Red Ginger, with Chef Howsoon H.O. Cham

[JennyUptown]

When I first moved to DC two and a half years ago, there was plenty of talk about Red Ginger on Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown. Unfortunately, for every diner that discussed its good Caribbean-inspired food, there was another one decrying the rude service.

Has anyone been recently (say, in the last year or so)?

[Mark Sommelier]

Red Ginger closed a few years ago. The new restaurant they opened (Sharon and Jimmy Banks) recently is called Ginger Cove/Ginger Reef. It is somewhere downtown.

[JennyUptown]

When I drove down Wisconsin last night, Red Ginger looked open to me.

[Mark Sommelier]

When I drove down Wisconsin last night, Red Ginger looked open to me.

hmmmmmmmm...........

[SWoodyWhite]

The website for Red Ginger is at http://www.redgingerbistro.com/

Maybe Mark drove by on a Monday. They're closed on Mondays.

[dcfoodie]

Red Ginger is definitely still open. I bus by it all the time on the way to Gtown.

Edited April 10, 2004 by dcfoodie (log)

[JennyUptown]

Big sign out front says new owner, new chef.

[jmc8y]

Ming Tsai's restaurant is called blue ginger.

[JennyUptown]

The menu on the web site looks good, however I can't tell if it is still valid.

The Specials page (here) advertises no corkage fee.

[smayman]

Has anyone been to Ginger Cove/Ginger Reef? It got mixed reviews in the post. I've walked by it on my lunch hour and been curious.

[JennyUptown]

That's a different spot and as far as I know, there's no relation.

Here's a thread re:Ginger Cove

[JennyUptown]

Many months after my initial post re: Red Ginger, I made it there for dinner tonight. It was a pleasant surprise.

My first impression of the place, though, was not so pleasant: upon arriving at 7 pm tonight (a Thursday, the day of the Inauguration, cold but not unreasonably so), the place had exactly. one. patron. And me.

As I waited for my friend to arrive, I checked out the menu. Touches of Caribbean (see jerk chicken lollipop appetizer) and Latin American (various salsas, lots of beans, a quesadilla appetizer) influence. Interesting. I also tried to do that math on the four course meal offered for $35. It seemed hard to make sense of given that two of the entree choices (short ribs and pork tenderloin) were on the high end of the menu's range.

Looking around the smallish dining room (it seats 35/40 people max), I admired the colorful decor, but was less impressed with the television positioned in one corner of the room, blaring the local news. As customers started to trickle in, the sound was muted and replaced with softer, pleasant music.

My friend arrived and our server took her order for a glass of Malbec. Time passed. No wine. When reminded, he graciously apologized and raced to the bar. He was the lone server and he was trying hard; we forgave him.

The food:

I contemplated ordering the ubiquitous butternut squash soup (here served with "fig crema"), but instead we tried two very different chicken appetizers.

First up, Jamaican Jerk chicken lollipops, roasted corn and black bean salsa with Jalapeno-cumin rouille ($9). The jerk wasn't all that spicy and the beans were reddish-brown, not black, but still...these were some tasty, nicely prepared drumsticks. The skin was golden brown and nicely crusted with seasoning. It had a little kick, but not the serious punch I've tasted with jerk in the past. The rouille and salsa were good enough that we scooped up their remains with warm pillowy rolls when the chicken was done.

Next, we had chicken quesadilla served open-faced with cilantro pesto, smoked Gouda, corn tortilla and lime crema. ($8) Wow! This was a pleasant surprise. After a few too many bad bar quesadillas, I usually steer clear. That would have been a mistake here. I liked everything about this dish from the thick corn tortilla (reminded me of flatbread) to the well-seasoned chicken to the pleasantly sharp Gouda.

For our entrees, my friend had the grilled rack of lamb in red mole, baby pearl lentils, wilted spinach and pineapple-balsamic reduction ($20). The lamb was tender and cooked to her specifications (medium/medium-well), but I didn't pick up on much flavor from the mole or the pineapple-balsamic reduction. She seemed to really enjoy the whole dish so it could have been just the bites I had. On the other hand, the lentils were perfect - I could have eaten a gigantic bowl of them for a meal. Yum.

My entree was quite good. I had struggled with a choice between Jamaican rum & apple cider cured pork tenderloin, collard greens, sweet potato mash and sugar cane whisky sauce ($19) and braised short ribs (the version offered tonight was slightly different from the one listed on the web site menu). I love pork tenderloin, but worried that this dish would overall be too sweet. Although the mashed sweet potatoes got on my nerves after awhile, the pork was really very tasty with savory notes as well as sweet.

A few other menu items struck me as particularly intriguing including a vegetarian plate that includes "quinoa pumpkin salad" and "Bamboo crab cake and xuxu slaw."

Four desserts were offered: French crepes filled with apple and topped with cappuccino chocolate chip ice cream; sweet potato creme brulee; mango cobbler; and chocolate walnut pecan pie. We chose the first two.

For me, the crepes with apples were delicious and enough. I'm an ice cream lover, but I thought adding it to this dessert was overkill. Simple, for me, would have been better. I liked the sweet potato creme brulee a lot more than I would have expected...it was pretty super and the portion size was just right. Loved it.

Total damage for two appetizers, two entrees, two desserts and one glass of wine: just slightly over $100 with tax and tip.

As we were preparing to leave, we were introduced by our server to Chef Howsoon, a really pleasant man from Gambia who has owned Red Ginger since Spring 2004. He chatted about how difficult it has been to overcome the reputation (mostly for rude service) the previous owners built up and how much he relies on word of mouth to build his customer base.

Click here to read Chef/Owner Howsoon's bio

The bottom line of my rambling post? Red Ginger is definitely worth a try.