Dedicated to our community since 2015
About Us
Reren Lamen & Bar’s second location sits right in the heart of Georgetown off the corner of M and Wisconsin. Everyday we serve the DC community our freshly pulled noodles, or lamen (拉面 lā miàn) along with our other quality dishes.
Our fundamental goal is to provide delicious Chinese inspired cuisine made with the freshest, finest ingredients in a chic, sophisticated ambiance.
the person behind reren’s success
Chef Leopold
Chef Leopold, who describes himself as something of a self-taught culinary savant, created the menu at Reren, although he was wise enough to bring on a hired gun to run the kitchen. Leopold was raised on noodles in Beijing, not white rice dishes. His affection is clearly reserved for the lamen and similar dishes, which all rely on the same house-made strands.
Chef Leopold’s noodles practically turn radioactive as they absorb the stock and chili oil of the “kung fu” bowl, which locks into a hot groove and rides it hard, the James Brown of Chinese soups. The barbecue chicken lamen, by contrast, is a sensitive singer-songwriter, providing a quiet stage with plenty of space for the sweet corn and grilled bird to express themselves. But the most unpredictable act may be the dan dan noodles, a bowl that doesn’t drown its starchy threads in Sichuan oil but features a dark, funky ingredient known as ya cai, or preserved mustard greens.
Leopold’s team display a light touch with dough. Their house-made wrappers for the pork dumplings and the willowy bundles submerged in the Shanghai wonton soup are soft and supple, each one concealing a lush filling that illuminates with brief flashes of ginger.
[excerpt from Washington Post]