Image: Leftovers likely.
Last Updated: June 2025
Overview:
It is a big bright room looking out onto 14 Street. On weekends, groups of people gather outside waiting for a table. Inside a team bustles, swerving between the many tables with platters and carts of food. The menu is Cantonese in tradition and very long in choices. It also serves the needs of D.C. residents who do not want to go to the ‘burbs when they get a hankering for good Chinese.
We cannot pretend that we have done anything than dip a toe in the more that 200 menu choices. On the most recent visit it was a crab dish loaded with meat, classic pork and shrimp dumplings, and chewy E-Fu noodles with mushrooms that all hit the right notes. Carman praises the dim sum (and the entire enterprise by implication), “Da Hong Pao has wormed its way into the conversation of dim-sum establishments that, when running on all cylinders, prove that the line between commerce and the culinary arts is very fine indeed.”
The service is quick and to the point. They are working on margins, delivering feasts and still turning tables over without obvious pressure. The drink list is limited (had the odd experience of Budweiser no longer being available despite being on the menu). But the tea is plentiful.
Other Guidance: Located at street level with bathrooms also on main floor. GF and Vegetarian can do well.
Summary:
Cuisine: Chinese
Neighborhood: 14th Street
Address: 1409 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20005
Website: https://www.dahongpaodc.com/
Reservations: Walk-in
Other Critics/Voices:
Washington Post: Tim gave a positive review in 2019, noting the upward trajectory of the kitchen’s output. Two backgrounder stories, one from 2016 on the business and one from 2017 on dumplings.
Washingtonian: Preview