Batik

I am a regular here, but have not yet reviewed. Today was phenomenal. I had the thai way and suteki steak dumplings (my two favorite so far). Then, for dinner (proper) I had the steak skewers and vegetable tempura. I had never ordered the steak skewers before. The flavor was excellent. Just the right amount of spice and sauce. And, in the past I had always ordered the tempura to go. This time (in house), they were right off the fry (? Not sure how to phrase it), and were so fresh and good (and filling). The best veg tempura I’ve ever had. I was so full after all that, that I had to take the sticky rice and kiwi to go (also a favorite). I like the variety here, especially with the small dishes. The full entrees are always too much for me to eat. I like the little plates of food.

Located near the circle on Main Street right at the corner, you may have to park on Kentlands Blvd as the parking on Main Street can be few and tight.
I was in a group of folks and we went on a weekday evening. The spot has 2 levels including an outdoor eating area (front of the restaurant) that has about 2 or 3 tables and they also have a deck upstairs that has about 4 or 5 tables. We selected the outside deck as it was a beautiful evening (not hot and not too cold).
We got a simplified menu just for our group (a bit smaller from the regular menu which we were offered, but everyone in our group settled on the smaller menu). In looking at this menu, dumplings were the choice for me. I tried the Main Street and the All American dumplings. Both came with its own dipping sauce and between the two of them, I preferred the Main Street dumplings and the sauce that came with it — a bit more tastier that the other I had. I also opted for water as they do not serve cocktails here… only wine and I think beer (it seems). I got to try the bulgogi from someone (my first time trying it) and it was really good. They said they eat it all the time, but that it is better at Bön Chon. I plan to get it at both spots as I am ready to try it on my own.
We only had 1 server to tend to the folks in our group. Based on that, it does not seem like a great place for groups, unless you have the patience to wait for a while in between each serving. I had patience on this night as I spent time just chatting with folks to pass the time in between. I can imagine it was overwhelming for the folks working there. Don’t get me wrong, the food was good, but the service was_​_​_​_​_​, You may have to check it out for yourself.

We love this place. We go here at least 2 or 3 times a month. The food is amazing. Love love love this place.

I am a dumpling and noodle addict. This place is a keeper! I sat outside, in one of their 4 small tables. The inside has more extensive seating. I had udon noodles that overflowed with vegetables — a really good thing! The broth was savory without being over-​salted. The noodles were in the right zone of prep, not to hard, not too soft, just right. I also had the pork dumplings. Again excellent. The selection of dumplings, soups, noodles, skewers and rices is pretty impressive for this little café-​sized restaurant. I look forward to trying many more items on future return visits.

This restaurant pleasantly surprised me! It is so great! We have tried and loved all the dumplings. We also each order extra meat bulgogi and it is so incredibly flavored with scallions that it tastes wonderfully over rice. The house red is also reasonably priced and good to enjoy if you are waiting for your take out.

If I can give no stars, I would.
It took 30 minutes for 3 out of 4 appetizers to come out and 45 minutes for miso soup to come out. Dinner orders did not come out together. They came out 1 or 2 at a time. It took an hour and 15 minutes for bulgogi to come out and an hour and 45 for the rest of our food. Mind you, we never received 1 order of black rice and was still charged for it. Also, we ordered chicken satay. I bit into it and it was RAW! The restaurant advertised that on Mondays, it is buy 1 dumpling get the other 50% off, we were charged full price for all dumplings. Then, to top it off, the restaurant automatically added 18% gratuity.
Please keep in mind, we were at the restaurant (mostly waiting) for 2 hours. The waiter told us that they were backed up in the kitchen. There were only 2 tables ahead of us when we arrived. One table with 2 people and the other table with 3. Service here is horrible and its definitely not a place to waist your money on.

First impression: clean simple looking place, fairly busy for lunch hour, good dumplings, service was a little slow even though there were a max of about 6 small tables in the whole place. Wish I could’ve had a couple more dumplings with my platter. Not a fan of «tray style» eating, but it didn’t effect the yumminess of the dumplings

Was addicted the first time I went, we literally came back 3 more within the same week! The dumplings are great, I usually don’t like steamed but their’s were flavorful and unique! Ontop of that the green curry is my favorite!!! if you can handle spicy you have to try it

Gluten free dumplings here are hand-​rolled, so call ahead for availability. That said, you can get gluten free dumplings here! In more than one flavor. I have had them twice, and while they are chewier in texture than I remember gluten-​filled ones from back in the day, they are still a pleasing experience that you can’t get in a world without dumplings. Definitely coming back.

I ordered Kuew Teow with chicken and what I got had one shrimp and hardly any chicken. When I complained, the guy gave me a discount. But nice place to sit and dine.

We come here sometimes for lunch on workdays. It’s a café-​size restaurant, usually a decent crowd but not packed.
I really like the food. The lunch box combos are a good size to me for a single meal and the entrees are big enough to split into two meals. The crispy onions are a favorite with all of us. Have enjoyed trying the flavors of the various dumplings. The one caution I will give is that when they list the heat levels at this restaurant, which come in 1−2−3 peppers, they mean it. I thought I had learned to handle a good amount of heat because I love me some Asian/​Indian food and wings and chili, but I was near tears the time I tried 2 peppers. Now I stick with «mild».
The downside to this place is that it is consistently slow. This is not a 30 minute lunch break lunch. Allot at least an hour at the restaurant. We like the food enough that this doesn’t deter us — It’s earned a place in the rotation, but only when we have time.

Monday is dumpling night — buy 1 get 2^nd order ½ price. My favorites are the Cha Cha Chives and Suteky Steaky dumplings.

This place is terrible. After hearing so many good things about this place from my co-​workers, I was excited to give them a try. I looked over the website — good layout, great pictures, easy to navigate. I figured it would be good, the menu looked delicious.
I could not have been more disappointed. I ordered a lunch box — which, for 8 dollars, and the amount of food, is absolutely not worth it. I’d rather pay two more dollars and get the full entrée.
My pineapple fried rice only had a few pieces of pineapple. Giant broccoli spears looked as if they were carelessly chopped and thrown in — they weren’t anywhere near bite size, fork size, etc. I had to pull them out and chop them up myself, at which point there was an overabundance of broccoli. The green onions were also carelessly chopped and put in. This was all fine, until I realized the cook must have put two entire chopped chili peppers in the rice. There was so little rice and so much vegetables, that the chili peppers were just too much. The kick of spice was good, but I spent more time picking the ridiculous amount of chilis out than actually enjoying my food.
What made this all worse was that I ordered a thai iced tea. Anyone that has had one knows it’s supposed to be a flavorful, milky orange drink. My drink came out a rusty orange, with an overwhelming sort of overcooked tea taste. I asked my server to make it again, and she simply added more milk, which did nothing to correct it. I threw it out after just one sip. Absolute waste of $ 4.
I will not be coming back here.

The menu offers unusual selections among some traditional Asian dishes. Been here dozens of times but it never gets tired. Dishes are flavorful and generous.
Today, we had two different dumplings that were crispy and tender with nicely spiced sauces. For main meal, we had tom yum soup, mee goreng, and the scallion beef. Fresh, hot and delicately spiced.

3.5 really. Everything was pretty tasty. We tried the hot and sour soup, wasabi blu dumplings (crabmeat) the green curry with veg and the drunken rice. Nice flavors& presentation. I don’t like the texture of the green curry. It’s a bit oily. Service was fairly prompt.
I’ve been to this restaurant several times since its opening and while I like the menu, I feel it could use some updates. Perhaps some variety in the curry. All three are described as the same but with varying degrees of heat and color. Perhaps a Thai or Indian curry would make for a nice variety.

My husband and I used our Groupon coupon at this place and I have to say the food was very good. Soul-​full dumplings OMG… delish…Pad Thai with chicken and shrimp was tasty also… waitress was attentive and made good recommendations. We will return for sure. Did I mention the price is RIGHT!!!

Food:
— dumplings: ordered the Thai, cha cha chive and squash it ones. Each came with different dipping sauces that complemented the dumplings well. The dumplings were crispy and had a nice chew to it.
— yellow curry w/​vegetables and batik rice: first time having yellow curry; it was pretty solid.
— scallion beef: pretty good/​solid, a little salty at the end but that’s expected. Nothing too wow about it.
**definitely recommend the dumplings. Would go back to try more of those.
Service:
— workers seemed kind of surprised to see us. Not overtly enthusiastic but did their jobs well. Took away our finished plates and refilled our drinks a number of times.
Ambience:
— decorated nicely
— quiet around dinner time (6:30pm) — two other parties (one outside)
— outdoor seating available

As a vegetarian I can truly appreciate a diverse menu. As a vegetarian who loves spicy food I can appreciate a good reliance on spice. Batik, for these reasons and so many more, is one of my go-​to places for the Kentlands.
As many people have mentioned, the piece (s) de (s) resistance are the dumplings. Squash it and Good Earth are the two shiners, with the preference being to the former.
Green curry (ordered spicy) always make my mouth sing. I love this dish. Another good’un is the tempura platter. Yellow and red curries both hold up, but I keep coming back to the aforementioned heavy-​weight champion.
Service is reasonably fast and friendly, and in the two dozen times I have been here have never (not once!) received poor service. The only comment I have is that it took a few visits to convince them that I wanted the spice at the desired level.
There is an elusive patio/​upstairs, but it has proven to be the white whale to my Ahab, and I have never had the opportunity to enjoy this amenity. I look forward to the day that fate and hunger meet…

I got the cha cha dumplings, calamari, coconut shrimp and peanut chicken. The dumplings were good but not good enough for me to ever come back. The chicken and shrimp dishes looked exactly the same, I wouldn’t care except for the fact that they also tasted exactly the same.
How can two so very distinct dishes taste the same you ask? I don’t know, but they both tasted like they were saturated in butter. The sauce that might have provided any other flavor sank to the bottom and seemed to roll right off the food even if you tried to mix it. The calamari, though not the most disgusting I’ve ever had, definitely made it to the top 3 most disgusting.
This is only getting two stars because the waitress was nice even though she didn’t realize we could hear her talking when she went in the kitchen and gave us a good laugh when she explained to the cooks that sometimes her brain doesn’t work.

I came here with my mom over the weekend for the first time. It was pretty good, nothing out of the ordinary though in terms of Asian cuisine. Maybe I’m just not a sake person, but we both ordered sake mixed cocktails and they were not appealing to me. Mine was supposed to be some kind of coconut mixture but it tasted like chalk to me. The noodles I got were ok, I think the bulgogi meat dish my mom got was better than mine. I’d give it another shot if someone wanted to go there but it wouldn’t be my first pick in the selection of Kentlands restaurants.