Anju, Chef Angel Barreto's Modern Korean on 18th and S Street, East Dupont Circle

[lotus125]

Anju opened in the old Mandau space, and we went to try it.  Cool space with exposed brick, rough surfaces, and multiple levels.  Food ranged from ok to very good. Our favorites were charred kimchi pancake, korean sweet potato with honey butter, and many "panchan" -- little side dishes with various kimchis, marinated veg, etc.  A salad was so-so.  Seafood noodle stew was solid. Korean rice cakes were tasty, but one of us thought the setup was a bit bland.   Bibim bap with tofu was disappointing; no crunchy bits in the rice and not much flavor other than chili sauce we added ourselves.  The biggest disappointments were beverages and service. We had several disappointing cocktails. Our waiter disappeared for long stretches. He repeatedly got one person's drink order and walked away before others could give theirs. He dripped red sauce on someone's white shirt.  And while he was often good about refilling water, he was nowhere to be found while we ate our spiciest dishes.  The place has its charms, but I'll give it a little while to mature before I go back.

 

 

 

[Ericandblueboy]

Many of these Eater DC "experts" picked Anju.  I'm not convinced looking their menu that this place is any better than the joints in Annandale.  Can someone tell me how Anju differentiates itself (other than the location, publicist, and price point)?

[FranklinDubya]

Washingtonian Picks Anju as Its #1 Restaurant

while it is certainly more expensive than Annandale places the prices are honestly pretty good for a restaurant in DC - so hopefully the ingredient quality and cooking makes up for the price jump.  Charging $3 for an individual Banchan does feel kind of wrong though still.

[Ericandblueboy]

9 minutes ago, FranklinDubya said:

Charging $3 for an individual Banchan does feel kind of wrong though still.

So wrong that I'd never go there - not even if someone else is paying.

[DonRocks]

Here's a small order of Chikin ($14) at Anju. (One piece, with a lot of sauce, had already been removed from the top - that one piece (two bites of it, anyway) was the difference between what was delivered, and what was discarded.) 

[Marty L.]

1 hour ago, DonRocks said:

Here's a small order of Chikin ($14) at Anju. (One piece, with a lot of sauce, had already been removed from the top - that one piece (two bites of it, anyway) was the difference between what was delivered, and what was discarded.) 

Harsh!  (FWIW, the only thing I've had there is the branzino, which was much better than I expected.)

[Pool Boy]

I have a co-worker whose food voice I trust that was very pleased with his experience here. I will have to check it out.

[DIShGo]

On 3/1/2020 at 8:04 PM, DonRocks said:

Here's a small order of Chikin ($14) at Anju. (One piece, with a lot of sauce, had already been removed from the top - that one piece (two bites of it, anyway) was the difference between what was delivered, and what was discarded.) 

This is the first time in my life I passed on a fried chicken dish without even trying it. It looked as unappetizing as you say it tasted.

[FranklinDubya]

The fried chicken looks overly sauced but what was wrong with it outside of that?  I was hoping it'd be sort of like Himitsu's original Gochjuang fried chicken which I thought was incredible.

[KeithA]

Had a really delicious takeout dinner from Anju last weekend. Tom Sietsema's old Post review's primary complaint was the food came out too fast, but that is great for delivery 🙂  Everything traveled well too. We had:

Goguma - korean sweet potato, sesame honey butter, herb muchim. This was really surprisingly good. The blistered skin had a nice char flavor and was crackly that was a nice contrast with the creamy rich buttered potato. It comes with a bit of foam that actually held up ok for the first part of the meal. Recommend you eat this first though for carryout.

Bul Guksoo - chilled ramen noodles, spicy buldak sauce, ground beef, egg. This was the least favorite dish but still good. It was deceptively very spicy (you don't see any chilies or anything but be ready). The heat kind of washed out the other flavors. The egg is a half-soy creamy egg and probably the only thing that didn't travel well in delivery. I'd probably skip this next time.

Palace Ddukbokgi - chewy rice cakes, mushroom medley, braised lotus root, sweet soy. This was my favorite dish. I'd never had the rice cakes before and really loved them along with the mushroom rich but sweet sauce. The rice cakes are like long cylindrical gnocchi and function the same way but are chewier.

Ssam Board - seared galbi, seasonal greens, roasted garlic ssamjang. This would probably be better at the restaurant but was still good. They packed the meat separate from the accompaniments so they wouldn't get soggy. The meat was well seasoned and tasty and I liked the ssamjang sauce and shards of crisps and roasted garlic to add to the little lettuce bundles. It also comes with a small side of plain rice.

30-Day Kimchi - I'm not a kimchi connoisseur but it tasty like good kimchi but nothing special.

Brussels Sprout Kimchi - I liked this as a bit unusual - a bit less heat as they add in some chunks of apples. Fun for a non-traditional kimchi.

Soy-brined Chayote - very good very thin slivers of chayote and a few slices of jalapeno but this wasn't that spicy - actually a bit sweet.

Sweet Lotus Root - really good and addictive and rather sweet but still good with savory meal, not candy like.

The above was definitely enough for 2 or maybe 3 people for lighter meals.

[seanvtaylor]

I participated in a large-group dinner here recently, and enjoyed it. The flavors were bold, and some in our group may have been less familiar with Korean cuisine than others, but I think everyone walked away happy. The panchan were mostly worthwhile--nothing to far out of the ordinary. The chayote panchan and the Brussels sprout kimchi were both really good, as were (as noted above) the lotus root.

We tried several mandu, including the impossible mandu, and had no complaints--all were flavorful, very competently prepared. The Korean fried chicken, despite the appearance being (perhaps) a bit less than beautifully plated, was absolutely delicious. It was also something that brought the table together, so to speak--everyone grabbing a piece (or three) from these big bowls of chicken. A little bit spicy--nothing over the top--combined with that white BBQ sauce, and everyone loved it. We had leftovers--plenty of them--not because it wasn't popular at the table but because we still had mains and dessert on the way.

Mains were a bit more traditional, I would argue, and the portion sizes were arguably too large after what we had already eaten, but everything that I saw was nicely plated for what it was. I had a piece of branzino over stewed (I think) daikon, and it was very good. Others who had different versions of bibim bap were happy. Desserts were (again) too large, but nice, including a Pina colada bingsu that was the lightest dish of the night, and a good way to call it after eating way too much food.

[Pool Boy]

My wife and I dined here during the pandemi, I think it was last fall (2021). We very much enjoyed it and will be back but it does get quite loud there when it's full of people.