Buddha Bar Asian Restaurant / Bar / Fusion Restaurant / Lounge / Restaurant

Chinatown, Washington, DC –

Built at a cost exceeding ten million dollars, Buddha Bar DC is the eighth incarnation of the Buddha chain, and boasts the same signature elements of its predecessors – namely, massive capacity, lavish wooden chandeliers, wall-to-wall mosaics, and, of course, an eighteen-foot Buddha statue to oversee it all.

Soft orange lighting and an immense dragon painting set off the small bar near the entrance, where upscale professionals gather for after-work drinks, while well-dressed socialites and couples prefer to settle in with their sushi and saketinis in the larger lounge area decked out in comfy mahogany furnishings.

Just past the elevated white pulpit of the DJ, who shows up every night to spin European house music, lies the dining area, whose giant statue and twenty-two foot floor-to-ceiling curtains form a backdrop for the successful business people and younger finance types chatting over baked sea scallops or the more elaborate tasting menu.

When it comes to food and décor, subtlety is not the goal here, and Buddha Bar tends to draw an eclectic mix of DC’s finest – or at least its “most enlightened.”