Everything was flawless. The food was topnotch. The atmosphere was incredible. The service was second to none. The prices were incredibly reasonable. The crispy mushroom pancakes aren't a lot of food for the money compared to other dishes which give you basically two meals but the taste is worth every penny.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Sho K
Do not trust the hours. Closed when we visited at 1 p.m. on Saturday. Hours say they are open.
Claudia Cordero
Stumbled upon this small, quaint place with delicious food! The shaking beef and vermicelli were phenomenal.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Rolls, Shrimp Spring Rolls - Goi Cuon Tom 2pc
Jackie W.
I really wanted to love this place. My friend said it was overrated, but I really wanted to try Viet street food which I've had at other places. Definitely work the waffle rolls and the lemongrass tofu. I would NOT recommend the deep fried wings dish since they overfried the chicken wings, so the chicken wings were super dry. We ordered the shrimp entree with rice noodles which was alright. The service was great; they were attentive. It was a cold wintry night, and we were able to get seated immediately. The waitress promptly came over to give us the menu and give us time to order. After that, I felt like our water was empty often. There's a tiki bar downstairs which was bopping. The food felt very expensive for what it was.
Marcus H.
Checked out 1914 on a whim before heading to a show at The Howard Theatre. I'm not gonna lie I wasn't expecting much considering it was 9 pm, staff was closing, and the restaurant was empty beside us. Ordered the sampler platter and split the shredded chicken fried rice. They blew us away with flavor especially the waffle egg roll and chicken fried rice. Drinks were tasty and the staff was really friendly. Will definitely be back to try out more dishes as well as the tiki bar/club upstairs!
Jessica Miles
Had a wonderful dinner here and absolutely loved our server, Kim. She was prompt, friendly and gave us options for where to sit based on seating and noise level. The menu here is a bit small, but everything I had was amazing. The Green Thai Tea looked beautiful and tasted great. Will definitely come back when I’m in the city again.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Shrimp Spring Rolls
Krysteen Lomonaco
We had the chicken pho, fresh spring rolls, and pork egg rolls. A lot of meat in the pho and pork egg rolls. Plus, the broth was really flavorful. Kim was a super waitress and was happy to spend time chatting with us about our time in DC. Thank you for the great meal.
Nothing better than average - it seems like it needs to take it up a notch in order to be a sit down restaurant worth repeat visits.
Balmore A R.
Kolben is more like Covid, the worse vietnamise food I have ever had, the chicken more like ratckenchi flavor and look like it was pick up at the corner where they left the K out, unsafe for the public please with food wise dont allow yourself to play in the kitchen floor or should i show you the way you prepare it maybe tha way the cilbup wouldallow to judge by the manners we prepare our food to the public next ratonme try it your own and the higine what a dissapointed on your food the vietnamise culture should be ashame of this flavor !
Wendy Eli R.
OVERALL: Interesting decor, delicious food. FOOD: we got three drinks, waffle rolls, bun xao, and xoi chien. The food was delicious and flavorful!! The xoi chien with the crab was my favorite. Everything was enough for three people. The waffle rolls are a must-try. The drinks were ok! SERVICE: service was a little slow even though there weren't many people there. But once we were attended to things went well. VENUE: this restaurant has three floors. The bottom floor is a tiki car, the second is the restaurant (there is a huge bus as decor), and the third is a hookah bar. The overall concept is strange and not well advertised. But the restaurant is awesome!
Don’t often leave 4 star reviews but definitely a step or two below exceptional Vietnamese food. Also portion sizes were quite small.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
jed sherman
Loveliest restaurant in DC. Chill and happy. Nicest service. Food is flavorful and fresh. Real food. Brick walls, nice aesthetic.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Trang Ouk
Located off the beaten path on quiet 9th St, this charming restaurant offers uniformly good Vietnamese food and reasonable prices. Every dish we had was delectable, and I highly recommend the Cha Gio Re (Waffle Spring Rolls) with its special crispy skin, and the Banh Khot (Crispy Vietnamese mini prawn pancakes). The accompanying veggies (mint and pickled daikon and carrots) were a bit on the sparse side. My only disappointment (accounting for the 4 stars instead of 5) was the fact the restaurant had run out of Bun Cha Ha Thanh, a dish I was looking forward to trying. Service was excellent, thanks to our friendly and knowledgeable waitress Kim. Street parking was not too hard to find nearby.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: C
Joe P.
Underrated hidden spot for non-pho traditional viet, such as xoi. Their wings are strongly lime and nuoc mam - delicious.
Kari O.
Them waffle egg rolls though. Nice little spot. Chill decor. Has a train, paper lanterns, Instagram opportunities for the glitterati. Had the Bun Thit Nuong, barbecue pork with rice noodles. Good. Little different than what I get in Houston, but good nonetheless. Dude on the first date with rocker girl, I'll pray for you Bro. Planters Passion was cool. Didn't realize it would come aflame.
Everything was flawless. The food was topnotch. The atmosphere was incredible. The service was second to none. The prices were incredibly reasonable. The crispy mushroom pancakes aren't a lot of food for the money compared to other dishes which give you basically two meals but the taste is worth every penny.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Do not trust the hours. Closed when we visited at 1 p.m. on Saturday. Hours say they are open.
Stumbled upon this small, quaint place with delicious food! The shaking beef and vermicelli were phenomenal.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Rolls, Shrimp Spring Rolls - Goi Cuon Tom 2pc
I really wanted to love this place. My friend said it was overrated, but I really wanted to try Viet street food which I've had at other places. Definitely work the waffle rolls and the lemongrass tofu. I would NOT recommend the deep fried wings dish since they overfried the chicken wings, so the chicken wings were super dry. We ordered the shrimp entree with rice noodles which was alright. The service was great; they were attentive. It was a cold wintry night, and we were able to get seated immediately. The waitress promptly came over to give us the menu and give us time to order. After that, I felt like our water was empty often. There's a tiki bar downstairs which was bopping. The food felt very expensive for what it was.
Checked out 1914 on a whim before heading to a show at The Howard Theatre. I'm not gonna lie I wasn't expecting much considering it was 9 pm, staff was closing, and the restaurant was empty beside us. Ordered the sampler platter and split the shredded chicken fried rice. They blew us away with flavor especially the waffle egg roll and chicken fried rice. Drinks were tasty and the staff was really friendly. Will definitely be back to try out more dishes as well as the tiki bar/club upstairs!
Had a wonderful dinner here and absolutely loved our server, Kim. She was prompt, friendly and gave us options for where to sit based on seating and noise level. The menu here is a bit small, but everything I had was amazing. The Green Thai Tea looked beautiful and tasted great. Will definitely come back when I’m in the city again.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Shrimp Spring Rolls
We had the chicken pho, fresh spring rolls, and pork egg rolls. A lot of meat in the pho and pork egg rolls. Plus, the broth was really flavorful. Kim was a super waitress and was happy to spend time chatting with us about our time in DC. Thank you for the great meal.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Rolls, BBQ Pork, 1914's Chicken Pho
Nothing better than average - it seems like it needs to take it up a notch in order to be a sit down restaurant worth repeat visits.
Kolben is more like Covid, the worse vietnamise food I have ever had, the chicken more like ratckenchi flavor and look like it was pick up at the corner where they left the K out, unsafe for the public please with food wise dont allow yourself to play in the kitchen floor or should i show you the way you prepare it maybe tha way the cilbup wouldallow to judge by the manners we prepare our food to the public next ratonme try it your own and the higine what a dissapointed on your food the vietnamise culture should be ashame of this flavor !
OVERALL: Interesting decor, delicious food. FOOD: we got three drinks, waffle rolls, bun xao, and xoi chien. The food was delicious and flavorful!! The xoi chien with the crab was my favorite. Everything was enough for three people. The waffle rolls are a must-try. The drinks were ok! SERVICE: service was a little slow even though there weren't many people there. But once we were attended to things went well. VENUE: this restaurant has three floors. The bottom floor is a tiki car, the second is the restaurant (there is a huge bus as decor), and the third is a hookah bar. The overall concept is strange and not well advertised. But the restaurant is awesome!
Restaurantji Recommends
Don’t often leave 4 star reviews but definitely a step or two below exceptional Vietnamese food. Also portion sizes were quite small.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Loveliest restaurant in DC. Chill and happy. Nicest service. Food is flavorful and fresh. Real food. Brick walls, nice aesthetic.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Located off the beaten path on quiet 9th St, this charming restaurant offers uniformly good Vietnamese food and reasonable prices. Every dish we had was delectable, and I highly recommend the Cha Gio Re (Waffle Spring Rolls) with its special crispy skin, and the Banh Khot (Crispy Vietnamese mini prawn pancakes). The accompanying veggies (mint and pickled daikon and carrots) were a bit on the sparse side. My only disappointment (accounting for the 4 stars instead of 5) was the fact the restaurant had run out of Bun Cha Ha Thanh, a dish I was looking forward to trying. Service was excellent, thanks to our friendly and knowledgeable waitress Kim. Street parking was not too hard to find nearby.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: C
Underrated hidden spot for non-pho traditional viet, such as xoi. Their wings are strongly lime and nuoc mam - delicious.
Them waffle egg rolls though. Nice little spot. Chill decor. Has a train, paper lanterns, Instagram opportunities for the glitterati. Had the Bun Thit Nuong, barbecue pork with rice noodles. Good. Little different than what I get in Houston, but good nonetheless. Dude on the first date with rocker girl, I'll pray for you Bro. Planters Passion was cool. Didn't realize it would come aflame.