Now, y’all know I am truly not a meat lover. I really don’t think I’ve ever bought raw meat to cook by myself in my life. However! My aversion truly gets in the way of enjoying a lot of Asian food. So – I paid another visit to Copycat Co., and old favorite cocktail bar and restaurant on H St.
This place is an institution on H St. There is a small kitchen at the bottom, where the chefs make the food and small area for seating. At the second level, there is a full bar at the top. There is no cocktail menu – just an extensive blackboard with descriptions of a variety of drinks and some bar seating, very small and intimate.
The food menu is very simple, just a few categories: potstickers, steamed bao, skewers, and “sober soup.” They also have a couple of bigger options, a lamb soup and a sesame eggplant. The pricing of all these options is $5-10, pretty cheap for the quality and quantity. I went with my friends Jacqui and Jenn to celebrate Jacqui’s birthday, and after a long day at work, we were hungry. We did the $35 options – one of *literally* everything on the menu.
The great thing about this option – lots of food! The bad thing for someone who doesn’t eat beef or pork – trying to guess what food contains what meat under the dark lighting of a bar is quite difficult. But for three hungry gals – this was a good amount of food.
We got two each of the potstickers (chicken and mushroom, beef and celery, pork and cilantro, triple delight, and veggie), one each of the bao (pork and cabbage, lamb and carrot, hamburger, and veggie), one each of the skewers (chicken, pork cheek beef ribeye, lamb shoulder), and the sober soup (pork, cilantro, pork dumplings).
I’m not a big pork fan, but if anything was going to change my mind, it was this SOUP! Don’t get me wrong, I drank a lot of water to combat how spicy this was, but I loved the broth and the dumplings inside. This was my first time eating bao – the dough was so puffy and soft, I loved how pillowy it was. The potstickers were cute n’ crispy and I loved the skewers. I’m generally afraid of ordering meat at restaurants, mostly because I don’t like dry chicken. Like many of us, i’ve been scarred by my days of sodexo rubbery chicken. However, the meat here was tender and juicy – and definitely worth it.
Another thing Copycat is *famous* for is their cocktails. The bar upstairs has a huge chalkboard with descriptions of all their original drinks. All the cocktails are the same price, so you don’t have to choose between drinks based on price – only on taste. I actually really like this concept, i’m constantly guilty of getting the cheapest drink on the menu. Their drinks are very creative – one time I visited a few years ago I had a carrot juice margarita (!!).
I know this is useless, but I can’t remember the name of the drinks I had on my last visit 😦 However, i enjoyed my lovely tiki drink and my friends enjoyed their cocktails too. Because it was our friend’s birthday, the bartender even gave us these delicious shots at the end – some sort of lemon vodka with foam on top. Anyways – you can’t go wrong with a drink here.
Copycat Co. is a great place for a late night snack, drinks, or both! While I do wish the cocktails were cheaper – you’re definitely paying for the expertise of some good mixologists, so its worth it. And the food? The food is amazing. I will always recommend this place!
The Bottom Line
Artful cocktails and amazing late night food. An H St must!
Rating: 4.75 Cones
Price: $$ ish ($$ drinks, $ food)
Where: H St Corridor, Washington, D.C.
aditi eats 