Spices Asian Restaurant & Sushi Bar

Lots of tasty options here. The menu is a mix of thai, chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, sushi, they’re really hitting all the pan-​Asian bases. A pan-​Asian spot with this little specialty is usually cause for concern, but I have never disliked anything I’ve tried here, and a few dishes are true standouts. My fave is the basil leaves stir fry with chicken — delicious basily stir fry sauce with lots of onions and peppers. The thai vegetable fried rice is excellent, as well. A fried rice with tons of flavor — simple in ingredients but way above your everyday fried rice, and very fresh tasting. I honestly could not believe how much flavor was packed into such a simple dish.
Some of the others I’ve tried and enjoyed include:
+ Spring onion cake appetizer, which comes with three small pancakes served with sweet and sour sauce
+ Fresh rice paper roll, with shrimp, papaya, mint, lettuce, vermicelli, and peanuts
+ Mee siam is mee krob (or mi krop, or however you want to spell it) that is one of the best in DC in my book. So much flavor packed into those crispy noodles.
I’ve liked everyone and would happily order them again. It’s a bit pricey for the quantity, but they more than make up for that with delivery for $ 2. Such a lifesaver. If you’re looking for non-​pizza delivery in this area, Spices is probably the best option you’ll find.

Reliably good, been here tons of times. The spring onion cakes are amazing and I often have the seaweed salad sampler– so good.

Great sushi, excellent service, and love the 3 flavors mochi ice cream.

I go to Spices about once a week, so I think I can write an experienced and reliable review. This is a solid neighborhood restaurant with consistent quality. The folks who work here (including the owner) know my name and always give me awesome service. One thing I love about the place is that it is meticulously clean. The owner takes great pride in her restaurant and it shows. I often order the green curry or black pepper steak or aged tangerine peel beef. When I feel like sushi, I go for a specialty roll and I’ve never been disappointed. The sushi chefs do a nice presentation and the fish is always fresh (I’m picky about my sushi). In the six years I’ve been going here, I have never had a bad food experience and that’s saying a lot. If you’re in the neighborhood, don’t hesitate to try it.

Great food!

This is my local sushi place, and it’s safe to say that I order from here at least once a week. The sushi – and the rest of the food on the menu– is solid. My favorite item is definitely the tofu fries. I’ve yet to find a place that can compare. The seasoning is delicious!
Service is great. When I order in I typically will get the food way before the time they say they’ll arrive. Spices is absolutely worth the try if you’re in the area.

Excellent food but as someone else said, my credit card was compromised and I had $ 500 of fraudulent charges from AT&T after I used my card here.

I loved their Seven Season Tofu Fries — you get a ton of food for a very reasonable appetizer price.
My friend also tried the «Volcanic Ice Cream» which they light on fire and serve you — he seemed to enjoy it a lot.
Great vegetarian options at good prices so I’ll be coming back! I also appreciated that they didn’t blare any music and I could hear my dining companions.

For good sushi in Upper NW — this is a pretty good option. Been there several times including again last night. They have a great selection of Rolls and seaweed Salad was pretty stellar.

Stuck between Thai, Chinese, and sushi? Problem solved! Come here for the best of all 3 worlds! Love this place. Great menu. Terrific service. Nice family atmosphere.

DO NOT USE A CREDIT OR DEBIT CARD HERE, especially if you are using their online ordering system. (In an ideal world, this review would have zero stars attached to it.)
Earlier in June, my roommate had her debit card number stolen and used to purchase various digital entertainment items and automotive supplies. About a week later, my card number was used to purchase a flight on Cayman Airlines. Both of our banks alerted us to suspicious purchases and we both received new cards.
Earlier this week, my new card number was used on an online gaming site. The next day, my roommate’s new card number was used on the same site.
We reviewed our statements and found that the only location our cards were used all four times prior to the fraudulent charges was Spices. We used their online ordering system, which we now assume is unencrypted and has either been hacked or has someone on their end writing down card information. We have filed a police report.
The food at Spices is decent; however, it is not worth the hassle of replacing two debit cards, nor do I want to support a business that clearly has some pretty shady business tactics.

I’ve been here twice now and I enjoy the food and the atmosphere. However, both times, I was greeted by a less than an enthusiastic waitress. Due to our group size, my friends and I were seated in the back and serviced by the same waitress on each of our trip. She was less than friendly and slow to take our orders. Also, rarely would she come back during both meals and refill our waters. I understand when the kitchen backs up and orders are slowed but she did not come back to inform us about the issue. We would end up waiting 15 – 20 minutes before we got any notice of when our food was coming out.
The rest of the dinner experience went well but getting our checks was a nightmare. The restaurant could only split the check in so many ways but the waitress didnt explain it to us well. She got frustrated when I tried asking her simple questions and I had to chase her down to the POS machines to ask her. Overall, the dining experience was okay. The sushi wasn’t «out of this world» amazing so I wouldn’t endure that type of service again for their food. I find better elsewhere.
Here is some information on my last trip:
Date — 5÷31÷15
Table — ³⁰⁷⁄₂
Server — 7 D Team A

This is our standard, go to, restaurant when we can’t think of what else to eat. The food is always fine, although not extraordinary. A nice selection of sushi, Indonesian, tie, and other Asian foods. We had the ginger salad, pork Thai fried rice, seaweed salad, and a fresh coconut. Prices are reasonable. For a family night out, this does just fine.
We have probably been here a dozen times.

It’s not really quite four stars, but close.
Food: Sushi is pretty good here, and they have a pretty good selection. They has some custom rolls and were even accommodating when we asked for spicy salmon roll. They added some sweet chilli oil that really worked well with the salmon. Appreciate that they put some effort into presentation too. Pad Thai is a solid go-​to here.
Ambiance: Like their pan-​asian menu, you can get it all here. Business meals at the table, romantic dinners tucked into corners, quick bites at the sushi bar, rowdy sushi nights with alcohol at the sushi bar. It’s surprisingly clean and you’ll be surprised based on the exterior of the place.
Since I live close by here, when I’m in the mood for something Asian, you can find me grabbing a bite at Spices.
dmo out

Had a quick lunch with the fam. Drunken noodles were amazing! My mom had the pineapple shrimp and chicken fried rice. Presentation perfection! Our waitress was attentive and sweet. Since my family has just moved into the neighborhood, I will definitely come back to check out their Happy hour menu

The food is fine but the service is what pushed me to give it four stars. They serve a variety of Asian dishes, which usually makes me nervous, but everyone in my party seemed to like their food, which ranged from sushi to laksa to curry. Our food came out pretty quickly after we ordered it, which was great, since it was around 9 p.m. and we were super hungry!
The most surprising thing was the seven-​spices tofu fries, which I really recommend. The best thing we had was the coconut ice cream, which they brought us free for my friend’s birthday. The toasted coconut was a great topping.
They split our checks for us very willingly (we had seven people) and even split a sake among just four people. I really like places that do that without any fuss. We also weren’t sure what we wanted to do after dinner, so we sat there for another 20 minutes after paying and then decided to get some desserts. Though they seemed to be cleaning up for the evening, they had no problem taking our orders.

Just shy of three and a half stars for a sushi experience. Service was pretty absent despite a mostly empty restaurant. Semi-​posh interior, lacquered woods as a nod to the Asian culture, staffed by the expected demographic. I was hesitant when I saw Thai and Chinese choices on the menu as well, but I wasn’t especially disappointed by our conservative Japanese picks. I like the classic presentation of the green tea, and there’s a fair variety in the chirashi, with single cuts of the nicer stuff. Portioning and freshness is middle of the road for DC standards. What fish quality that’s there is nice but rice seasoning was a little light. Future hit list: yu roll, spicy miso pork belly, Korean BBQ ribs, suicide/​laksa curries.

I absolutely love this restaurant! The setting is very relaxing and the area it’s in is so cute! It’s a great atmosphere to go with friends, family, your S. O, or even by yourself. The sushi bar was very nice and the chiefs are very friendly as well. You definitely get your money’s worth and it’s worth the travel to get here. The service is very friendly and welcoming, I would recommend this place to anyone who loves delicious asian cuisine.
The seven-​spices tofu fries are the bomb-​diggity! It’s mouth watering, I was not expecting it taste so good! It’s fluffily and light, the spices are perfect together. I’ve never tasted anything like it. I also recommend the pad thai! It fills you up quick! I tried the rainbow roll sushi and it was on point. Their presentation is also on par with the taste! The korean bbq here though was decent comfort food. It was kind of a let down compared to everything else presentation wise, but the taste was still good! All this with some thai tea and some mochi ice cream for dessert made a perfect evening out.

I went here with a group of friends for a celebratory dinner on a Saturday evening around 19:00. In truth, I believe this place deserves a firm 3.5 stars
The place is cheerful enough — falling somewhere between «date night» and «group dining» without being too much of the either. The noise level was fine, I was able to hear my companions without strain or elevated voices.
We arrived for the sushi, and I feel that I received a very solid offering for the Washington D. C scene. The biggest complaint that I have for this place — and that is not entirely their fault — is the temperature at which the sushi is served. Given our proximity to the fishing ports, the fish quality was satisfactory. To strike the perfect chord between the rice and the fish is tricky when the sushi must be prepared in a kitchen and then delivered to the table.
That being said, the taste of the fish that we ate — standard fare with Tuna, Salmon, and Yellow-​tail — meets expectations. The standout roll of the evening was the Spicy Crunchy Salmon Roll. I was less than thrilled with the Spicy Crunchy Tuna Roll.
Second place certainly goes to the crunchy yellow-​tail, and for a more honest fish experience, the Yellow-​tail and Chives (?) The tuna was a general disappointment, it is worth venturing outside for better maki rolls. However, the menu was far from «exotic» with their fish selection, but they had decent enough variety.
While I did not try the cucumber roll, there did not seem to be any issue among those who did. If there was a California roll, it went quickly. The portion sizes are not huge (it is sushi after all), and rolls can go quick if you arrive hungry. Prepare to order about 2 – 3 rolls per person.
Desserts offered wander more into typical American-​dessert fare, and while this is certainly tempting, there is a Yogi Berry fro-​yo place just down the block. Their alcohol list is not exhaustive, but there is most likely something for a wide ranging spectrum of palate preferences.
Sushi roll prices are about what you would expect in DC, and I certainly find, a fair value for what is paid for, in terms of fish to rice ratio. I would recommend this place as a new location to try for the sushi aficionado. Nothing about the sushi I found stellar, but a very reliable solid performance nonetheless.
The décor experience feels a bit like plastic chopsticks — straddled between gimmicky and cheap — but the quality of the sushi more than compensates for it. Family friendly and date friendly.

Purely aesthetically, this place is one of the best in D.C. Their presentation here is kind of amazing (especially considering the fact that they are not an expensive experimental place at all). It’s all fine woods and sleek metals and I feel more hip just being here.
But their shortcoming is not their beautiful, it’s hard to describe just how wonderfully shaped and polished they are, wooden individual sushi trays (I thank them for being both environmentally sound and unique in this regard) or classy service. Their shortcoming is the food itself. Not to say that their sushi is not good. It is. But something is just slightly off about it. Having eaten here twice, the rice wasn’t sticky enough either time and every piece vegetarian maki that I got nearly fell apart on my chopsticks before I could get it to my mouth.
The vegetables themselves were well cooked and I like the fact that they can make a customer’s vegetable rolls to order. Although I do find it odd that they don’t have an avocado roll on the menu by itself for purchase when they have one as part of their $ 14.00 Maki Zen combo.
For the portion sizes, the prices are good for Cleveland Park. But a miso soup and sushi combo didn’t seem to quite fill me up either time I ate here. This is definitely a place to pre-​game for adventures in Cleveland Park or impress somebody with your fashionable dinner choices. But I don’t think I’d ever make it my go to, fill me up now, veggie sushi place.