The best Chinese restaurant in Washington DC – Part 3

Not only are quality Chinese restaurants a significant part of the Washington D.C. culinary scene, but they are also part of it’s history. Here’s an abridged three-restaurant tour of Chinese establishments that are intertwined with our nation’s history:

1. Located right off the Cleveland Park Metro Station (Red Line), the Yenching Palace, located at 3524 Connecticut Ave is not only the oldest standing Chinese restaurant in the D.C. Metropolitan area but it is famous for the role it played in history in 1962 when ABC newsman John Scali, secretly representing the Kennedy Administration, met with a representative of Soviet Primier Nikita Kruschev to come to terms over the Cuban Missile Crisis. It is also famous for hosting the press conference in 1972 when the National Zoo acquired two pandas as well as being the place where Nixon’s secretary of state Henry Kissinger met with representatives of the Chinese government to open up meetings.

The Yenching Palace has been patronized by a wide Array of celebrities including Marlon Brando, Mick Jagger, Moshe Dayan, Henry Kissinger, Ian Flemming, Antonin Scalia and many others. I once asked the owner/manager Larry Lung who inherited the restaurant from his late uncle in 1991, how he knew who had visited the restaurant and he said that it was because his uncle had the celebrities sign his guestbook. I had the privilege of then seeing the guestbook myself where I picked out names such as Alexander Haig, Betty Ford, Jason Robards, and Daniel Ellsworth among the guests.

The food is delicious, the atmosphere is great and it’s a great place to go after seeing a movie at the uptown theater.

2. It is worth noting that Washington D.C.’s Chinatown is one of the city’s historically richest as it was previously the centers of the German and Jewish communities before its current incarnation. It is located along the route of D.C.’s cultural heritage trail. Historically, the most interesting restaurant in Chinatown is Wok N’Roll, located at 604 NW H Street. In the 19th Century, the restaurant was a boarding house owned by a Confederate sympathizer named Mary Surratt, and it was here that John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators met to plan the assassination of President Lincoln. A sign on the sidewalk tells of this incredible story and provides a picture. While the restaurant itself, does not have any overt references to its special role in history, except for a placard near the entrance, it is still a surreal experience to eat