14K / Cafe Japone

As of late, it has become tradition for JC and me to go to happy hour on Wednesdays. So without fail, we scampered out of work, super excited for a cheap drink and cheap snacks. First stop was 14K, on 14th St NW and K St NW - their huge "rush hour happy hour" sign caught my eye. In addition to happy hour, they were advertising 5:00pm - 7:00pm, get 2 entrees and receive a bottle of wine, which is a pretty awesome deal, we thought. However, we had happy hour hopping in mind, so we headed to the bar. I got a huge cold glass of Blue Moon and JC got a glass of sauvignon blanc to sip on as we waited for our artisan cheese plate. I'm pretty sure we didn't get the cheese that are listed on the menu, as I know and love Humbolt Fog (goat cheese) and it was definitely absent. However, it was a wonderful assembly of crumbly and soft cheeses served with slices of some kind of berry and nut bread, apples, figs, and strawberries. As we devoured the plate, I started craving sushi (I know, how Asian, right?). For 2 glasses of wine, a beer, and the cheese plate, we paid about $20, which we thought was awesome.

Then we ran across the street to Lotus, as we had heard that they have sushi happy hours there. As we headed downstairs into the lounge, we realize how eerily empty it was...we took a quick look around and then ran back out - in true JC and Jung-Ah fashion, running in our heels and giggling.

Next stop, Cafe Japone since their happy hour went on til 8:30pm! I had very little to no expectations as I had read reviews and most of them were about how awful the service is there. There were praises about their food and huge Sapporos, though. We found an awesome parking space right outside the restaurant and went inside, thirsty for a beer. The girl that greeted us was very nice and sat us right away, however we sat there for a long time and finally had to flag down a server to take our drink orders. She didn't give us attitude though, there were only 2 servers for the whole place, and I guess they were busy. We received our $3, 22oz bottles of Sapporo right away, which made us happy during the million hours we had to wait for our sushi while drunk Facebooking and Twittering. Finally our yellowtail with scallions, spicy tuna, california, and crispy salmon skin rolls arrived. I don't know why we keep getting yellowtail rolls, because everytime we get it, we're like meh, it's not that great, YET we ALWAYS get them. The spicy tuna were very spicy and very tasty - I prefer the ones I had at Saki to these, but these were pretty awesome. The california roll was what I expected, tasty in the fake, american kind of way. The crispy salmon skin roll was intense - the salmon skin was super crispy, super salty and very pungent. I liked it alot, but it was just a bit much on the saltiness. After 3 of the 22oz Sapporo, not to mention what we had prior to coming to Japone, we were drunk. And we thought we could eat more, so we ordered their ramen with pork bone broth. As we waited another million hours for the ramen, the table across the restaurant started off Karaoke night. They were a fun group and sang and danced together and it was all good fun. In the midst of all this fun, we got our ramen, and I must recommend this highly. Oh my gosh, it was nothing like the ramen in packages that you get for 55cents at the grocery store. The noodles were chewy and yummy, and the broth was rich and flavorful with a hint of sesame oil. Sooooo good. And soooo big. We ate, sang, danced, and drank. Before we knew it, it was 11:00pm. Another happy hour success!! Tasty tasty!!!

14K $
www.14krestaurant.com

Cafe Japone $$