Food

Mama Chang

Washingtonian 100 Very Best Restaurants 2024

Photograph by Scott Suchman .
Fairfax
Chinese
Peter Chang’s empire keeps growing—but this four-year-old ode to the homestyle cuisine of the Chang women in his family remains a standout. Long-cooked stews, such as fragrant seafood and tofu in a clay pot, are pure comfort. Fancier are plump shrimp-and-chive dumplings, salt-and-pepper shrimp, and lacquered Peking duck with pancakes so delicate you can see through them. Some dishes sneak up on you. Tofu-skin-wrapped mushrooms with baby bok choy seem tame, bland even, until paired with one of the restaurant’s signatures: fiery cumin-fried flounder. The result is revelatory.
Price
Moderate
Cuisine
Chinese
Address
3251 Blenheim Blvd Fairfax, VA 22030