100 Very Best Restaurants 2017: Kyirisan
Custard cheesecake with hazelnut from Kyirisan. Photo by Scott Suchman
Is Tim Ma the ballsiest chef in Washington? Among the dishes we’ve sampled this year at his Shaw dining room: an offal salad (a chewy mix of tendon, tripe, and chicken hearts), a bowl of congee topped with natto (fermented soybeans), and chocolate cake with veal marrow. Ma isn’t always successful (e.g., that congee), but his cooking is thought-provoking and often delicious. If there were a citywide contest for trendy cacio e pepe pasta, his black-truffle version would rank high. Plus you’ve got to applaud the guy for dreaming big, as he and wife Joey did with their first spot in DC. (They’re also behind Virginia’s Chase the Submarine and Water & Wall.) The result is one of the most alluring, beautifully designed rooms in town. Expensive.
Also great: Fried tofu with black-pepper sauce; crème fraîche wings; snapper with soy-chili paste; scallops with coconut risotto and basil ice cream; flourless almond cake.
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Executive Food Editor/Critic
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
Food Editor
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
Food Editor
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
Articles Editor
Kristen Hinman has been editing Washingtonian’s features since 2014. She joined the magazine after editing politics & policy coverage for Bloomberg Businessweek and working as a staff writer for Voice Media Group/Riverfront Times.