Masa 14 feels a little out of place. Barely a week old, the swanky restuarant that is owned and operated by two successful chefs sits across the street from a thrift store and a 24-hour Laundromat, and just a few yards from the proudly indie Black Cat nightclub.
Fittingly enough, then, the menu offers the unexpected, with a long list of small Latin-Asian fusion dishes. Fusing these two very different cuisines could have resulted in a lot of strange-for-the-sake-of-being-strange combinations, but most of the menu items are Latin variations on traditional Asian dishes or vice versa, incorporating common ingredients from one cuisine into a well-known dish from the other.
Take the smoked tomato soup, which is topped with perfectly cooked, melt-in-your-mouth chunks of tofu and crab meat. Smoky, but not overpowering, the small bowl of soup was creamy and satisfying. The soup’s placement in a menu of dishes meant to be shared among a group may seem somewhat odd—but its excellence more than justifies it.
The crunchy shrimp, topped with a chipotle aioli, soy sauce, and roe, again plays with Asian and Latin flavors. The shrimp themselves are only lightly battered and fried, so that the satisfying crunchiness of the shrimp shines through. Though the garlicky chipotle aioli and sweet and salty soy sauce tie the dish together well, at $11 for a plate of about six shrimp, the value could be better.
Most of the many small dishes offered are on the cheap side, averaging around eight dollars, so that a few shared between a party shouldn’t break the bank. And with waiters encouraging your group to sample the different, easily-shared dishes, Masa 14 lends itself to group dining.
With such a dizzying array of options, unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that some of the dishes won’t miss the mark; the yucca fries, for example, were boring and dry. The seasoning was uneven—some fries tasted salty, some tasted sour, and others were tasteless—and the yucca had the hard and chunky consistency of undercooked potato fries. Not coincidentally, the wholly Latin-inspired yucca fries are one of the few dishes on the menu that doesn’t live up to the restaurant’s promise of culinary fusion.
With the extensive drink menu—over a hundred types of tequila alone, not to mention a wide selection of wines and sakes—Masa 14 is a fine place to go with friends and spend an hour or two sampling food. Just beware the commonplace items, and go for the dishes that better suit the restaurant’s out-of-place feel.
Masa 14 is located at 1825 14th Street, NW.
