the Year by the James Beard Foundation, Chef of the Year by Esquire, and one of the best new chefs by Food and Wine — all thanks to his restaurant, Kith/Kin, in Washington, DC.
Although I didn't get to visit Kith/Kin before it closed in 2020, I was excited to be able to dine at the chef's latest DC venture: Dōgon.
The Afro-Caribbean restaurant's buzzy opening has been covered by the likes of Vogue, Forbes, and Eater — but, as a restaurant critic, I was curious to check it out myself.
Here's what it's like to dine at Dōgon.
It was tough to get a reservation.
Dōgon is located in the DC-area Salamander hotel, close to the city's southwest waterfront.
I had to make my reservation at Dōgon nearly a month in advance. Although 5:15 p.m. felt early for dinner, it was the only time I could get so I happily took it.
The cozy, basic hotel lobby didn't prepare me for Dōgon.
The lobby's subtle yellows, browns, and blues contrast greatly with the chain-link curtains that beckon diners into the hotel's restaurant to the left.
Upon entering, I was immediately struck by the dark atmosphere. Music blared from the dining room to the hostess counter.
But once I was seated across from the bar, an illuminated glass ball provided sufficient light for me and my camera.
More light glowed from the open kitchen.
When I walked to the back of the restaurant, I was drawn to the view of the open kitchen.
A large group of chefs appeared to be working in harmony to bring the menu to life.
It was tough to decide what to order.
Onwuachi's menu includes dishes with influences from Nigeria, Jamaica, Trinidad, and New Orleans.
Several staffers helped throughout my meal, but my primary server, Andrea, especially stood out. When she found out it was our first time dining at Dōgon, she walked us through her favorites.
Our party had an allergy, which eliminated a few options from the menu. However, Andrea offered to adjust some dishes so that we could enjoy them.
Andrea's first recommendation was the coco bread.
Andrea suggested we order the coco bread, and although the $15 price tag of it horrified me, I'm glad we did.
The five petite balls of sweet, buttery dough were far lighter than coco bread I've had at Jamaican restaurants. I was impressed with the bread's cloud-like texture and how easy it was to spread the malted-sorghum butter that came with the dish.
The piri piri salad was so good I had to finish it with a spoon.
The piri piri salad was smaller than I'd hoped for, especially given its $22 price tag. But any complaints I had quickly vanished when our server arrived to pour papaya dressing over the flower-adorned salad.
The thick papaya sauce was flavored with garlic and chiles — the same mixture used in the hot sauce that Andrea had already brought to our table.
The sauce helped accentuate bites of cucumber, tomato, cape gooseberries, and grapes, along with the almond-butter-filled avocado half.
The salad's balance between creamy and crunchy textures and spicy and sweet flavors made it extremely compelling. Once I'd eaten all that I could with my fork, I spooned the remnants into my mouth, savoring every last bite.
My favorite dish was the chicken and rice.
For years, I lived and worked in Houston, where I frequently indulged in food from the Nigerian community and became mildly addicted to skewers of suya and jollof rice.
Although Onwuachi's $63 chicken wasn't as spicy as the dishes at the mom-and-pop restaurants I used to frequent, he still brought some heat to the dish.
The roasted half chicken that dominated the plate barely required a knife. The tender meat was rubbed in a paste flavored with an earthy spice mix known as berbere and crowned with an herb salad.
The rice — made with tomatoes, chiles, and complex spices — tasted just like a grandmother's comfort food.
The deceptively simple dish was also plated with half a lime, more berbere paste, and a sweet-and-creamy mix of ricotta and honey. It was fun to mix and match these toppings to make each bite taste slightly different.
Onwuachi recently brought his famous oxtails back to the menu, too.
The Caribbean-style oxtails that Onwuachi made at Kith/Kin returned to DC on November 1, just days before I dined.
At $65, they weren't cheap, but I ordered them over the $110 wagyu short rib I'd been considering. The sugar and collagen in the sauce made it delightfully sticky — the dish felt like a beefy dessert.
Extracting the pillowy meat from the bones reminded me of gamja-tang, my favorite Korean stew made from a pig's neck bones. It was tougher to get the meat off without the chopsticks or gloves usually provided at Korean restaurants.
However, I did my best to finish every bite, spooning the sauce over the coconut-infused rice and peas to experience the unique flavor combination of sweet heat and flesh.
I didn't have room for dessert, but I ordered it anyway.
I didn't get any pressure from Andrea or the other servers to order dessert, but I didn't want the meal to end just yet.
There were only two desserts on the menu, so I chose the $17 rum cake over the spiced cherry sorbet — and I'm glad I did.
Although the sweet treat sounded a little boring on paper, the crisp edges and fluffy center of the two slabs of cake made it a textural delight. It was squiggled with a vanilla whip and then finished with mint leaves and boozy, blistered cape gooseberries.
I'll definitely be returning to Dōgon.
Dōgon took some of my favorite dishes from around the world and elevated them to levels I had never imagined.
I can imagine the dining experience will be even more eye-opening for guests who haven't tasted as many world cuisines.
Either way, Dōgon is a must-visit restaurant in DC. I spent $244 there on dinner for two with no alcoholic beverages, and I would happily do it again.
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