A&J Restaurant
Critic rating
|
Chinese
|
$$$$
(Good)
2012 Fall Dining Guide
By Tom Sietsema
Washington Post Magazine
Sunday, Oct. 21, 2012
Don’t go to this spartan, cash-only dim sum parlor to relax. Invariably, there’s a line, requiring you to wait outside for the number on a Post-It to be called. Inside, the clatter rivals that of an approaching DC-10. Still, there’s a reason an entire wall is plastered with framed accolades: The food that passes through a silky red curtain in the back is mostly very good. I tend to assemble my meal based on what my fellow diners, mostly Chinese, are ordering, although experience has taught me to crowd the table with pickled cabbage, smoked chicken, shredded pork and mustard greens in an enormously satisfying noodle soup, and finger-length pan-fried pork dumplings. A sibling with the same name in Annandale is similarly snug, speedy — and satiating.
What the place lacks in comfort, it makes up for in dim sum. Order scallion pancakes, boiled peanuts, fried pork dumplings or steamed spareribs.
