Zabb

Salt chicken… Over cooked and tasteless. The food is worth one star, the ambiance and service bring it’s total to 2

Food was amazing! Shrimp in a blanket and drunken noddles to die for! Strawberry Mojito was awesome!
Service was pretty bland and slow though. Opposite from the manassas location not as authentic and try didn’t have my favorite pad Thai!

Very cool rooftop, extensive menu of chic cocktails, perfect setting for a summer evening.
Appetizers:
Black & Blue Tuna — Foie gras, tuna and American caviar seared. Very small appetizer that was overpriced for how underwhelming the flavors were. Would not recommend.
Sushi Rolls:
King Kong Roll — Shrimp tempura, crab mix, cream cheese, topped w/​spicy tuna, green bits, spicy mayo and Sriracha sauce. Great all around roll, texture, creativity, and flavors were all hit the mark.
Lobster Volcano Roll: Lobster mixed, avocado & cucumber topped with baked lobster and crunchy potato. Somewhat disappointing roll, crispy potatoes were just thrown on top of the rolls instead of being incorporated insides, not a very cohesive roll.
Entrée:
Pad Thai Lobster — Stir fired rice noodle, egg, beans spouts topped with peanut and Lobster tail.

Yes Yes Yes!!!
After being told Lauriol Plaza had a 2 hour wait time we decided to walk across to street to Zabb. We were seated on rooftop with no wait time. We had a very large party, about 15 so I was happy they were able to accommodate us. The said they had swirls so we order a couple pitchers but they were no where near Lauriol swirls. The food was very good and fresh, everyone complimented the restaurant and 15 is a lot of people to please. Everything from the sushi to steak was good. I will be back :)

I come here fit bday dinner with girlfriends, the food was really good and some dishes were spicy just the way I like, the Sushi was yummy! The service was really good, we sat on the roof top it was a bit chilly but nice to get some fresh air. The only negative thing I could say is the sign outside the restaurant didn’t say Zabb it had another name plus for Saturday evening it was really dead inside so the management need to work on marketing this place better! But above all food and service was fab def will come back

Hmm… not that great. If you go, go for happy hour and sit in the rooftop area.
Service is completely lacking… mixed drinks are sub-​par.
The drunken noodles were incredibly good and very spicy. Everything else was meh.
So: go at your own risk.

We were, as probably happens frequently, waiting for a table at Lauriol Plaza when we decided to go to Zabb’s. Wait, scratch that; we were seated, surrounded by margarita-​soaked bros and harried busboys, and then glanced to our right to see what seemed a peaceful and romantic rooftop oasis across 18^th Street. We could make out the neon word SUSHI but no restaurant name. They could have been called Hitler Biscuits, I still would have suggested we make a break for it.
So we did. Zabbs really needs a sign on their door, front, menu, bathroom towels, anything. It is not identified at all by name anywhere.
Our waitress was really nice. There was no wine list, she said, but she listed the wines available by the glass upon request. She failed to mention that the house wines were evidently 12 dollars a glass, which is ridiculous when the entrees are also 12 dollars. And it’s «Thai restaurant» house, which means grapefruit flavored white, fruit grape flavored red.
The drunken noodles I got, however, were very edible and pretty danged hot. I asked for it, and Zapp’s chef obliged. My throat closed to a pinhole after about half the dish. It was fantastic.
Skip the drinks and enjoy the rooftop.

There are a few rarely-​broken rules when ordering wine at an inexpensive Thai restaurant:
1.) expect that whatever they serve you will be the absolute worst wine you could possibly buy with money.
2.) Expect that said wine will at least be reasonably priced.
Zabb only succeeded in one of the two rules. The wine served here is the sweet, grape flavored liquid that would lose a taste test against Trader Joe’s $ 3-​a-​bottle store brand… so they got rule #1 correct.
Unfortunately, they broke rule #2. There’s no printed wine menu, so when we got the bill, our otherwise nice evening on the rooftop was spoiled by a $ 26 charge for 2 glasses of wine.
If there’d been a menu with prices, we would have probably not ordered it, since we would have assumed (correctly in this case) that no Thai restaurant could ever meet $ 14-​a-​glass wine expectations. But since there was no menu, and my entrée was only $ 10, we figured that we’d be getting the standard $ 5-​$ 7 glasses of wine meant only to wash down the nuclear spicy drunken noodles we’d ordered.
The thai dishes were both average, but selling wine that comes in $ 4 jugs @ $ 12-​$ 14 a glass without even putting the prices on the menu is a quick way to make sure a business doesn’t get too many repeat customers.
Zabb needs to either get better wine or charge appropriately for the swill they’re serving. Otherwise, I had a nice time on their roof.

They seared the fatty salmon they served me because it was smelling fishy… GROSS
The spicy tuna wasn’t bad
The shrimp tempura roll was made with stale shrimp tempura that tasted like it had been made an hour before.
They didn’t serve me my miso soup…
No real redeeming factor here.

Looks like they benefit from spillover customers who don’t want to stomach the wait at Lauriol Plaza across the street.
Ambiance was great on their rooftop deck and outside.
Sushi was okay, but nothing special, especially for the price. The hyped strawberry basil mojito was disappointing.
I would come back again for the atmosphere but not for the food.

We visited on a Friday evening and there was no crowd (which should have been a sign). The service was pretty good but the food was terrible and the drinks were watered down. The sushi was very fishy and it was clear it had just barely thawed out before they served it.
I wouldn’t go back to this place if you paid me.

Strange experience here. Came for a pre-​bachelorette party dinner, as the wait for Lauriol was ridiculous. Looks like that’s a theme here.
Anyways, I ordered the cashew chicken, which came out about 10 minutes before two of my dining companion’s dishes. Being the polite (though hungry) friends we are, two of us waited and tried to catch the wait staff’s eye, thinking they forgot about the other dishes. When they arrived, there was no explanation. Okay, that’s fine. So my cashew chicken arrived in a taco shell. Literally. It was served with a tiny amount of white rice. I felt like I was eating a taco salad. It was all right for cashew chicken — good enough flavors, but nothing stellar. Combine this with the erratic service, and I don’t think I’ll return.

To Asian, or not to Asian. This is the question. You got the look, the great roof top terrace with hanging lanterns. You definitely look Asian, you sound Asian, but you definitely don’t taste Asian. Heck, I don’t even know what wine to drink with you.
So, here’s to the Accidental Asian. You who are in a great location in Dupont Circle across the street from an amazing Mexican restuarant of whom you are getting your overflow clients.
Before, I go any further. Zabb is a Pan-​Asian restaurant offering many styles of Asian food. Most of the time this happens because, they can’t concentrate on one country and do it well… so, the idea becomes to evisercate all countries in one swoop. Think of it as the Atom bomb of asian resturants.
Let’s start: Starters, Main, and drinks.
Starters: Ordered what I thought would be nice. Thai appetizer: Kanon Jeeb. A great pork dumpling, what we got instead was quickly steamed then microwaved Shu Mai, a Japanese dumpling. Not the same and you can tell it was not house made but from a package that you can get from your local MegaMart at the low, low price of $ 5.99.
Also ordered the house roll. Needless to say, this wasn’t worthy of my chopsticks. Though, at that moment would have made for a great weapon.
Main: Drunken noodle. Wide, thick rice noodle with chilis and basil. Barely any basil and the noodles, not so thick. Another disgrace.
Side note: The table next to us (also fellow asians) couldn’t really make out what they ordered and sent it back) Good for them.
Drinks: Oddly enough the Mint Juliep was decent. As I would need something to kill the taste in my mouth from what I ordered.
Bottom line: Great Roof top Terrace. Decent enough of a place to go and wait while they are setting up your table at the Mexican restaurant across the street.
Final Thought: What the hell is a Zabb?

Love the sushi here… They have really unique rolls… This is a great date spot… it’s really intimate and super cute! The parking kinda sucks because it’s basically in Adams Morgan… But hey… it’s to be expected…

When my boyfriend and I found that Lauriol Plaza had an hour plus wait at 8:30pm, we decided to skip the wait and check out Zabb, which is located across the street. (Side note: I wonder how much of Zabb’s business is LP overflow?)
In any case, we were very glad we did. The ambiance is perfect for a chic date night or even a group of friends looking to do something off the beaten path. I got the drunken noodles (my dish of choice at thai restaurants) and appreciated the full but not overwhelming portion.
I can’t wait to go back to check out their specialty sushi rolls and happy hour.

**HAPPY HOUR REVIEW**
Came here yesterday with my older brother and his friends to celebrate his birthday. I think the happy hour goes from 3−8PM IIRC, but it is pretty amazing. $ 2 sake bottles. $ 2!!! There are other options but the sake is the best deal. You can also do $ 2 nigiri sushi and $ 5 sushi rolls. Amazing deal and the sushi was pretty good. I probably wouldn’t come here to dine outside of happy hour but otherwise, great place from 3−8PM.

3.75 stars
For some reason the menu, food, and décor of this place reminded me of the more ‘uspcale’ Thai-​Japanese fusion restaurants in Miami/​South Florida, but set in an older, beautiful space [exposed brick, full length windows (& upstairs outdoor patio) facing the street, wrought ironwork] instead of a strip mall. After Googling a bit, I discovered that although the sushi chef is NOT an Iron Chef winner, he is from Kyoto and did work under Chef Morimoto of Iron Chef fame. Don’t know how that rumor got started. And he did previously work in South Florida for several years — interesting, so maybe it wasn’t just me.
The menu is a mix of Thai and Japanese, with a splash of creativity thrown in — extra seafood versions of classic dishes, foie gras mixed with tuna there, steak thrown into a roll over there… the portions aren’t huge, but are priced pretty reasonably for a more upscale Thai/​Japanese restaurant (that is still very casual). The Thai items are better than any place I’ve tried in Alexandria (City) but are not as good as those in Arlington or Wheaton. However, the offerings here have more «twists» and aren’t as traditional, and this place is more of a «fun» place to eat. And the presentations are gorgeous & whimsical.
Drinks:
— Strawberry (thai) basil mojito: Loved this. Not too sweet, with chunks of muddled fresh strawberries, and plenty of Thai basil. Good sized drink, could still taste the alcohol.
— Mint julep: Good sized drink, could taste the alcohol even better, slightly sweet.
— Lychee punch: Huge fresh lychee at the bottom — like the size of a rambutan. A bit too sweet, good lychee flavor, not very alcoholic, but you could taste the sake in its aftertaste.
— Ginger lemonade: Based on the ingredients, was like a Long Island, but with ginger syrup & ginger ale instead of sweet/​sour mix & Coke. However, it did not have the expected alcohol content. It was the weakest of all the drinks and was overly sweet.
Food:
— Asparagus & bacon yakitori. Seasoned with salt instead of the dark, sweet-​savory glaze. Perfectly seasoned, juicy, simple, but really well done. 2 sticks of 3 pieces each — that’s a lot of bacon actually. Best version I’ve had of this specific type of yakitori, compared with several izakayas in NYC. Served with a mango relish on top of lettuce cups. I decided to eat one like a little lettuce cup sandwich, and it was a great combination. «I could eat a whole plate of these.»
— Crispy rice with spicy tuna appetizer. These reminded me of inside-​out onigiri. Slightly crispy on the outside, soft and pillowy on the inside — 3 squares of sesame seed studded rice cakes sat on thick layers of spicy minced tuna. Sweet-​savory dark dipping sauce. Really good. Both of these appetizers did what appetizers are supposed to — they made us hungrier.
— Lobster pad thai. Not that many noodles, but that was probably for the best. Whole large spiny lobster tail, cut into chunks and fried. Tangy sauce with very bold, strong flavors — plenty of lime, tamarind, and fish sauce. This dish reminded me of South Florida.
— Double blue crab roll. Narrow-​width, long roll filled with fresh blue crab backfin meat and cucumber. Topped with a thin slice of salmon, tobiko roe, and tower of more blue crab backfin meat. Very crabby. Good with a little soy and smothered in the small pools of Thai basil pesto Kewpie mayo sauce on the plate.
Didn’t try the nigiri (would have just gone with one — the seared yellowtail belly caught my eye) — but it’s best to stop before you’re full.
Fridays and Saturday nights, they have a late night sushi and yakitori menu (’til 3 am), with DJ accompaniment. Many weekends they include a benefit in there. Once it was for the Japanese earthquake, and this Saturday there’s one for Philippines typhoon victims.

I went with a couple of friends for lunch during the middle of the week. We thought it might be closed because the entire restaurant was empty.
We ordered lunch entrees and some sushi. The lunch portions were EXTREMELY small. However, they were really good.
The worst part of the meal was there were flies all around our table. We killed at least three and there were probably double that many flying around – not what you want at a restaurant.
I might try ordering delivery from Zabb, because I like the food, and I hope the dinner portions are bigger.

This place has a cool trendy vibe, but more for a date or a nice evening out with a friend or two, definitely not for groups. The food is AWESOME, everything from the lobster ravioli and crab wontons to the salmon sushi roll with mango – really unique flavors that oddly perfectly go together! My only disappointment is the cucumber martini being removed from the drink list – that drink was incredible.
The food was kind of pricey though, for how much you get. I ended up eating more later…

Dave, this review is for you.
Thank you for all your amazing recommendations. I can’t believe you live down the street from this place. When I come back for a week in October, we’re going back.
Why?
(1) the strawberry basil mojito. I make a more blended version as a martini but this one was insanely good (and perfect for a hot night on the rooftop deck overlooking the partying spilling out of Lauriol)
(2) the Redskins Roll (if it wasn’t for you, i would have seen the words «strawberry sauce» under a sushi roll description and said HELLS NO) You proved me wrong. Bravo.
(3) the ridiculous number of lobster rolls.
Thank you again. I’m sold.