Tom Sietsema Dining
★ (Poor)
buddha bar 455 Massachu- setts Ave. NW. 202-377-5555. buddhabardc. com.
Open: Lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily; dinner 5:30 p.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday, 5:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Major credit cards.
MetrO: Gallery Place-Chinatown.
priceS: Dinner appetizers $6-$15, main courses $16- $49.
SOund check:
91 decibels/ Extremely loud.
Spirited debate
Jakarta residents protested the Buddha Bar there, and, as of press time, a court had ordered the bar closed. The court cited an inappropriate use of Buddhism and its icons for entertainment.
The District’s Buddha Bar is the 12th in a global restaurant chain.
— starting with a radioactive- red bar bordered with murals depicting Asian tattoos and embracing a DJ booth and Buddah Bar’s 18-foot-high inspiration in shiny black onyx — a friend with more than a little design sense labels the style “Victoriental.” Buddha Bar’s tasseled chandeliers, theater-length curtains and luxe fabrics support the mini-review. Better to gawk than to
graze here, because it takes some hunting on the pan- Asian menu to find food you’d want to try again. Spring rolls stand on their plate like edible Stonehenges; the fried snacks taste mostly of steamed cabbage. Buddha Bar’s beef satay is so soft, I wonder how it stays on its skewer. “No need for teeth!” a pal says as he encounters the mushy meat, which comes with a vague basil dipping cream. One night, the best of a dozen dishes I sampled was an $8 side dish of noodles with onions and carrot threads. It tasted familiar, not unlike the grub from my neighborhood Chinese carryout that also sells subs and pizza. There’s a page of sushi
In Washington, T
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tomsietsema.
a Buddha bore Local link in chain proves weak
he moment you step inside Buddha Bar, you leave Washington for … Some nights, the nearly 10,000 square
feet feel like New York, especially when your entrance is prefaced by a rope and a suit outside.
Women who could double as cover girls (Those smiles! Those legs!) look up from a glowing screen to ask if you have a reservation. If you don’t already know that this is part of a far-flung collection of watering holes, the display of CDs, T-shirts and incense sticks with the Buddha Bar imprint will clue you in. The flashy new lounge and restaurant, unleashed in May, also
suggests Las Vegas. Even at lunch, there’s the sense of the illicit. It might be sunshine and blue skies outside, but inside, the low lighting and chill music spell late night. Surveying the vast interior
38 The WashingTon PosT Magazine | September 19, 2010
and rolls, most of them disappointing. Blindfolded, I would have had trouble distinguishing the dark red tuna from the pale yellowtail; both fish shoot blanks on the tongue. Pink Lady, one of several rolls I sampled, combines crab, lobster and shrimp tempura with a cloying sesame sauce that appeared to be the work of a pastry chef. I thought I’d eaten every
variation of tuna tartare there is, but the kitchen delivered a first: “Deconstructed tuna,” our server announced as she tried to find room on a crowded table for a plate lined with separate dollops of diced raw fish, diced avocado and the minced relish
PHOTOGRAPHS BY SCOTT SUCHMAN
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