Kaliwa - Chef Paulo Dungca's Southeast Asian with Mai Tais at The Wharf

[cheezepowder]

Cathal Armstrong's new restaurant Kaliwa is opening possibly tomorrow at the Wharf (751 Wharf St, SW, DC) (via Laura Hayes' tweet).  More info about the restaurant at Washington City Paper:

"Kaliwa Brings Food with Full Funk and Fire to the Wharf when it Opens Next Week" by Laura Hayes on washingtoncitypaper.com

[Kev29]

Sorry, I read the name and all I can think is

[DonRocks]

I read one of the comments on City Paper that said, "Pair trend, trend, and trend with frozen trend ...." but people may not realize that Meshe is, I believe, half-Filipina, and Todd is the DC wild-cocktail pioneer (yes, even before Derek).

Capitalizing on trends, maybe, but this runs strongly in the familial and restaurant bloodline.

According to this tweet, the restaurant is opening today, Mar 22 - congratulations to all involved.

[cheezepowder]

Now opening on Monday, March 26, 2018, because of the storm according to Laura Hayes.

[funkyfood]

Brought some out of towners here last night.  My brother with a broken leg also joined us, and they were very accommodating by giving us a table big enough so he could prop his leg up (I had told him in advance). I did find it odd that they called us at 7:32 to ask if we still intended on using our 7:30 reservation.

The restaurant itself looks like a Cheesecake Factory, I hate to say. Very, very bright and chainy, with loud dated pop music playing (think Train and Justin Timberlake) quite loudly.  The environment seemed a bit incongruous with high end Asian food to be honest.

Upon asking about a bottle of wine, our waitress referred us to the somellier, who seemed like a nice enough guy but also seemed a bit inexperienced in his demeanor (he forgot to top me off after serving me the sample and filling everyone else's glasses).

ONTO THE FOOD: thankfully very good and fairly priced.  I'm on my phone so I can't see the menu, but we all really enjoyed the crab curry (lots of crab), the giant whole fish with tons of flavors and meat ($32, very reasonable), and the adobo chicken (tangy and good portion).  The raw fish dish from the Korean section didn't quite work for us but it wasn't bad.  They forgot our order of seafood egg noodles, which I suspect was the symptom of new restaurant kinks.  They also served us delicious sticky rice ($2 a bowl) to sop up the juices. Finally, we shared a really excellent sticky rice, mango and ice cream dessert that was remarkably restrained on the sweetness, which I loved. We paid $50-55 per person with tax and tip and left full.

It's easier to fix the environment, service and music than the food, so hopefully they'll take make the tweaks needed.  I'd go back sometime.

Edit: forgot to mention that the cocktail menu was really unappealing. They may have been trying for kitchy but they just looked too sweet and uninteresting, especially for $15

[brr]

As an Irish man married to a Filipina and someone who has eaten at multiple Armstrong locations going back almost 20 years I really wanted to like this place......

.....But......

.....we went on Memorial Day Monday and the vibe was really strange and soporific. I'd agree on the cocktail menu its pretty unappealing so I opted for a very average Rose at $13/glass. The place was more than half empty and as we sat facing the kitchen it meant that the underutilized kitchen staff spent most of their time gazing out at the diners / checking their phones / fixing their hair - the whole thing was a little off putting 

The food was decent but overpriced for the portion size - $15 for a tiny bowl of pancit, almost $20 for adobo with perhaps 2 pieces of meat in it - the whole grilled fish was good - halo halo was good but the caramelized bananas has the texture of cardboard

Service was stilted and weird - took forever for my daughter to get our drink and despite asking they would not give us dessert menus until our table was cleared.

If this place was closed by the end of the year I would not be surprised.....

[Ericandblueboy]

Do they not take reservation for weekends?  

[Kev29]

3 hours ago, Ericandblueboy said:

Do they not take reservation for weekends?  

From their website:

Quote

We take a limited number of reservations for your convenience during the week. Please note we can only hold reservations for 15 minutes.

Sunday through Thursday

[dpamlin]

Has anyone been lately?  Going to be dining at the Wharf in a few weeks, and Kaliwa seems appealing, but the reviews above are less than favorable.  Have things improved?

[Rieux]

I really did not enjoy the dishes, the price/value ratio, the service, or the ambience. On vacation in Portugal so cant write more but I echo all said above. I definitely won’t go back. 

[Pool Boy]

Gonna give this a try this weekend before a show at Arena.

[Bart]

On 1/3/2019 at 2:07 PM, Rieux said:

I really did not enjoy the dishes, the price/value ratio, the service, or the ambience. On vacation in Portugal so cant write more but I echo all said above. I definitely won’t go back. 

I've been a number of times before shows at the Anthem, and have to agree on the service.  I've never found it bad, but just kind of clueless.  Ask a question on the wine list ("is this an oaky Chardonnay?") and get either a confused look, or get an answer that I had no confidence in the accuracy.  The other issue I had with the service is the language barrier.  Every server I've ever had speaks English as second language and had difficulty communicating or describing dishes or answering questions on the dishes.  Not passing judgement on them......they all speak at least twice as many languages as I do(!!), but it's been repeatedly frustrating to have every single question essentially go unanswered.

16 hours ago, Pool Boy said:

Gonna give this a try this weekend before a show at Arena.

The first time I got this dish, it was amazing.  The second time it was completely forgettable.  I'll get it again the next time I go.....Hope springs eternal, plus it's pretty cheap.

Stir Fried Greens, Ginger, Garlic, Chili “Pad Pak Ruam” 9

Relooking at the menu, I'm a little shocked at the prices.  They say each person should order 2-3 dishes, but most of the dishes are in the mid $20s range.  I mean, those are Kinship level prices, but the dishes and the staff and setting don't come close to the quality you receive at Kinship.  On the other hand, Kaliwa seems like one of the few middle of the road places on The Wharf.  Somewhere between Shake Shack and Del Mar!

[Pool Boy]

On 2/13/2020 at 10:07 AM, Bart said:

I've been a number of times before shows at the Anthem, and have to agree on the service.  I've never found it bad, but just kind of clueless.  Ask a question on the wine list ("is this an oaky Chardonnay?") and get either a confused look, or get an answer that I had no confidence in the accuracy.  The other issue I had with the service is the language barrier.  Every server I've ever had speaks English as second language and had difficulty communicating or describing dishes or answering questions on the dishes.  Not passing judgement on them......they all speak at least twice as many languages as I do(!!), but it's been repeatedly frustrating to have every single question essentially go unanswered.

The first time I got this dish, it was amazing.  The second time it was completely forgettable.  I'll get it again the next time I go.....Hope springs eternal, plus it's pretty cheap.

Stir Fried Greens, Ginger, Garlic, Chili “Pad Pak Ruam” 9

Relooking at the menu, I'm a little shocked at the prices.  They say each person should order 2-3 dishes, but most of the dishes are in the mid $20s range.  I mean, those are Kinship level prices, but the dishes and the staff and setting don't come close to the quality you receive at Kinship.  On the other hand, Kaliwa seems like one of the few middle of the road places on The Wharf.  Somewhere between Shake Shack and Del Mar!

Yeah a co-worker has some friends that have been and they were largely unimpressed. They indicated the Korean dishes were the best, in general. I'll post once I have gone - like I said, main thing was to avoid having to deal with the Wharf offerings because most of them are too loud. Del Mar is, IMHO not really a pre-theater kind of place but that's just me.

[Pool Boy]

OK here's my report (sorry no photos this time).

We were going pre-theater ('A Thousand Splendid Suns' - very much recommended) but gave ourselves plenty of time. It's the Wharf and parking is ridiculously expensive (yes, we'd tried to reserve parking at Arena Stage when we bought the tickets but they were sold out) - $38 for the 4+ hours we were surely going to be there for dinner and the performance. But you are paying for the Wharf. 

Interesting space. Open and catches the light. Our seats were along one of the expanses of windows and the banquet had a higher seating level than the chair opposite - a little odd but I got over it. Before I get to the food, I'll get to the prices - they are high for what you get it is true. But it s the Wharf and you have to know going in that it is going to be expensive because anyplace in the Wharf has got to pay the rent.

We had good service throughout and no issues with any questions we had or anything. Food came out as they explained (whenever it was ready) - it worked out just fine. We had some cocktails which were just ok. Given the current prices of DC cocktails and having a list of your own concoctions you sort of expect more (and more effort). Next time I think I'll pass. Had a glass of Valpolicella later which was forgettable, especially given the price.

Crispy Shrimp and Pork Fried rolls - delicious - I could eat a lot of this, but at five bucks a pop....hmm.

Korean Style Steak Tartare - this was enjoyable mostly for the spice. The puffed crispy tendon was fun. But the knife work on the beef was horrifyingly bad - someone needs to brush up on their knife skills (unless if is supposed to be very poorly shredded with very long spindly bits that is). The taste was good though!

Crispy duck confit with Garlic, Bay Leaf and Lemon (and garlic) - this was quite good, but the skin was very salty (and I *love* salt). Fortunately, the saltiness did not permeate the flesh that much and, in eating with a bit of rice, you could balance it out. Maybe the cook is a smoker?

Heritage Pork Belly, Gochujang, Caramelized Onions - I really enjoyed this dish a lot. I would gladly order it again.

There was also this really delicious hand cut noodle dish with shrimp and sausage that was the dish of the night - really, really good.

Summary - We will be back (ideally when we do not have to park at the Wharf garage to save the $$), if only to try some of the Thai dishes. But we will not be running back or going out of our way to get there ASAP. It is expensive for what it is. There were arguable two dishes that were worth the cost, while the others did not meet that criteria. If I were going on someone else's nickel I'd be happy to go.