Hawkers Asian Street Food — Restaurant in Bethesda

1/30/24: (UPDATE- 4 overall, 3 food, 4 service, 5 atmosphere) I've revised my rating based on the diligence and dedication to excellence that the manager of this establishment showed through his timely response and determination to rectify the issues regarding my experience. His assurances have made me reconsider revisiting since it may have just been a one-off thing.

1/29/24: (original rating 3 overall, 3 food, 3 service, 5 atmosphere) I came here due to the reviews. I came on a Monday just after they opened around 11. I was the first dine in customer for the day, it seemed. The ambiance was nice, as were the menus. I ordered chicken egg rolls to start along with curry laksa ramen. What bothered me immensely, and I'm not sure if this is their normal policy, but I was given the check immediately after ordering. Note, they don't give straws here unless you specifically ask as well. When what I ordered came out, I placed an order for the pork belly bao buns. My server (name starts with a Y) while efficient and polite seemed rather standoffish. She did not ask if I liked the food. Also, after I placed an order for the buns after my initial order, she again immediately brought out a new receipt and trashed the old one. I also had to flag her down to ask if my ramen had chicken in it. The menu specifies yes, however a lot of the pictures in the reviews don't always show the chicken. I'm wondering if the chicken is forgotten a lot. Because $15 for a bowl of ramen with 2 shrimp, some fried tofu, and half a soft boiled egg with chard like veggies wasn't worth it. Today's servings of the egg rolls, ramen, and pork buns were not that great. The buns mention brown sugar, but there was not a hint of sweetness that I could taste. Honestly, they were unpleasantly salty. The ramen had the chicken forgotten, but the server was able to bring me some chicken in a small ramekin, which I added. It was basic grilled chicken. The egg rolls were also nothing special. While this was a new restaurant that I was checking out, as I like to go to different restaurants when I'm in a new area, I will not be back. $37 for that lunch of 3 meh items was not worth it. It's edible and filling, but not really satisfying taste-wise for me. Maybe they're better later on in the day. I'm also really not partial to being given the check before I even get my food though, especially when it's not busy and I was the only one present at first. Happy eating. I hope it's a better experience for anyone else.

P.S. on the way out, I asked another customer who was dining in by themselves, similar to me, if they were given their check immediately after ordering. They said...

Editing my review to leave a worse one. We went back and won't ever again. Saturday night and it was not full but the service was painfully slow and food was not good either. They ended up having gto comp multiple dishes for us. Also the fruit salad they served my toddler was clearly just bar fruit, ew? I'm convinced this place is buying Google reviews as well as operating ghost kitchens out of it because the kitchen was busy and there was a line of pick up folks but multiple tables from what we saw were getting food comped due to long wait times.

Had a baffling repeat experience here tonight based on pretty substandard service. The food was just fine and came out hot and quickly, even if they were out of both pork belly and soda. Not the end of the world, even though our waiter made minimal effort to suggest anything else. But the service, which seems to be trying to be laid back (which is OK!) was bordering on rude. Barely any interaction with our waiter, our food was dropped on the table without any commentary explaining what it was the majority of the time, and saw some kind of gross stuff food safety wise. For example, at one point, one of the waitresses brought an ice scoop out from the boh to put more ice into a customer's drink at the table which is just...yuck. Sure hope that isn't getting put back in a ice well! I would encourage some of the kitchen staff to wear a beard net--like the ice thing, it's a food safety thing. It is also hard to tell who works there given the apparent lack of dress code--there's casual and there's sloppy, and this is definitely the latter. Maybe consider matching t shirts? We could see directly into the back of the house and stations looked sloppy and disorganized, particularly gross given that one staff member was making batches of iced tea or coffee in the space and stuff was strewn everywhere. Finally, as we were leaving, one of the staff shoved through myself and my husband to get past as we were standing up putting our coats on--no excuse me or acknowledgement at all in his haste to get to the back, he just pushed through us. I understand how busy Saturday evening service can be but surely shoving customers isn't the vibe you want to leave them with? In conclusion to this review, which I understand is making me sound like a total Karen, I would suggest that some hospitality training for the staff would go a long way. It's expensive to go out to eat and when the staff acts like they wish you weren't there, it's hard to justify paying so much for the experience. We got the message and aren't particularly...

As a New Yorker and Asian American who lived in China, I am very picky about my Asian food. I was drawn in by the ‘hawkers’ name but it is a sit down restaurant. The menu has a variety of foods and they all looked tasty. We ordered the spicy chicken bao, lamb skewers, duck curry noodles, and crispy pork belly for take out (2 ppl). The flavors were above expectations (but tbh my expectations were not high). The food all smelled amazing, the dried spices that came with the lamb skewers were not too spicy and definitely smelled/tasted authentic, the curry noodles had great flavor (not a whole lot of meat but okay for its price), and the chicken bao flavor was good but slightly dry for me (we did get food towards the end of the night though so that may be the reason?). My minor complaint about the crispy pork belly is that because the box was sealed, it got slightly less crispy on the 10 min ride home, but that happens with a lot of take out/delivery. I also wish the lamb skewers had actual lamb chunks instead of ground meat shaped into a meatball/sausage. Overall, food quality 7.5/10.

Parking is metered on street or garage nearby. Restaurant is in a cute shopping/dining area with pretty lights around the holidays. Can’t comment on service as we didn’t dine in but the place looked cozy. Price appropriate for portion size/area.

The bag the food came in was cute. You can open the bag up and the inside (pictured) is a version of a Chinese gambling game ‘hoo hey how’ featuring 6 local artists. It’s pretty, but I don’t think any of the 6 artists are Asian. I believe the restaurant is based in Orlando, with not a lot of Asians (4% per US census website), but for an Asian fusion restaurant showcasing artists designing for an Asian game, it’d be nice to include at least 1 Asian artist.

RE: owner’s reply I do think the food flavor is authentic and really good! Curry taste held up the next day as leftovers also. Above expectations for sure.

Great to see chefs/entrepreneurs of Asian origins and locals coming together to make...