inside 709 D Street, NW photo by by Rachel Paraoan
From a press release:
“Chef and restaurateur Tim Ma brings Lucky Danger to its rightful home in Washington D.C.’s greater Chinatown neighborhood. The full-service restaurant with an adjoining cocktail bar and mahjong parlor will open May 21, 2025 at 709 D. St, NW, Washington, D.C.
photo by by Rachel Paraoan
Originally launched as a pandemic-era ghost kitchen in D.C., Lucky Danger has since opened as a takeout shop in Arlington and, new this season, at a kiosk at Nationals Park. For this next iteration, Ma fully embraces the depth of ‘American Chinese’ food, giving it the refined setting and full service it needs to showcase the food of his heritage and his home.
The menu, conceptualized in partnership with executive chef Robbie Reyes—whose experience spans from Lima, Peru (IK Restaurante by Ivan Kisic) to Breckenridge, Colorado (Breckenridge Distillery by David Burke)—builds on his work leading Lucky Danger’s kitchens, and pays homage to beloved classics, reimagined.
Starters included an allium pancake (more from the onion family than the standard scallion) with a crunchy salad of kohlrabi and cured cucumber, plated with whipped tofu, chili oil and caviar. Signature crab rangoons arrive with a hint of Old Bay over a blood-orange sweet and sour sauce. Additional small plates include pork wontons with morels and silky beef short rib and bone marrow dumplings in a pool of huacatay, a Peruvian salsa verde.
Maryland blue crab lo mein is a luxurious tangle of crab, leek fondue, shitake, caramelized whey, and kaffir lime, best tossed tableside to blend textures and flavors. There’s also a duck fried chaufa with fish sauce caramel; mapo tofu with douban, fermented black beans, and rice cakes, and the legendary three cup chicken with chicken of the woods, leeks and rice cakes.
Family style dishes feature Chinese prime rib served with allium pancakes and watercress; heritage pork char siu with Napa cabbage slaw and rice; crispy flounder and Peking duck topped with compressed plum and fish sauce dressing served alongside butter lettuce and rice.
Desserts include apple pie mooncake with spiced apples and bourbon-vanilla ice cream and a milk tea egg tart with preserved pineapple, hazelnut, dulce de leche.
Sunny Vanavichai, Lucky Danger’s bar director (formerly of Padek, Moon Rabbit and Daikaya Group), commands all three bars in the space, each with its distinct program. The front bar in the restaurant offers a slate of classic cocktails with an Asian-inspired spin, like the Szechuan d’Lite with tequila, grapefruit, Sichuan peppercorn and lime with a tomato-salt rim; the Oolong Old Fashioned with bourbon, milky oolong tea, brown sugar, and bitters; and Not Your Mom’s daiquiri with white rum, chrysanthemum, strawberry, and lime.
The Lucky Club, an intimate 21-seater, gives Vanavichai the freedom to experiment. Set in a dark, sultry space with lush red walls, exposed brick, and over 100 glowing lanterns, the drink lineup dives into Chinese herbal medicine, tying in elixirs and teas with a global arsenal of spirits. The James Carter, for example, uses Nin Jim Pei Pa Koa—an herbal syrup Ma’s parents spoon-fed him when he wasn’t feeling well—and turns it into a candy.
Through the bar and tucked into the very back of the space lies a small room with a long bar and three automatic mahjong tables. A mural of an epic encounter between a dragon and a phoenix stretches fully across a dark green wall, and a green patterned carpet frames the petite parlor. The third drink menu in the space features overproof whiskey and overproof cocktails, and is where Ma and his father will teach mahjong classes during select nights of the week.
Developed in the mid-1800s in China, mahjong is a tile game now played throughout the world, and has become increasingly popular in the United States across generations and cultures. Luck Danger’s mahjong tables can be rented for $45 an hour, and to come, there will be “dinner and mahjong” packages. Reservations for the tables are encouraged.”