DōGon

Dogon gave my wife and me one of the best dining experiences we’ve ever had in our lives, and we’ve been to a lot of restaurants. We came yesterday for our anniversary, and from start to finish, everything was exceptional. First, our waiter Rafael was superb. He truly made the entire experience feel top tier. Every recommendation he gave us — from the dishes to the drinks — was absolutely on point. His service, attention, and energy took an already amazing meal to another level. We’ve been to their sister restaurant, Tatiana, and really enjoyed it, but I have to say Dogon completely blew us away. The flavors, the spices, and the textures were all perfect. We had the charbroiled oysters, Benne’s Bowl, Mom Dukes Shrimp, the coconut curry branzino, and finished with the rum cake. Every single dish was outstanding. The food tasted so rich, soulful, and layered — it honestly felt like I was eating in a friend’s Caribbean grandmother’s home. A huge thank you to Kwame, Michael, and Rafael for making our anniversary dinner so special. We are not DMV locals, but we will absolutely be back this summer.

I was so excited to try this place and wanted to love it, but just did not. At the price point, I would expect a certain level of service and finish to the dishes that just was not there. The servers know what they're doing, Travis in particular was extremely knowledgeable, made great reccomendations, and coursed things well. However, we had 2 courses dropped early by what seemed to be kitchen staff members which led to an awkward swapping out of plates and utensils, leaving us without them for awhile after one of the courses was delivered and an awkward gap between another set of courses. The service would have been easy to overlook if the food was great, but unfortunately it was not. For our first course we had the mushroom shewers, which were delicious, but very uneven. One skewer had almost double the amount of mushrooms as the other. The second course was the pork small plate, which was just very sweet, minimal spice, and the two pieces of pork were cooked very differently (one significantly drier than the other). The shrimp with bread course was easily the best, the sauce was nice and spicy had a great depth of flavor and the shrimp themselves were cooked very well. The bread was also delicious and perfect for dipping in the sauce. We were most excited for our last course, the oxtail, as we eat it often, but unfortunately it was the most disappointing. It was cooked well, very tender, but the sauce was extremely sweet and syrupy, overly salty, no spice at all, and we could not eat more than a few bites. It came with a side of rice and beans which were not particularly warm. For the $96 price point it was extremely underwhelming, especially as we only able to eat less than half of the dish. We ended up going elsewhere for dessert. The restaurant itself is beautiful with a really cool design and vibe, but the food is just not worth the price.

Initially, I did not really care about Caribbean and African food. This restaurant is one of the top 2 restaurants in Washington Magazine. That made me try this restaurant to celebrate our wedding anniversary. The restaurant is located inside the Salamander Hotel. The lighting is very dim, so we used the iPhone flashlight to read the menu. The curry/Sauce that came with the dishes is amazing. It is not something that I can make at home. It is a mix of Indian/Caribbean/African. The branzino is the best dish. The fish was so meaty. The steak was very good as well, but the sauce that came with it was a little bit sweet. I would love to come back and try another dish on the menu.

My reason for my mid rating was primarily based on service and ability to properly course the meal. First we were greeted by an initial server who clearly laid out the menu and took our drink orders. Shortly thereafter, a new individual came over and notified us that he was now our server. Our drinks never arrived until 1/we asked 2/ were more than halfway through our dinner. Additionally, our "snack" arrived after we were halfway through our dinner. Again, we had to ask the runner to provide us with our oxtail patties. We had SPECIFICALLY asked the original server if the meal would be properly coursed, as well as the new server. Both reaffirmed that the meal would be properly coursed. While food was tasty, this unfortunately left a poor dining experience, especially for a restaurant that was recently rated top 50 in north America.