JingDu 17, Falls Church

This new restaurant opened its doors about a month ago and I had heard that their Sichuan dry pot dish was worth a visit.

They currently have a deal that is perfect for 2 people which includes a cucumber salad, celery and bean curd, fried pork gyoza, Xinjiang beef and chicken skewers, spicy fried crabs and a large dry pot dish.

The cucumber salad is quite simple with chunky cuts of cucumber is a light vinegar and sesame oil dressing. The celery and bean curd dish is something that I have had previously at Taiwanese restaurants, which also has a light sesame oil dressing. The crabs were delicious and fried to the point where you could eat parts of the shell, but there wasn’t as much meat inside the crabs as I would have liked. The dry pot was delicious, although a little salty for my taste, with lamb slices, ham, bean curd, wood ear mushrooms, shrimp balls, seaweed and cabbage.

I prefer the dry pot dish here to the dry pot at Mala Tang. Overall, I would give JingDu 17 a tasty/authenticity score of 7.1/10.