[giant shrimp]

it was nice to see this place almost full on sunday night, although i'm not sure exactly why business appeared to be way up, though wondered if it had anything to do with russians coming down the hill.

in a recent visit to passage to india, we ran into tough samosas and lamb and bitter eggplant. all three, based on recent experience, were superior at heritage, though there is still more intrigue and depth to the cooking in bethesda.

[Heather]

Waitman & I had lunch at the Dupont Heritage last week. Conn Ave's lunch options are a depressing parade of the Cosi/Chopt/Chipotle variety. Heritage is a civilized oasis in the midst of the cramped takeaway joints.
The lunch specials are a good deal, and quite a lot of food - don't bother with an appetizer if you plan to get one. Papri chaat, & pappadum were very tasty, but too much before the vegetarian & lamb lunch combos. Service was not especially fast, but we were busy gabbing so it didn't really matter.

[giant shrimp]

Maybe out of desperation to drum up some business, there was finally something to gnaw on at heritage this weekend in a curry of stewed goat in a fairly peppery though not blazing cashew sauce ($19.95). we were advised that we would have to pick up the bones to get at the meat, but most of it had dropped off in tender hunks into the sauce, which was smooth and married well with the sweetish flesh, a fair substitute for lamb. there were enough knobs on the knuckles of bone that were spooned clean and white to the surface that grasping them wasn’t nearly as messy as tangling with hot chicken wings, though you still wouldn’t feel confident about handling them without a napkin on your lap. If it’s the meat you are looking for, there are only a few strands left, but there is some satisfying sinew and fat to chew on, which opens wider the faintly mysterious flavor of the goat. There were also some indications of marrow, but getting at any that might have been in there would have been difficult even with a small knife, and I had to quit before getting too carried away, like in a George romero movie, and scraping off the surfaces of expensive dental work (which I know enough to avoid, having accomplished this before with duck and ruining the entire meal). Osso bucco this is not. We have been coming here regularly now for several years, and even with more competition moving into the neighborhood, most of it disappointing to various degrees, heritage remains one of the best restaurants in the few blocks mounting the hill up to calvert street, tied in my mind with sushi-ko across wisconsin avenue. Specials are something new here, and I have no idea when, if ever, goat will pop up again, but in a clinch, if you are looking for excitement, you can always fall back on the lamb vindaloo. Just let your server know that your mouth is coated in asbestos and you are ready to handle the anguish, which lasts as it travels.

[giant shrimp]

There remains a great deal of continuity in this skilled kitchen, but you can’t help but notice some subtle changes around the edges now that the previous chef has moved up the street to higher ground in tenleytown. The samosas lately have been packing more heat, though not smoldering, the pastries impeccably fried, crisp and light. The minced lamb and lentil filling in the shammi kabab is being ground into a sandier paste. And intriguing specials are appearing regularly on their own short menu. Billed as street food, but elegant in its simplicity (if there is such a thing in Indian cuisine considering its elaborate use of spices), aloo tama kut ($11.95) was on the menu recently, a lighter, wet alternative to aloo gobi, the potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce. Our aloo were undercooked, not terribly, but still slick and not given enough time for their starch to do its thing. Kadhai chicken ($16.95), which is cooked with some steam, also comes in a tomato curry, though not in the same bath as the potatoes, so you can easily distinguish between the two gravies on the same plate. Without its creaminess, this dish seemed, deceivingly, not as rich as the butter chicken or chicken masala, the cubes of dark meat more transparent. Even traveling on the lighter side of the menu, this was a filling meal. We built up a healthier tolerance for alcohol over the holidays, so our departure down the stairs was easier than usual even though the martinis here are just as mean as ever. A hopeful sign, in two recent visits, both dining rooms have been crowded.

[Waitman]

Went to Heritage Monday night and, for all the love Sietsema showers on Ashok Bajaj's various joints and the recent Masala Art boom-let here, I'm thinking it's still the best Indian in the city, particularly if your taste runs towards the slow simmery stuff. Half priced wine Monday-Thursday, as well.

[Ericandblueboy]

Waitman, on 31 March 2010 - 05:27 AM, said:

Went to Heritage Monday night and, for all the love Sietsema showers on Ashok Bajaj's various joints and the recent Masala Art boom-let here, I'm thinking it's still the best Indian in the city, particularly if your taste runs towards the slow simmery stuff. Half priced wine Monday-Thursday, as well.

I've read others extol the virtues of the hawker's menu at the Dupont location (mostly on CH) and I've heard it sucks. Does anyone have an updated report?

[sandynva]

Ericandblueboy, on 31 March 2010 - 08:27 AM, said:

I've read others extol the virtues of the hawker's menu at the Dupont location (mostly on CH) and I've heard it sucks. Does anyone have an updated report?

I've had their vegetarian kati roll and thought it was fine, though not super flavorful (too many potatoes!). other indian friends i've been with have said their frankies/kati rolls are really good, so maybe the nonveg ones are better? the pani puri are fine. not great, but i don't know that there's a better version of them in d.c, (though i've never had the ones at masala art.) the only local version i've had that were better (though only a little bit better) were the ones at indaroma on little river turnpike.

nonetheless, since there are so few places in dc that serve the "hawker food" i'm quite glad heritage offers what it does.

at happy hour the "street food" is half off or heavily discounted.

ps-for my money, the best "hawker food" in the area is at 1) rasika--the ragda patties is a good rendition of a street food classic, imho not too far off from homemade or the original, and their palak chat is also a version of a classic street food and 2) indaroma in va.....

[sacrilicious]

There is a new sign at the Glover Park location that says, "Heritage Asia Thai Bistro," as well as a Thai menu on their website. (The Indian restaurant is still there, as far as I can tell.) I was just driving by so didn't stop to check it out but was planning to walk by this weekend out of curiosity. Does anyone know what this is about, and has anyone tried the new menu?

[giant shrimp]

sacrilicious, on 03 June 2010 - 12:40 PM, said:

There is a new sign at the Glover Park location that says, "Heritage Asia" Thai food, as well as a Thai menu on their website. (The Indian restaurant is still there, as far as I can tell.) I was just driving by so didn't stop to check it out but was planning to walk by this weekend out of curiosity. Does anyone know what this is about, and has anyone tried the new menu?

the last time i was there, maybe a month ago, the mandus, a special appetizer, were the best thing we ordered. they were indian, and really delicious, but not what i was accustomed to seeing on the menu -- more like something i would have expected to find at the small chinese restaurant downstairs that i have never visited even though i continue to hear good things about their dumplings.

anyway, it's hard to imagine serving thai and indian in the same dining room, so i am guessing that maybe the thai food is in the bar area downstairs, which never seemed to do any business and where the furniture was for sale. if that's the case, i'm going to have a hard time choosing thai over the reliably good indian cooking that is upstairs. if the two cuisines are being served in the same restaurant, maybe i'll just duck into the chinese restaurant.

[DonRocks]

giant shrimp, on 03 June 2010 - 02:07 PM, said:

the last time i was there, maybe a month ago, the mandus, a special appetizer, were the best thing we ordered. they were indian, and really delicious, but not what i was accustomed to seeing on the menu -- more like something i would have expected to find at the small chinese restaurant downstairs that i have never visited even though i continue to hear good things about their dumplings.

anyway, it's hard to imagine serving thai and indian in the same dining room, so i am guessing that maybe the thai food is in the bar area downstairs, which never seemed to do any business and where the furniture was for sale. if that's the case, i'm going to have a hard time choosing thai over the reliably good indian cooking that is upstairs. if the two cuisines are being served in the same restaurant, maybe i'll just duck into the chinese restaurant.

Here's the Heritage [pan-]Asia menu.

[giant shrimp]

DonRocks, on 03 June 2010 - 11:33 PM, said:

Here's the Heritage [pan-]Asia menu.

don't know if this is an ambitious menu, but it is certainly long, based in thailand but with short side trips to other asian countries. next time, i will skip vietnam and its quietly flavored shrimp garden rolls. on to thailand, the chicken coconut soup is all about the dark meat, which is what stands out in a fairly standard presentation. salmon in a panang sauce is ok, a little dry, and stir fried beef with chilli and garlic is even better than ok, though not much heat comes through.

as of now, the kitchen appears to be afraid of heat offending the diners, so you should emphatically ask for it. an early impression, and it's based on only a fraction of what's being offered, is that the thai cooking here is run-of-the-mill for the area, where thai restaurants settle in fast, the good ones opening with a bang and then trailing off into a hit-or-miss mediocrity that is saved nevertheless by lemon grass, galangal, coconut and other exotic flavors that usually always make a favorable impression.

one other thing, i associate this cuisine with sharing, but at this point the restaurant does not. two entrees are served on small platters too big to sit on the table along with two plates, making sharing an awkward business. i'm sure this can easily be remedied, although the diners around us seemed perfectly happy to be digging into individual entrees, which are on the generous side.

ironically, they don't seem to be afraid of the heat upstairs where good indian cooking is standing by, although it never hurts to nudge them in that direction. two back-to-back dinners found the upstairs and downstairs playing in two different leagues. the service, cited a while back as a problem in the indian dining room, is exemplary these days. it almost seems as if the servers have even been trained. in the opening days, the service downstairs is friendly, but not assured.

i hadn't been to busara for some time before it closed, but it started off on a strong note, emphasizing modern presentations. the opening here is not as impressive, but who knows where it is headed. right now, this is an effort to drum up some business in an expensive space that was underutilized for years. maybe a consultant told heritage to dumb down asian cooking. i would have told them to try and coax taw vigsittaboot, or someone of his caliber, to their stoves. they are playing it way too safe.