It’s extremely tough to run a restaurant on a consistent basis anywhere. How about completely revamping the concept of a restaurant that has long been beloved by diners? That is what the team behind Tail Up Goat did earlier this year, transforming the space into a no-reservation counter-service spot. I was very intrigued to see Rye Bunny could carry on the excellence from its predecessor and recently visited with my wife Jun. The concept was certainly not like anything we had encountered before. We both detest waiting for a long time to get seated at a restaurant and therefore arrived shortly before its opening at 5 p.m. There were already a decent number of people on the line. Fortunately, the hostess took pity on the people enduring the hot, humid DC summer weather and started letting them in slightly earlier. While we were on the line, we were given the opportunity to order drinks to kick off dinner before eventually ordering food at the counter. The seats were available on a first come first served basis and once we found a table, we started receiving the food fairly quickly. Overall, the dinner at Rye Bunny was solid but felt a bit of a step down from Tail Up Goat.

The food at Rye Bunny continues on the Mediterranean-bent style of Tail Up Goat. We both liked the anchovy toasts on milk break with green tomato jam, which was a positive sign given Jun’s general reluctance to try anything with anchovy. On the other hand, our assessment of the eggplant dish was mixed. I thought the assortment of eggplant, corn and tomatoes with peaches and tofu cream was a nice summer appetizer; Jun thought that the ingredients didn’t feel like they came together into a single dish. Not surprisingly with a place whose sister restaurant Reveler’s Hour which has some of the best pasta dishes in DC, the spinach tagliatelle with pesto and smoked tomatoes was quite satisfying. The best dish of the night was the soy marinated pork chop with koji glaze. The juicy and moist texture of the pork was as good as it gets, and I would gladly come back to Rye Bunny to try this again. On the other hand, both desserts that we ordered were letdowns. Jun was horrified that the crust on the lemon balm crème brulee was burnt black and tasted almost bitter; it was hard to tell whether that was the intention from the kitchen. The other dessert, a collaboration with popular gelato shop Dolcezza according to our server, was shiso leaf gelato with raspberry and ginger preserve; it was a novel attempt to incorporate a savory ingredient for gelato but I couldn’t say it worked to perfection.  

As noted above, if you don’t want to wait long hours, get to Rye Bunny before its opening as soon as possible. By the time we were wrapping up our dinner around 6:45 p.m., the restaurant was nearly full. The revamped dining space, instead of a more fine dining adjacent vibe of Tail Up Goat, turned into a supper party atmosphere, with semi-bright lights coming from globe lamps on the ceiling. The service was fairly seamless and friendly throughout our meal despite the potential for chaos from the unique format of the restaurant. There is full bar with a more concise list of wines in the affordable price range. Knowing the quality of Tail Up Goat’s wine list, I wondered if Rye Bunny could have offered a bit more premium wine options. Rye Bunny is a welcome addition to the DC dining scene with a proposition that you don’t need to have a fine dining experience to have a satisfying meal. On the other hand, I found myself missing some of the refined sophistication from its predecessor. For now, we will prioritize going to Reveler’s Hour if we have to choose between the two.

KenScale: 7.75/10 (Jun’s Score: 7.5/10)

Address: 1827 Adams Mill Road NW, Washington, DC 20009

Website: https://www.ryebunny.com/

No Reservation