Maketto is a fabulous sneaker store, meets restaurant, meets coffee on the new trendy H Street in DC.  I’ve been there for coffee many times but never dined.  The menu is a cross between Cambodian and Taiwanese and everything looks delicious.  It’s funny, the one dish I’ve heard people talking about the most is their fried chicken.  I had to check out the menu and was all set until I saw how much it cost.  Twenty-five dollars for fried chicken and bread.  That’s it.  As a girl who’s grown up with southern fried chicken from my grandmothers that would rival anyone, I found it very difficult to pay $25 for fried chicken.  It’s not like mac and cheese where you can justify the cost by elevating the ingredients ie, truffles, exotic cheese etc.  This is friend chicken people. 

Well a few months ago, the Chef from Maketto decided to sell a slider version of this chicken for two weeks at Shake Shack for $6.  I will totally pay six bucks and waited in line with about 50 other people the first day it was available.  I must say, that the chicken sandwich was delicious.  I mean really delicious.  I was simple yet bursting with Asian flavors.  I loved this sandwich so much, that I refused to drink water afterwards because I wanted the flavors to linger as long as possible.

I struggled for weeks over whether or not I would break down and dine at the restaurant since the sandwich was no longer available.  While my parents were in town last week, I finally broke down and took them with me.

We started off with cocktails (of course) and I had my new obsession, the Manhattan.  It was straight forward, yet tasty.

Then we moved on to the beef steam bao with hoisin on the side.  The bao’s were a first for my folks, but they really enjoyed them.

Next to arrive were the gruyere dumplings over a lightly spicy braised beef and sliced red chilis.  Since gruyere is one of my favorite cheeses, I automatically loved this dish.  The beef was perfectly seasoned and we loved it so much that we ordered another serving at the end of our meal!

Now for what I’ve been waiting for, the Maketto fried chicken and bread.  It was just as delicious as I remembered.  Crispy, juicy, sweet, and tangy.  The flavors filed every bite.  Once the plate was in front of me, I realized that there was no way I could eat it all on my own which later helped justify the cost of the dish.  Of course, my dad said he could’ve had it as a meal.