Chang Chang - Peter, Lisa, and Lydia Chang Announce First DC Restaurant. 1200 19th Street, NW, Former Mai Thai Space South of Dupont.

[Tweaked]

Per Popville

“Today, Chef Peter Chang and his daughter Lydia Chang announce Chang Chang, a new dual restaurant concept coming to the Dupont Circle neighborhood of downtown Washington D.C this fall. The two-in-one restaurant will feature parallel dine-in and carryout services, which will function as fully separate entities, with little to no menu overlap between them."

Chang-In, the full-service side of Chang Chang, will be something new and unique, offering a new take on seasonal modern Chinese cooking. Helming the kitchen will be rising star Simon Lam, a Chinese American chef who started at NiHao, and whose resume also includes a decade long tenure at Chef Jose Andres’s China Chilcano, both in Las Vegas and Washington, DC.

Chang-Out, will feature a carryout and delivery menu with favorite dishes from Peter Chang’s popular locations from Virginia Beach to Connecticut.

[mtureck]

This is excellent news. Since Meiwah closed, there's been a severe lack of Chinese options in south Dupont. And Mai Thai certainly won't be missed, with the superior Soi 38 around the corner for Thai food. 

[johnb]

Just stopping by for the first time in a long time.

I checked but didn't find that anyone here had noted that Chang is a finalist for Outstanding Chef America in this year's James Beard Awards (maybe my lack of search skills?)

 

https://www.jamesbeard.org/blog/the-2022-james-beard-awards-nominees

[Tweaked]

Take-out service starts Oct. 8.  The separate menu dine-in service starts Oct. 20.  (Washingtonian)

"For the opening, Chang-Out will offer well-known classics like dumplings, mapo tofu, eggplant with spicy garlic sauce, bamboo fish, and sweet-and-sour spare ribs."

"Changians may gravitate to Chang In for something entirely new (few, if any, dishes from the family’s restaurant empire will cross over). The space is outfitted with a 12-seat baijiu bar, seats for 180 diners, a patio, and a few large-group dining tables outfitted with lazy Susans. The Changs and Lam have been working together to create a nuanced, seasonal menu. Snacks include bite-size riffs on Chinese dishes such as three cup chicken-stuffed mushrooms or scallop toasts. Diners can share small plates such as pig trotters with chilis and chrysanthemum greens, and large-format platters like whole branzino with scallion and ginger. Chang is ready to unveil a new style of duck centerpiece that combines the distinct flavor of his tea-smoked duck—a bird that’s marinated and smoked with tea leaves—with the tender texture, crispy skin, and elaborate presentation of his popular Peking duck from Q. Only available in limited quantities with 48 hours notice, the birds will be presented as part of a meal with accompaniments like duck spring rolls, duck wonton soup, and duck pie.

Rounding out the menu are noodles, rice dishes such as lobster with Chinese sausage and chimichurri, and seasonal vegetables like mala dry fry squashes with cilantro. For dessert: Ong’s whimsical creations, such as passionfruit-lime tarts with black pepper meringue, or chocolate pie with coffee, caramel, and sesame."

[thessaly]

The good doctor and I were Chang Out’s first customers when they opened this past weekend, and everything was delicious as always.  The dry-fried cauliflower, bamboo fish, double-cooked pork belly, and golden mountain beef were as good as ever, and while the combination lo mein was well executed, it didn’t hit like the rest.  Wish they’d bring the Hunan chicken chow mein over from Mama Chang instead.

We’ll probably be among the first in the door for when they open up for indoor dining next week, as I’m looking forward to trying out their desserts.

[Bart]

I took my kids (low 20s) here for our Thanksgiving meal on Tuesday with mixed results.  Some dishes were great, others were ok and one was just ok and gimmicky.

After a long delay to get drinks and put our first round of food on order, things came out very quickly.  It was almost like being at a tapas place or a dim sum joint.  My advice would be to order a few dishes at a time, and not put in your entire order at once (unless everyone is getting an individual dish).

They had QR codes on the table, but I asked for an actual menu which they supplied.  Unfortunately it was a simple 8 and half by 11 sheet of paper that had been clearly used and abused many times before:  there were both food stains, and drink stains on them.  One had been used as a coaster so it was sort of warped where the previous glass left a water mark/condensation on the paper.  This seemed a little low rent for a place where we dropped three hundred bucks.

The Dry Fry Vegetables ($18) were excellent.  They had that hot and numbing mala spice on them and I would definitely reorder this dish. 

The Charred Eggplant Chili ($16) was also very good.  The eggplant itself was the star (duh!), but it also had three dollops of foam in the bowl which I guess was tofu foam(?).  Tofu was listed on the menu and the foam was the only place where I assume it went.  Would order this again.

The Scallop Shrimp Toast ($18) was also very good and I'd order it again.  There were three pieces of the toast so it was perfect for us.

The Sesame Eel ($24) was ordered by denied by the kitchen because the quality of the eel they had wasn't up to their standards for serving.  I thought that was very kind of them to do, until I looked at the receipt (just now as I'm writing this) and noticed they charged me for it.  Argh!  These days I'm so focused on searching for a "service charge" in order to avoid a 50% tip that I didn't look at the upper part of the bill!

We got the Pig Terrine ($16) on the advice of the server and didn't really care for it.  The presentation was nice:  7 little layered cubes of meat and gel with some nice garnish, but the flavor and frankly the texture didn't do it for me.  Would not order again.

The Clam Flat Noodles ($24) rounded out our first order into the kitchen.  These were fantastic.  It had wide, flat noodles, which I'm a sucker for, and had great flavor including pork and garlic butter.  Would order again.

As we finished the first round and our plates were cleared, I went into a mini panic because I realized we hadn't ordered the second round yet and we were sitting at an empty table, but just like the first round, the food came out very quickly so there was no issue or down time.

For round two, we ordered the Crab XO Fried Rice ($24), because my kids are fried rice fanatics.  While there was nothing wrong with this dish, there wasn't anything particularly interesting or note worthy about it, especially at this price.  Would not order again.

Based on Tom's review, I wanted to get the Prawns, Scallop and Fish Ball Curry (with scallion bubble pancake) $38.  Tom raved about the scallion bubble pancake which is reminiscent of the bread they serve at Zaytinya for dipping into oil.  It's basically a piece of pita bread that is inflated and hollow in the middle and looks like a big balloon atop the dish.  I thought or assumed that you'd rip it open to reveal the dish below, but it actually just sat on top of the seafood in the dish.  I thought it was weird and not in a good way.  Other than the dramatic presentation, it didn't really add much.  In fact it seemed out of place or unrelated to the actual dish. It seemed like a gimmick to me that more about style than substance.  But I guess it worked, because I ordered it.  The seafood itself was just ok and the curry wasn't particularly noteworthy.  Would not order again, and probably the biggest disappointment of the night (other than paying for the Sesame Eel and not getting it!  😉

Since the Dry Fry Veggies were so good, we ordered the Dry Fry Seafood ($32).  This was a bit of disappointment.  It didn't have any of the mala spice on it like the veggies did and it just looked like a pile of tempura or fried calamari, only not as good tasting.  I guess the difference was this was dry fried rather than deep fried, but it just didn't seem that interesting or memorable.  It might be because we were pretty stuffed by then, but I wouldn't order this again.

All in all it was a nice meal, but I'm not going to immediately rush back.

Here's the seafood dish with the inflated scallion bubble pancake:

 

[Ericandblueboy]

Quote

Chang-In, the full service side of Chang Chang, is something new and unique, offering a menu that’s a new take on seasonal modern Chinese cooking.

We went on the night before New Years Eve.  The food we had was vaguely Chinese-like - I suppose one can call it modern Chinese but it's not something I've ever had before.  Most dishes seems more fusion or western with an Asian twist.  

We started with 3 small plates: (i) dry-fry vegetables, (ii) XO scallop, and (iii) candied sesame eel.  At least half the bowl of eel was super fishy and not at all pleasant to eat.  The other half was edible but hard to enjoy because you don't know if the next bite is going to be okay or a shit bomb in your mouth.  Seared scallop was good as were the dry fried veggies except I don't like to eat squash in just about any form.

The 3 entrees were even more bizarre.  (i) Knife cut clam noodles, (ii) stuffed money pockets, and (iii)whole striped branzino.  The pasta dish and the fish tasted more Italian than Chinese.  The stuffed money pocket had no mala and I would not said it's mapo tofu taken to new heights.  Mapo tofu is a fantastic dish - making it weird is not taking it to new heights.  The flavors of all 3 dishes do not remind me of Chinese food.  Fusion food is fusion food, no matter whose name is on the restaurant.  

[ktmoomau]

To echo what Eric said- the mapo tofu dish had butternut squash in it and mushrooms, the squash really sweetened the dish, and the mushrooms while good, imparted a taste on the overall dish that then dulled the overall flavor. The only bite of Sichuan peppercorns I had imparted a very bitter taste to me, which I learned after being in Sichuan meant they weren’t very fresh, but didn’t help that it was also one bite in an otherwise oddly sweet dish. 
 

The fish was ok steamed fish, I had a couple really spicy bites and then some very bland bites, and just didn’t really feel the dish. Also the serving plates made it difficult to eat with broth. Small bowls would have helped, but as we had to ask for clean plates between courses I didn’t think this would really happen. 
 

I would have really liked the eel had it not been so fishy. But the quality obviously has issues. 
 

I wanted to like this meal and just wasn’t impressed.