Kookoo Restaurant and Lounge

A One-Man Show Runs This Promising Persian Restaurant in Columbia Heights | Eater DC

"At Columbia Heights newcomer Kookoo, I was greeted by a welcome-home sabzi khordan platter — radish, walnut, feta, and parsley — that owner Yahya Sardari brings to every table before orders are placed. Sardari, an Iranian restaurateur who transformed his shuttered Coffy Café into this living-room–style Persian spot in late 2023, serves family recipes from his mother and grandmother beneath a 1935 relatives' photo, aiming for homestyle, cozy Persian food. The opening menu leans on spreads and dips served with fluffy bread and shatteringly crisp homemade pita chips dusted with za’atar and sumac: yogurt lifted by shallots or cucumber and herbs, a sautéed eggplant topped with crunchy fried-garlic and whey, and a smoked, flame-licked eggplant mixed with garlic, tomato, and egg. A newly added gas grill gives deep char to kebabs (beef, chicken, salmon) and renders the eggplant almost black; rice dishes include saffron rice, Basmati sweetened with barberries, and steamed rice with fava beans. Top sellers I noted are khoresh fesenjoon — a refined chicken stew in walnut and pomegranate molasses served in a ceramic pot — and Sardari’s family-recipe khoresh baghali of braised beef with fava and dill, both slow-braised (fesenjoon simmers at least three hours; lamb upwards of five). Sardari emphasizes herbs and spices like saffron (sourced from Iran), turmeric, and cumin, riffs on drinks with Persian flavors (the Azadi cocktail of lavender syrup, vodka, and champagne honors the women’s movement), and even introduces a sumac-and-onion burger with creamed feta and pomegranate-glazed wings as neighborhood-friendly bridges to Persian cuisine. Set at 3310 14th Street NW next to DCUSA, the place maintains a quiet intimacy, and Sardari — running both front and back of house — personally visits tables to teach guests how to eat the sabzi khordan “like a sandwich.”" - Evan Caplan