TenPenh, Washington, D.C.

For the past six or seven years, one of the very popular and trendy places to eat along the power corridor of Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capitol has been an upscale southeastern Asian fusion restaurant called TenPenh. Somehow, although curious, I'd managed never to eat there, sometimes because I didn't want to spend the money (it's very pricey), sometimes because we didn't have reservations and couldn't get in, sometimes because I was with people who didn't want to eat Asian food. So, fortuitously one day this week, I found myself downtown and finished early with my business in time to be at the doors of the restaurant when they opened for lunch at 11:30, and managed to get squeezed into a table before the lunch rush hit.

I got stuck at the "bad" table in the back corner of the restaurant right by the kitchen door, but for someone like me, especially when dining alone, that's actually a prime table with great entertainment, since I was able to watch the kitchen operations and listen to everything that was happening in their open-format setup.

The dining room itself is pleasant and peaceful. Asian designs and themes predominate, and a collection of brightly colored, oversized Japanese paper lanterns hang from the ceilings. Etched glass walls divide the dining areas and bars and aid in noise control. The bar offers a very full wine list with some wines going well into the $200 range and the champagnes going up to $300 (Cristal). I also saw listed a $200-something bottle of sake.

I started with the wok-seared spicy calamari salad, and it was an excellent starting choice. The calamari was a mix of squid rings and baby squid served still hot from the wok with toasted cashews and a piquant lime juice sauce over a bed of baby spinach leaves (and one leaf of endive, standing up in the bowl like a feather in a hat). The very spicy squid was expertly cooked; it was just barely done and still very tender. This salad is a regular menu item, and something one should definitely check out on future visits.

For my main course, I got the pan-seared scallops, presented in a large, teardrop-shaped dish. Four scallops were skewered on sticks and lightly seared, though they had a distinct "grill" taste to them (as scallops are wont to get ). The scallops then rested on a bed of an Asian potato cake topped with a "salad" of shaved fennel and tangerine segments and a lightly spicy citrus dressing. Now, I generally don't like fennel, since I've long had a distaste for licorice, but this wasn't too bad.

The one great disappointment in the meal, though, was the potato cake. The cake was a hamburger-sized patty of seasoned mashed potatoes rolled in bread crumbs and then fried, but the inside of my potatoes was completely cold. I asked my waiter if it was supposed to be hot or cold; he said hot; I reported mine to be cold; he simply said, "Oh." At a restaurant with the high price points of TenPenh, a cold potato cake should never have been allowed to make it to a table, and if one had, immediate action should have been taken to fix or repair the dish or to provide it (or something else) on a complimentary basis. None of that happened here.


For dessert, I was intrigued by the idea of a Thai lemon basil cake, so I ordered that. What arrived was a striking presentation of a little cupcake-sized cake topped with a dollop of whipped cream and a few big, juicy blackberries, with a drizzle of basil oil on the plate and a scattering of "dried fruit debris." The cake was moist and very sweet with a slight lemon taste, but I couldn't taste the basil, and even trying to soak up some of the green basil oil on the plate, never really got a basil scent or flavor. I think what I should have done, though, was order a Thai coffee to go with dessert, as that hot coffee would have been the perfect foil to the sweetness of the cake.

Along with the check, the waiter brought a free sample of the excellent butterscotch "blondie" brownie they use in some of the other desserts.


Wait staff is attired in Asian-style tops, with one color for waiters and another color for waiter's assistants. The staff, though, is large, and everyone seems to help out with all the tables whenever they see something needing to be done. While my waiter checked in with me regularly, different people brought my various foods and removed used dishes and (unused, since I ate with chopsticks) flatware, and I don't think the same person did anything at my table twice. Service was always prompt, efficient, well-trained, and inconspicuous; the only thing I didn't like was a bit of attitude from the maitre d'.

So, at last, I've now had my TenPenh experience. It was okay, but I think it will probably fall into the category of places I'll willingly eat when a crowd of friends or co-workers is going there, rather than being a destination restaurant on my own rotation list.