One of the most anticipated restaurant openings in DC this fall was undoubtedly the comeback of chef Kwame Onwuachi. After making his name at the now shuttered Kith/Kin in DC, chef Kwame opened his new venture in New York City, Tatiana, that had received critical acclaim left and right. Sadly, Tatiana had become such an impossible reservation to secure (I tried numerous times when I knew when my wife Jun and I would be visiting NYC, but by the time the reservation window opened on Resy, everything was already gone), so I was very excited that chef Kwame decided to return with a new project inside the swanky Salamander DC hotel. Fortunately, I was able to get a table at Dōgon (it is still very difficult to book), and Jun and I visited early in October. Overall, we had a delicious meal with some really remarkable dishes, with a caveat that eating at Dōgon will not come cheap.

Dōgon continues to build upon chef Kwame’s culinary vision influenced by Afro-Caribbean culture and drawn from the chef’s Nigerian, Jamaican, Trinidadian and Creole background. While our experience with African and Caribbean cuisines is somewhat limited, Jun and I were excited to explore what chef Kwame has to offer since we had never eaten at his restaurant before. One thing that jumped out immediately was the rather hefty price tag. When our server recommended we try corn bread with spiced shiro butter, Jun demurred, not just because she is not a huge fan of corn bread in general but also because of the $15 price tag. I convinced her that we order it anyway, and it was certainly a pretty delicious corn bread but I have to agree that $15 might have been too much. The best part of our meal came in the starter section. Jun and I were very fond of the mix of spicy and sweet flavor coming from carrot tigua with peanut stew influenced by the actual West African tribe named Dōgon. The best dish of the night for me was the crab dish called “Hoe Crab” accompanied by plantain hoe cakes and aji verde sauce. It was not just beautifully plated but had flawless texture of the best crab cake you could possibly eat, with delicate crab meat simmered in garlic butter and creole spices. I just wished that there were more of the meat given the $38 price tag.

Moving on to the larger dishes, the weakest item from our order was the Mom Dukes Shrimp served in Frenchman butter. Jun thought the shrimp was slightly undercooked and the flavor from the butter was surprisingly forgettable. The grilled wagyu short rib, on the other hand, was what you would expect from premium beef (with a whopping $110 price tag to show for it). We both thought the short rib was more than solid but thought it reminded us too much of Korean galbi (even the spreads of red stew jam, pickles and greens reminded us of the gochujang paste, lettuce wrap and other vegetable spreads for the Korean counterpart). For dessert, I was very glad that we ordered rum cake and vanilla whip and charred fruit; this simple dish was so addictively delicious that I wouldn’t have minded taking another piece home.

As mentioned above, getting a reservation at Dōgon requires advance planning and a bit of luck. There is also a bar that welcomes walk-ins on a first-come, first-served basis if you strike out on the reservations. The sleek dining room giving Afrofuturism vibe, designed by the same team behind Tatiana and inspired by astrological worldview of the Dōgon tribe, will enhance your dining experience if a fancy night out is what you are looking for. There is a full bar with cocktails with African ingredients and influences; I do think the restaurant could’ve worked a bit on its wine list given its ambition. Our first meal at Dōgon, while not a slam dunk that I was hoping for, gave us a very favorable impression of chef Kwame’s culinary viewpoint. Assuming we can get another reservation in the future, I would like to visit the restaurant again to try other dishes. Chef Kwame is also doing a more exclusive chef’s table experience when he is in town (featuring special dishes not available on the regular menu), so I hope to one day be lucky and secure that seating too. Restaurant booking surely involves a lot of work these days!

Address: 1330 Maryland Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20024

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

Website: https://www.salamanderdc.com/dining/dogon

Reservation via Resy