Rogue 24

Very excited to get a Saturday night reservation for Rogue 24 — have wanted to try it for a while. Then less then 24 hours before our reservation, Rogue 24 left me a message that they needed to cancel… due to lack of staff!!! Really… No apology, no — lets try and accomodate you some other time, no offer to try and find a substitute reservation… NADA. They have a policy on their reservation that if you cancel within 72 hours of the reservation then they will still charge you $ 75 per person… pity they do not have the reverse policy! Unacceptable…

Not sure what all the hype is about. Maybe bc the clientele seemed younger and perhaps less sophisticated – and this is one of the few restaurants in dc that does a 16 or 24 course tasting menu, which people assume will be Jose Andre’s or Komi fabulous. The food is fine. Not out of this world. The layering of flavor is interesting and well done, not amazing. The food presentation was beautiful. The place was quiet, and not crowded. The space was well appointed and modern. Would I return? No. Would I recommend? No. Spent my bday there and it was fine, but there are better options in the area. Something was just off with this place. I can’t pinpoint it. I’d be surprised if it stays around long enough to become a dc staple.

Sadly I cannot comment on the food or service. My wife made a reservation for my birthday through the website which takes you to open table — even got a confirmation for it. For Wednesday night January 6 at 7:00 pm. We arrived and voila… place is closed. No one answered the phone. Lights off. Nothing on the web noting closure. Nothing. Zero. Left message with owner and chef to ask WTF? We will see if they get back to us. Heard it was great… will never know sadly. But went to a great little place around the corner called Table — limited menu but very good and great service and staff.

Great, amazing, wonderful. So much thought put into each dish. So much love. Great food. Great Staff. Great Mixologist. Great Chef. My BFF truly enjoyed her birthday dinner. RJ I shall stay in touch. You truly made her birthday special with your food, your presence and your Detroit! Worth every penny! Go! You’ll love the experience, the food… everything!

Had a great visit to the bar after dinner at The Dabney. We ordered one round of cocktails and got to chat with the bartender and chef Cooper. The chef brought us a box of chocolates for dessert and the bartender treated us to an innovative cocktail that was delicious. We unfortunately won’t be able to make it back for a dinner before RJ Cooper leaves, but hopefully Rogue 24 will continue on and continue to be an innovative spot.

It was amazing. An unforgettable food experience that took my culinary virginity even tho I’ve been around the block. (Restaurants that is) It was my first time tasting crickets, pigtails, and sweetbreads. Although such eclectic ingredients could make one nervous, it made me wanting more. The plates were thoughtfully composed and each dish reminded me of contemporary art beautifully displayed and too pretty to eat. Each bite was like foreplay. Every ingredient popped in my mouth. Even as I swallowed various layers of exotic flavors kept developing. Each dish ended as I rolled my eyes back to savor the last seconds. This was food porn. Thank you, RJ Cooper.

Brought my boyfriend for his birthday. It was a very personalized experience, I like how they like to make sure if there are any dietary restrictions for your party before making the menu. We did the Jaunt Menu with drink pairing and left full and happy! The food was always beautifully platted and deliciously fresh. They gave my boyfriend birthday chocolates at the end which was a nice touch. Can’t wait to be back to try the Journey :)

Great space, perfect level of service and innovative food. I took my daughter during parents weekend at GW and the only one of the 16 tasting plates she wouldn’t eat was the snails; I thought it was the weakest dish of the evening.
I would rate 4 of the 16 dishes as exceptional, 8 of very high quality and maybe 4 were worthy of some editing. I would do the 24 course tasting next time and will definitely go back.
Only 4-​stars as that last one is hard to give and a couple of the misses probably shouldn’t have made it to the table.

Molecular Gastronomy and Creative Cusine. Said that, its not your typical dining, it is an experience. Don’t expect, just let be surprised. Open mind, what you will taste will blow your mind. Unique dishes in a great ambiance.
Its location, the reception, service, decoration, courses, plating, food, drinks. The whole experience was awesome. Highly recommended.
Rsvp is necessary and also recommend to have drinks custom-​made by the «cheftender» instead of wine pairing

The experience was incredible! The atmosphere very intimate, and each dish was stellar!
We arrived a little after our reservation time (6pm) and seated rather quickly, within two minutes of sitting in the waiting area.
I was taken there for my birthday and my date and I opted for the 16-​course tasting menu with beverage pairings. I don’t drink, so I had the non-​alcoholic beverage pairings — which were for the most part absolutely delicious!!!
The service was top notch, when my date had a question about any particular dish — the staff was very informative, and if the answer wasn’t known on the spot they quickly found out from the chefs and relayed a swift response.
I enjoyed most of the courses, the meat and potatoes was just heavenly; the truffles, spectacular, and the desserts, sweet! I was honestly getting pretty full around course 10. The only course I had to pass off was a dessert that featured a lot of chocolate… but that’s only because I don’t like chocolate. I would definitely recommend this place to anyone looking for a unique and intimate fine dining experience in DC.

Quite an experience, had the 16 course with an excellent drink pairings. Food was great, drinks were great. They handled special dietary requests with aplomb. Would devour again.

Chef Cooper is the man. Rogue 24 is not only my favorite restaurant, but it’s a unique and exciting experience every time I visit. This is THE dining experience that beats all dining experiences. Coming here will get you excited about food and anticipating each upcoming dish.
I’ve posted the pictures to paint the picture that I can’t…mainly because each plate is composed of a variety of ingredients and using techniques I can’t describe.
If you’ve not been, do the 24 course journey. If you’re a booze buff, do the beverage pairing, but the food is the main event so I don’t think it’s as much of a must as going with the 24 (vs the 10). On the flip side, you’re already spending a ton of money for the 24 courses so what’s a couple of hundred more.
The restaurant itself is very cool. It is! You feel cool just being there. The tables at each corner are the best for couples. They each face the rest of the restaurant so you can see the open kitchen in the center of the restaurant as well as the other tables. You end up sitting on the same side of the table — request one of these tables. It makes for an added experience for both of you.
Service also plays into the experience. The staff is well trained and versed in attention to detail and knowledge of what they’re putting in front of you. Everyone in the restaurant takes care of your table. Feel special — that’s the point.
I’ve been to Rogue 24 4 – 5 times and I have enjoyed every experience, every bite, and every moment. There have only been a few dishes that I was whatever about. You see food in different ways, understand the importance of textures and that you use more senses than merely taste when you’re enjoying a meal.

Tucked away in an alleyway, I felt like I had walked into a different world when I entered the restaurant. The ambiance and interior were awesome, perfect if you were trying to impress your date. The open kitchen in the center makes for great people watching and conversation.
The food was presented in a lovely way. I would recommend it if you are very open minded and do not mind raw or undercooked meats because it can be very creative. For most dishes, the variety of textures created great balance in the dish. As for the taste, I had a few favorites, but the majority were a bit «in your face.» The flavors and flavor profile were pretty loud and in some cases, overly seasoned/​salty.
Service was impeccable. Most of the time, I couldn’t tell they were there and was surprised that I had a new set of silverware but hadn’t noticed anyone changing them.

What to say about the 4 exceptional hours we spent at Rogue 24 last night?
When we were seated we were promptly handed cocktails made with port, aquavit, and celery bitters. It’s a good indicator of what’s about to come. As our 24-​course dinner progressed we were given, at various points, blue crab with roasted strawberries and black garlic, frozen and shattered foie gras with pickled peaches and mint, a whole fried anchovy that you ate from head to tail using giant tweezers, lamb kibbeh wrapped in a rootbeer leaf, and chicken liver hushpuppies with chicken thigh confit served over preserved black truffle and porcini powder. I was a huge fan of the weird little crab dish until the chicken liver ball came along. The chicken liver ball changed my life. Also, this is the kind of restaurant where you come away saying things like «the chicken liver ball changed my life.»
We got beverage pairings with our meal, and I say «beverage» because we were given a cocktail, a beer, and five kinds of wine: red, white, rose, sake, and dessert. It was more interesting, to me anyway, than the standard wine pairing. And if you drink all your beer before you’re meant to be done with it, they will refill you.
Service was excellent, with all the usual fine dining touches (swapping out silverware for every course, folding your napkin when you went to the restroom, etc). Our server had the good grace to smile at the guy next to us as he stroked his soul patch and told her that he «wasn’t a fan» of «seafood or cheese.» And when it came time to settle up and she couldn’t figure out how to make our Gilt City voucher and their computers play well with each other, she gave us extra pours of port while we waited and finally ended up shrugging and waving off whatever else we might have owed, including the gratuity. (We tipped anyway.)
The layout is another selling point. Some of the two-​tops are traditional ones where diners face each other, but we were seated side-​by-​side and facing the kitchen. The kitchen is completely open and situated bang in the middle of the restaurant (where the kitchen would normally be, in the back, is the bar), so you can watch the chefs run around with tweezers, saucing plates and doing their thing. Dishes are often served and explained by one of the chefs, who may or may not be the executive chef himself.
I thought there were a couple tiny missteps, mostly having to do with texture. For example, we had a warm beef stock egg custard served with a roasted oyster; the taste was good but I thought it could have benefited from something to break up the uniformly creamy texture. The same was true of the spicy little mochi bite we were given in the very beginning. But I didn’t put a single thing in my mouth that didn’t work in terms of flavor.
Others here have complained about the portion sizes being too small and about coming away hungry, but I certainly didn’t. Then again, I ate 24 courses of food. The portion sizes don’t seem to vary depending on whether you got 24 courses or 4; if I only got 4 plates of this type of food, I’d probably still be hungry afterwards. The point is that you’re really supposed to get the 10– or 24-​course dinners to try the whole experience. It’s not set up to be a Restaurant Week, appetizer-​entrée-​dessert type of restaurant.
I also saw people say the food was prohibitively salty, but that wasn’t my experience either, at all. There were some dishes that were very flavorful, for sure – I mean you can’t put pickled mackerel and cabbage in your mouth and not get hit in the face with those flavors. But nothing was oversalted.
Long story short: if you consider yourself an adventurous eater, or if you want to become one, this is the place for you. RJ Cooper is a smart and thoughtful chef who knows how to prepare the hell out of his food; his restaurant is like nothing else I’ve seen in DC and wouldn’t be out of place in Chicago or New York. You will try flavor combinations that sound bizarre, ones you never would have considered in a million years, and they will be exactly right. You will be served well and eat well. And the chicken liver ball will change your frickin life.

I had the most amazing birthday dinner. I’m a pretty adventurous eater so the type of menu offered is great for me. My husband isn’t as much so but there were only two dished of the 24 that he gave to me which is saying a lot. I loved being able to see the food being prepared. At one point, they were using liquid nitrogen to freeze some foie gras, and when they saw I was trying to take a pic, they brought it over and finished prepping it at my table and explained the dish in the process. It was my favorite of the night. The staff were also fabulous — great personalities and knowledgeable about food. I would recommend the restaurant for any foodies.

This place wowed us. And that doesn’t happen often. We love sampling tasting menus. In DC, NYC, SF, when traveling abroad.
The ambiance, service, and presentation at Rogue 24 were excellent. The food was creative and delicious. We both got the ten course tasting menu and I also got the wine pairing. The wine pairing pours are generous.
We were pleasantly surprised when we got the check. The prices are very reasonable when compared with other top notch tasting menus.

Rogue 24 is one of the finest restaurants in DC. The fact that the chef serves vegans is like a gift from above. I’ve reviewed two 24-​course meals at this restaurant in the past and they were spectacular, but now Rogue is offering three– and five-​course meals as well. We decided to try the special 4 bites with 4 drinks on this Friday night.
The funny thing was that another vegan couple was having the exact same thing at the exact same time! So, the chef asked if he could seat us all together at the table that faces the fantastic open kitchen. Sure, why not?!
And so the culinary experience began. The amuse was smoked tomato ice — a cool, refreshing, smoky ice topped with jalapeño and cilantro. Marvelous! This was served with a pickleback drink.
The second drink was an amazing sweet drink with chartreuse and orange peel to complement the dish of dehydrated cabbage with whipped raisins and mustard seeds served on a stone. My friend could not stop raving about this dish. So small, yet so much flavor.
The second bite was probably my favorite — a fermented mango gazpacho! This dish was pure artwork. Shredded mango in a mango broth with coconut water gelee and puffed forbidden rice — so you got soft, yet crunchy mango with soft gelee and crunchy rice. It all contributed to phenomenal flavors. The third drink was called the Wild Wild West and was delish — with Wild Turkey bourbon, angostura bitters, and Swedish punch.
The third bite was also divine! RJ called it a taco, but a traditional taco it was not. This take on a taco had corn, avocado, and tomato in a pumpkin seed soil with a spicy tomato salsa. Could it get better than this?
The final dish was the type of dish I see in fine dining restaurants in top cities outside of DC. The presentation was flawless. A coconut white chocolate with candied black sesame. The flavors of this dish lit us on fire. And it was served with yet another drink.
Be careful — the dishes are small and the drinks plentiful so you may not be able to walk far. Be sure to make reservations for the vegan 4 bites with 4 drinks or 3– or 5-​course meals at least one week in advance so they can prepare. The price of the 4 bites with 4 drinks is $ 44, while a 3-​course is $ 55 and the 5-​course is $ 75. Not too shabby and totally worth it. Oh, and the service is spectacular as well. Rogue 24 is a gem in DC and I only hope my vegan friends will patronize it so they will continue to serve amazing, unique, vegan meals.

This was an interesting place — the interior is nice and the wait staff were really great. The food is not what you might expect — lots of caviar on top and foam? Although I enjoyed myself, I could see a lot of pickier eaters being horrified. I got the alcohol pairing with my 10 courses (we used a gilt city deal), which was nice (just wines). I thought it was a fun experience to try everything, but it was certainly unique. At the end you get a cute little box of tiny desserts, and also a small menu to take home with you. Not sure why you would need the menu at the end of the meal, but I thought the treat box was a nice touch.

With Tom Sietsema’s glowing review… and a lot of other folk’s positive reviews, I have to say I expected much better. The ambiance was great, service was excellent (both expected out of a classy establishment like this). but the food was a disappointment.
I’ve been to a handful of these dining experiences (I’m no rookie at dropping a few hundos on a meal of X courses and lengthy explanations of what I’m about to consume) but I had imagined more.
We opted for the 10 course meal (as part of a voucher at one of those sites) and had the pairings as well (premium). The pairings were great. But the pairings were proportional to the meal equivalent to 1 beer for every chicken wing.
The gastronomy had much to be desired. They were repetitive in the use of foam. All of the dishes felt like they were ‘premade’ and then something was added afterward. For instance, the fish skin wasn’t crispy (as if it was sitting out for a few hours). There was some infusion (a Parmesan rind custard) which was delicious, but the asparagus shredded a top wasn’t very tender.
All in all, had a great time with company, had some good alcohol, and a bit of nibbles on the side (that tasted OK).

I walked out of Rogue 24 with my mind completely blown. I feel like I’ve eaten a lot of really great food in my lifetime, but there have been few times where I have been this blown away.
From the moment we arrived, we were treated wonderfully by the staff. Every person who interacted with us was friendly, knowledgeable, and very professional. The small details of the service were great. For example: the placement of the silverware and the simultaneous food delivery. Everything felt like a perfectly choreographed show. Any questions that we had were answered deftly by the staff, and we never wanted for anything (except more of that AMAZING escargot, but I’ll get to that later).
The food was just unbelievable. It is creative, it’s delicious, and it’s fun! My boyfriend and I found ourselves actually laughing out loud at the fun we were having throughout the 24 courses. This experience really is quite the journey. With the drink pairings, it really did feel like we were being led on an expedition, albeit a meticulously managed and perfectly crafted one. Among our favorite dishes were the escargot, the wagyu beef, and the urchin. I can honestly say that each course was VERY good, and then the best of the best just blew my mind. When the servers brought over the food, they clearly described what was in each dish and what we should be tasting. I particularly liked this because I knew what to look for, and identifying the complex flavors and elements in each dish was a great experience.
The ambiance at Rogue 24 is also great. You’d think for the price point it would be snobby and stiff, but the music was amazing (did you guys get a hold of my ipod?) and the lighting was also good. Read: it wasn’t too dark, and I could actually see! The restaurant is also centered around the kitchen, which meant that we could watch the chefs at work. Sometimes this can be loud and distracting, but at Rogue 24, it was done right, and really complemented the experience.
As a word of caution to some of the 1 star reviewers out there: this is not the place to go if you are a steak and potatoes kind of person (although, seriously, we had both steak and potatoes throughout the course of the meal and WOW). Though they mentioned that they would be more than willing to accommodate food allergies, this is not the kind of place I would take my more conservative friends who are afraid of food that isn’t, well, simple. I think to appreciate this style, you have to be open minded. Nothing that I had was really that strange, but you have to have some spirit of adventure. It is a «journey» after all!
Overall, my experience at Rogue 24 was exceptional. I give it my highest recommendation, and I’ll definitely be back. On our way out, the manager told us that they do a 4 course/​4 cocktail tasting menu at the bar. That sounds like a great way to get part of the great experience without paying the full price!