Since I married my wife Jun, we have not visited as many new Italian restaurants as I used to, not because of a major change in my taste but mostly because of Jun’s superb pastas at home. In the DC metro area, especially, other than Reveler’s Hour we hadn’t found an Italian restaurant that we were very impressed by. When a colleague of mine at work highly recommended the Red Hen a while ago, I didn’t pay a particular mind until recently when I remembered it while putting together a list of new restaurants to visit in 2024. It had long been a very popular restaurant based on what I heard, but I only realized just how in-demand this place was when Jun and I stepped into the dining space for an early Saturday dinner. It was jam packed not only with diners with reservations at the dining tables but also with walk-in guests who quickly filled up the entire bar area. And yes, the restaurant absolutely deserves to be a neighborhood favorite.   

The Italian food from chef Michael Friedman may not be anything you hadn’t seen before, but in terms of the level of execution it really shines. After starting with a delicious appetizer like the burrata with maple-roasted acorn squash, I suggest you move straight to pastas and try to order at least two. Jun was particularly very complimentary of the squid ink linguini with calamari that was well-balanced in flavor with the help of garlic, ginger and lemon (she was actually inspired to try a squid ink pasta of her own a couple of weeks later), and I was very glad we ordered the rustic pappardelle with braised beef cheek and caramelized onions that would’ve been a standout at a top restaurant in Italy. For something a little heartier, my vote is to try the fried Berkshire pork chop prepared Milanese style, with impeccable texture of the pork working beautifully with the radicchio salad and mustard crema on the side. Don’t skip the dessert at the Red Hen, either. You certainly can’t go wrong with the silky smooth tiramisu with mascarpone, but for me personally I couldn’t stop thinking about the cinnamon crunch gelato that was just so addictively delightful.

As I noted above, the Red Hen is a very difficult restaurant to get a reservation on the last minute unless you are prepared to wait until it opens to snag one of the bar seats. I sensed vibrant energy from the dining room with diners from different age groups and backgrounds looking to have a good time, whether casual dinners with friends and family or romantic date nights. There is a full bar with mostly Italian wine list, with majority of bottles not exceeding $100. The only blemish from our dining experience was unevenness in the service (we had to wait for a rather long time in between dishes), but I guess that is the small price to pay for a popular restaurant like the Red Hen where things could get hectic for the service staff. In any event, the Red Hen is one of the great discoveries in our DC culinary journey and I am very much looking forward to visiting the restaurant again later this year.

Address: 1822 First Street NW, Washington, DC 20001

KenScale: 8.25/10 (Jun’s Score: 8.25/10)

Website: https://theredhendc.com/

Reservation via Resy