Astoria DC

Heat held at the pass

Chili oil catches the light before the bowl leaves the pass at Astoria DC in Washington DC. At this Dupont Circle restaurant, the work is modern Chinese in a bar-born room, built around dishes that ask for control rather than volume: chili wontons, cumin lamb, mapo tofu, la-zi chicken, beef noodles. That discipline matters in a kitchen where Sichuan heat can flatten a dish if the hand is not steady.

Devin Gong is the central figure at the stove, and his route there is unusual. He came from behind the bar at Copycat Co. on the H Street Corridor, then went to China in late June 2018 and lived in Chengdu, teaching himself the intricacies of Sichuan cooking despite growing up in Harbin in the north. That self-directed immersion, rather than any formal apprenticeship, set the menu's focus on layered heat, spice and pungency. Chu Yi, a Copycat co-owner and another bartender turned cook, and Eli Schwarzschild, who worked the bar there, give the operation its front-of-house spine.

Chili, cumin, vinegar, broth

The menu works by accumulation. Small plates and a la carte dishes let the table build its own sequence, moving from slick wonton skins to fried lamb shoulder, from numbing chile to the darker comfort of mapo tofu. The signature cumin lamb uses lamb shoulder with cumin, chili, onions, and cilantro; the point is not blunt heat, but the way fat, seed spice, and herb brightness land in the same bite. Hot and sour wontons bring pork filling, chicken broth, vinegar, pepper, chili oil, and suan cai into a narrower register, where the broth carries the lift. Astoria DC opened on April 24, 2019, and received Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition five months later, a mark the house still carries in the 2025 guide. Awards are not the method, but they help explain why a Dupont Circle room built from bar roots became a dining address: the dishes hold their shape under pressure.

The room around the spice

The room is intimate, lively, and close enough that the bar program never feels separate from the pass. The name looks back to the bar at New York's Waldorf Astoria, and classic cocktails are still poured with care beside bowls of beef noodles and plates of la-zi chicken. Seating folds into darker, relaxed pockets, suited to small groups and late conversations, with the louder current gathering near the bar and outdoor seats kept warm by heaters when the weather turns. Nothing about the setting asks the food to soften. The room can be polished and casual at once, a useful condition for dishes that rely on heat, vinegar, peanuts, broth, and fried edges. The work here is best read in that tension, the hand keeping the dish precise while Astoria DC keeps its Dupont Circle pulse.