December 1, 2012
Alex Barron
Restaurant Critic
Bon Appetit
When Zengo opened its doors in Chinatown more than seven years ago, the area still had a reputation for being dicey—the kind of place that would send Capitols and Wizards fans flocking back to the Metro the moment the
game at the Verizon Center ended. Times have changed on Seventh Street, however. As the area becomes hipper and trendy restaurants pop up one by one, Zengo has been established as a reliable mainstay.
It is a testament to Washingtonians’ adventurous palates that Zengo’s conceptually bold Asian-Latin fusion continues to thrive. A modest entrance on a busy street hides a cavernous two-story space. Engaging decorations pop from the walls of the downstairs bar and upstairs dining room, where conversation is lively but not deafening. The centerpiece is an elaborate modern installation suspended from the ceiling.
Richard Sandoval, the mind behind Zengo, owns nineteen restaurants worldwide, including recent ventures in Mexico, Dubai, and Qatar, yet still finds time to drop in once or twice a month. The chef lends his expertise to the development of seasonal offerings: every few months, he and his team produce a test kitchen menu that pairs the cuisine of a region in Asia with that of either Central or South America. Sandoval and his staff search for commonalities between two disparate cooking styles from opposite ends of the globe: Vietnam was recently paired with Peru, for example, because both rely heavily on fruit. Often, the chefs at Zengo will fuse two styles that lack any obvious similarity, and the results are consistently creative and flavorful.
This winter, Mexico is paired with Korea, with no one cuisine dominating the other. A light, sweet ceviche dorado ($12) sneaks in a handful of Korean kimchee for a surprising kick. The Korean fried chicken ($11) is a classy take on the orange-glazed sweet and sour dish often consumed out of cardboard take-out containers. A bite of Zengo’s version packs a satisfying crunch, and the accompanying potato salad, with hints of chili and chayote—a Mexican squash—make this dish redolent of a United Nations barbecue.
The adobo roasted chicken ($22) is a true feast: a hearty stew of spicy chicken, chorizo, and the ever-unexpected kimchee. This is a thoroughly international meal, and yet one that seems oddly appropriate for the Thanksgiving season. Portion sizes are generous at Zengo, and the hot stone bibimbap ($27) is another dish likely to provide leftovers. Bibimbap is a bowl filled with rice, vegetables, and meat; the rice in this case is barely visible, obscured by pile of Asian vegetables, pork belly, salsa roja (the token Mexican ingredient), three large prawns (heads still attached), and a sizzling fried egg. Once the prawns have been beheaded and the ingredients blended, the result is a bowl of pure flavor, somehow cohesive, yet consistently surprising at each bite.
Asian pear empanadas ($7)—crispy golden pastries stuffed with a light filling of pear and cream cheese—are the featured dessert this season. A scoop of dulce de leche ice cream on the side makes this a refreshing treat.
While the test kitchen churns out new innovations, Zengo still serves the old favorites: ceviche, sushi, and a number of solid dim sum options, which include the best of both culinary worlds (spring rolls and tacos, for example).
Zengo’s self-imposed requirement—including exactly two influences in each dish—has the air of a real-life game show, but this is no gimmick. In Sandoval’s restaurant, kimchee seems a natural part of ceviche, just as salsa never tastes out of place in the rice bowl. In other words, this is fusion done properly.
