Oohh's & Aahh's — Restaurant in Alexandria

Two words: weird and disappointing. First off, if you don't know, this bizarrely situated, difficult-to-find Alexandria location is for pick-up/take-out/delivery orders only. It is not an actual restaurant and you will not see an Oohh’s and Aahh’s sign anywhere outside, so don't bother looking for one. It is located in basically an alley that you access by turning down the road between the China Cafe/Tobacco Store and the 7-11 on Glebe Road. It's in a building/food-hub that houses several other food pick-up establishments.

When you walk in you will see a stark empty lobby with a touch-screen kiosk to place your order on, not a host or any human person except for those waiting to pick up their orders. There are scanners on the wall where you scan your receipt after you make your purchase. When your food is done, you retrieve it from a locker door that pops open on the wall. I'm not kidding. Expect no contact with an Oohh’s and Aahh’s employee at this location; it's all automated, like you're picking up a package from an Amazon locker (if you've ever done that before).

That's it for the weird part, and now for the disappointing part - the food. We ordered two dinner entrees - whiting and catfish, each fried hard, and each with two sides (we chose the 4-cheese mac & cheese, whipped yams, collard greens, and potato salad.) We ordered a "banana pudding" for dessert. (I'll explain the quotation marks later.) The whiting was bland and rubbery and not fried hard as requested. It seemed to have been reheated, not fried that day. The catfish was decent; it was seasoned well and crispy. The mac & cheese seemed old, like it had been prepared some days prior, refrigerated and reheated. The cheese had no pull; it definitely had not come out of an oven on that day. The whipped yams were divine. The collard greens and potato salad were okay; the potato salad was definitely not "soul food" quality; it tasted like a decent store bought potato salad. Now for the horrendous "banana pudding." Oohh’s and Aahh’s Alexandria really played in our faces with that mess. For a soul food restaurant to call what was in that container "banana pudding" is beyond outrageous. It was a bland, grainy, boxed-quality instant pudding/mousse textured product with nary a hint of a banana, surrounded by some soggy 'nilla wafers. Shameful. I've heard the food at the DC locations is better. I may give those locations a try but I doubt I'll venture back into this weird Alexandria kiosk/food locker/day-old food in a back alley...

I found Oohh's & Aahh's on Uber Eats while searching for some soul food and decided to give them a try after checking out their website and social media. I ordered a variety of items for my friend and me to sample: fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, whipped sweet potatoes, cabbage, and a few desserts—chocolate layer cake, peach cobbler, and banana pudding.

The delivery was impressively fast—less than 25 minutes—and everything arrived hot and well-packaged. The portions were generous, especially the sides, which easily served more than one. All of the savory dishes were flavorful and well-prepared.

Unfortunately, the desserts didn’t live up to the rest of the meal. The cake was dry and tasted old, the banana pudding lacked fresh bananas, and the peach cobbler was mostly crust with very little fruit.

Overall, I’d recommend Oohh's & Aahh's for the entrees and sides, but the desserts need...

Smh.. where do I start? First, don't come here unless you've ordered online for a pick up because you dam sure can't sit here and eat. If you want to go through the trouble of coming anyway, it's behind the 7-11 in the alley by the Tobacco & Mini Mart, yea I said it. It's in an alley and you'll drive past it at least twice without these instructions.. So just park out by the road either in front of 7-11 or the Tobacco spot and walk 'around back'. You've struck gold with this location Oohh's & Aahh's. You finally make it to Virginia and find the shttiest spot possible to...