If you want to time travel, try the Magic Gourd. I swear I haven't eaten here in 25 years and it literally hasn't changed. The MG is across 23rd Street and up a couple of blocks from State Department. There was a time when it was the only sit down restaurant within easy walking distance of State. Old fashioned Cantonese cuisine. Then sometime in the 1980s or '90s, the Magic Gourd got some competition and I hadn't gone back. Until last week. When I met a friend there. The decor hasn't changed. Nor has the menu. But the lunch special was a bargain at $11. And the food came out quickly. I don't think I'd search out the Magic Gourd, but if you're in the area and you want more than a sandwich, the Gourd just might be the place for you. read more

Solid old school American Chinese with generous portions! Shrimp in Kung Pao were huge! And shrimp egg rolls were really good! read more

Magic Gourd Restaurant - kung pao triple - Chinese Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

After more than a decade of walking past Magic Gourd,I finally tried it at the suggestion of a friend at the State Department. While the 1970s called and asked for their interior back, the food was actually quite solid. The lunch special is a fairly substantial portion, and the food was all fresh and made with quality veggies. The hot & sour soup was as excellent, and the chicken was tender and was served hot out of the wok. Service is friendly and efficient. read more

Magic Gourd Restaurant - Located close to Foggy Bottom and State Department - Chinese Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

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We enjoyed the Pu Pu Platter with wonton soup and sesame chicken! Very good overall, great service from a local restaurant. read more

Magic Gourd Restaurant - Sesame Chicken - Chinese Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

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The most impressionable aspect of this place is the prompt no nonsense service! If you are in a hurry or on a schedule. Come in here! This place is moderately busy on a Thursday evening. Glasses of water provided and came back to see if we are ready to order. Which we were. The food came out quick also. The food overall was average. But the price is also average when looking around that area finding a reasonable price location is hard this Chinese food is pretty standard Chinese food. The ambience of this place essentially is made up of locals and college students. Which I particularly liked because I gave it a neighborhood feel. One weird thing was that there was no salt and pepper or soy sauce on any of the tables. The food could use a little extra salt, but kept on forgetting to ask for soy sauce. read more

Magic Gourd Restaurant - Dinner before a Yelp elite event! - Chinese Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

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I went to this place because it was close to the Kennedy Center, and I got my fill of decent Chinese food. I ordered the beef chow fun, which was on par for most Chinese restaurants. They used red onion, which tasted pretty good. My wife ordered shrimp chow mein, and somehow, that turned into a rice dish with shrimp, cabbage, and onions. Flavor was good. As for the drinks, they were a bit overpriced and served without fanfare. The major setback is the decor and lack of air conditioning. I was sweating due to the humidity and heat. Also, the furniture looks like it hasn't been refreshed in a couple weeks of decades. If you're in the area and need a quick bite at a decent price, this will save you some cash. If you have time, look elsewhere. read more

Magic Gourd Restaurant - Manhattan cocktail was not served in a tumbler and was difficult to sip. - Chinese Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

Food is ok. I ordered from the steamed menu. It was standard Chinese, nothing spectacular, but also not bad. Tea was weak (I am sucker for good Chinese tea)... Service was decent. They seemed a bit understaffed. Nice atmosphere with lovely authentic Chinese artwork. Fine experience, but would not go out of my way to eat here. read more

Walking from the Lincoln Memorial towards my hotel, this place was the closest option available for some lunch not out of a food truck. A bit expensive for Chinese American fast food (12.10 after tax) for lumch specials, it was however prepared well. General Tso was legit spicy but sweet sauce tames it a bit. Rice perfectly cooked. Did not come with soup as advertised (summer afterall), but came with a spring roll (thin skin dim sum type). read more

Magic Gourd Restaurant - General Tso lunch special - Chinese Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

We've ususally gone to another convenient place before a show at the Kennedy Center on a Thursday evening. When that was too crowded, Yelp told us this place was close and that we could expect a good meal. This is a huge space with asian decor and chandelliers. The furnishings/carpet are a bit tiered, but it is clean and the service is prompt. We each had Hot and Sour soup. It was tasty. We shared an order of Singapore Rice Noodles. The portion was enough that we were both full. They are not kidding with the "hot" monitor. So, if you don't like spicy, pick something else. I had a Mai Tai, which was a "generous" drink in all senses of the word. The alcohol was noticable and a good size. It was delicious too! read more

Magic Gourd Restaurant - people sitting at tables - Chinese Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

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Excellent food - long wait. The staff was great and tried their best, but they were clearly short staffed. The food was delicious, though!

the food is quite good, nothing specifically to write home about, but hits the spot and is pretty affordable. i really enjoyed the general tso's tofu; i've also had the tofu drunken noodles, which were great as well. i've never dined in here, but takeout is always quick, and the best part is that everyone who works here is so nice. the first time i came in, the lady who owns the place wished me luck on my exams and pointed to other cheap menu items she thought i might like, which was so sweet of her. this is definitely my go to chinese spot in my neighborhood - live love magic gourd! read more

Magic Gourd Restaurant - general tso's bean curd - Chinese Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

What a great find! We wanted to grab dinner before a show at the Kennedy Center. Yelp told us this place was close and that we could expect a good meal. As we've come to expect, Yelp was dead on, on all counts. The Hot and Sour soup, my bellwether dish for Chinese restaurants, was delicious. We shared an order of Singapore Rice Noodles, which were very tasty and more than enough for the two of us. Their cocktails were ample, both in overall size and amount of alcohol. The beer was cold. If I had any complaint, it was that the service was a bit too quick. The main course was set on our table while we were still enjoying our soups. Prompt service aside, it's nice to have a reliable place only a few minutes walk from the KC for our upcoming visits. read more

Magic Gourd Restaurant - a chandelier hanging from the ceiling - Chinese Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

Food is very authentic, price is reasonable, owners are kind. Go to place for good Chinese food.

Solid choice for Chinese Ambiance: Kind of an odd mix inside - not quite fine dining but definitely way better than any regular Chinese joint. Was fairly empty the night we went Service: Friendly, and happy to help with advice on a few off-menu specialties. Not so informed on their own wine list though. Food: Excellent. We had a couple of Szechuan fish dishes (see photos) not listed which we kept getting warned would be very spicy. They were, but just what we were looking for. Huge portions and unique flavors which were a cut above any regular Chinese dining around town. Price: Very good. I'll be going back, perhaps to try a few of their more better known dishes. read more

Magic Gourd Restaurant - Two spicy fish dishes. One simple chili, the other a sort of spicy Kim-chee flavor - Chinese Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

Food was awesome, we had curry shrimp, Dimplings, fried rice, cole and TsingTao. Awesome all together. The lady was very kind , attentive and just hustled throughout the whole time we were there, something uncommon with other restaurants around from South Carolina to DC. From California, where hustle is REAL. Ambiance is what you make it to be. In DC we went to really nice places where food was was not as good as some reviews made it to be . This was all perfect especially the service!!!! read more

Absolutely love this place. Very nice management and very sweet people. Their fried rice is to die for. The location is tucked away but beautiful once you're inside. read more

I LOVED this place. The food was amazing and I took home enough for a full extra meal. The staff was so nice and it was a nice, quiet, and comfortable dining area. I would highly recommend the pad the but my husband got the general tso chicken with rangoon's and that was also good. With our meal we got bubble tea, which tasted naturally flavored, that was so good (mango and taro) the mango didn't taste artificial like I was thinking it would and the tapioca was very soft which i prefer. read more

A great place to bring a big group of friends to chow down. The volcanos are super popular, 20 dollars for a huge amount of alcohol and it's their most delicious drink. I like many of their dishes, notable mention goes to the steamed pork dumplings, scallion pancake and orange chicken. I do usually go for the beef and broccoli, tastes exactly how you want it to. Servers are great and hardworking, wait times for food can range from 30-60 mins depending on how busy it is but it's worth it. read more

Magic Gourd Restaurant - Volcano - Chinese Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

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Absolutely! Here's a revised review: Magic Gourd's Kung Pao Chicken and Steam Dumplings are simply delightful! The vibrant flavors of the Kung Pao Chicken complement the savory goodness of the Steam Dumplings exquisitely. It's a delicious. Thank you! read more

The staff and owners are so nice and helpful! Service is quick, food is delicious. Recommend ordering the boiled dumplings in hot sauce!

Highly Disappointed. Whoever cooked my food did a terrible job. They pretty much burnt everything. General Tso's Chicken is NOT suppose to have black burnt crisp pieces on them. My egg rolls (shrimp and cheesesteak) were burnt! Its like once you see the oil is burning everything, throw it away and start over! The spring roll tasted like the frozen ones I buy. The rice was like minute rice, not light and fluffy and sticky at all! I asked for chopsticks and hit mustard an they gave me NONE of that. Only soy sauce and duck sauce. I was pissed. Then on top of everything, they delivered my food 30 mins early and I had to go down and pick it up because the guy got lost, which is crazy because they ask you for specifics about your address, like what is the cross street! Terrible service terrible food. I do NOT recommend this place! I'm so mad I didn't even take any pictures. read more

Great food, great service We called ahead because we knew we had a time crunch, and the staff was so accommodating! They immediately took our orders, and continually filled our waters. The food was delicious (entrees are shareable if you want a smaller portion). Great environment, not super crowded, and perfect for a pre-Kennedy Center meal. read more

Noodles were great . General chicken was fried a bit hard and was hard to eat. Convenient to get take away near GW campus . As with all restaurants in dc , covid card required for dine in. read more

Did not wow me. There was like no one in the restaurant and you do not need a reservation. We saw only one server the entire time for everyone there because the restaurant was so empty. The taste food tasted fine but I would not go back. I thought it might be better since it is closer to the Kennedy Center. read more

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Drowning in a disgustingly sweet sauce that can't be described as General Tsos. Incredibly rubbery and overcooked. I ordered white meat and paid the extra 2.00 and this is clearly dark meat that they couldn't execute right either. When I called to complain I was told to walk my order back. Fine but I paid 4.00 for delivery and it's 9pm. Avoid. This place isn't magic at all. Bad magic perhaps read more

Magic Gourd Restaurant - Chinese Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

My friends and I often come here after particularly arduous exams, celebratory events, or even just because we're craving their amazing food! It's never incredibly busy, which is a bit of a shame because it deserves all the business it gets. The staff are incredibly kind and even deliver GrubHub orders themselves if you live in the area. Absolutely worth trying out! read more

I adore this place. Great vegetarian options (especially the General Tso's Bean Curd), incredibly sweet staff, and makes for a reliably nice and cozy evening. Fully recommend! read more

After walking all day I saw this small Chinese place thinking it would just be a little hole in the wall grease fest but I was presently surprised. You walk and see what you expect but then the very kind staff walks you into a space big enough to hold a wedding. I sat down and got a Thai tea boba and a tofu vegetable mix. The boba was great although boba is very hard to mess up. The tofu veggie was ok the tofu was definitely just frozen tofu nuggets and the broccoli could had a little more bite but overall pretty good. read more

The reason for my 4 star review is that we eat whole food/ plant based with no oil and the staff could easily accommodate to modify and make a few items without oil for us. We got a nice veg soup for 2 that was fresh and a nice started. Then we got brown rice with manpower tofu and an order of green beans. The green beans had a nice fresh taste and crunch. We got hot tea on our table to start and fried wontons (which we did not eat as it was fried). We though this was a great place to wet "clean" with nutritious tasty food. read more

I got food delivered from here to my office for dinner cause it's like one of two Chinese places that deliver via yelp and the other place wasn't very good. The prices here seemed a bit pricey but I got mapo tofu which was reasonably priced and I upgraded the white rice to fried rice since the fried rice looked good in the pictures. And I also got an order of the crab rangoon and hot and sour soup to reach the minimum order. Delivery came relatively fast (40min) which I was pretty happy about considering the last place I ordered took 100 minutes to deliver my food. But when I saw the bag my order came in, I was a bit surprised at how small the bag was since I basically ordered four items. When I opened the bag, I discovered why. The box that contained the fried rice was at the most, half the size of the normal box white/lo mein comes in. A rubix cube was much larger than the box. Everything else was also in miniature sized versions of of normal Chinese takeout containers. The mapo tofu and fried rice were actually tasty, though obviously I wanted more. The crab rangoon (3 pieces!!!!) and the hot and sour soup were horrible. I wasn't very happy with the portions and the taste of two of the items. The only positive was that I probably was well below my calorie intake for that day. read more

Our experience at the magic gourd was AMAZING!! We were in a rush and the service was perfect! It was super hot outside and they were quick to refill our waters. Great food and brilliant service I definitely recommend! read more

Cheap and convenient is what I can say about here. While my expectations were met, they were quite low after listening to some coworkers and their grumble. For some reason I wanted cheap Chinese takeout. Seems like a nice concept here; they have a buffet style of items set to choose; you get what you want and then weigh & pay. Well it looked somewhat gross and was overpriced. As Red Forman would say, "This isn't food, this is what food eats!" I couldn't agree more Red. As Red Forman would say for me eating here "Way to go, DUMBASS!" read more

When you think of lazy Chinese food I would think of this place. It's not the worse( taste or nasty but not the best. This is good you have to come home revamp a little flick in the wrist action and then you can enjoy it read more

Great food and quick service. The staff was super nice and kept our waters full.

Our group had dinner here, by tradition, once a year. I think that we bring way too many more people than their staff can handle at one time. The food is OK, typical Chinese restaurant fare, and the service does the best that they can. I'll have to go back on an occasion that they aren't overwhelmed to make a more accurate review. read more

This food was pretty decent, but I'm really disappointed in finding out they do false advertising on Uber Eats under the name "Orange Chicken Snob DC". I googled the name of that restaurant and couldn't find a website, and when I searched the address I found out it was actually Magic Gourd. The menu items on this secondary restaurant front were listed for almost twice as much as the original. I'm happy to support local businesses but I feel kind of lied to and cheated out of a fairly priced meal when realizing they are just using a different name and photos in a separate listing. read more

Have been coming to this place for almost 10 years and it never fails to be a decent go-to spot for local government workers looking for a bit to eat in Columbia Plaza, where The Magic Gourd is located. As fanciful as the name sounds, the only thing "Magic"-cal about this place is the prices. In a congested and high end area smack dab between Georgetown & The National Mall, you can rarely find a low-cost sit in restaurant with servers. However, Magic Gourd fills this void and has stood the test of time. You can easily grab lunch for $10, which includes free hot black tea. It's a medium sized space that can get kind of cramped, but there's high turnover with seating Bc folks are typically in for a quick lunch or working lunch. Today I indulged a bit and tried something new. I struggled to pick the most non-typical Asian American dish as possible. The Moo Shi Pork (also called Moo Shu Pork at other Asian restaurants) was about all I could find so I ordered it. It was described as pork, cabbage, hard scrambled eggs & shiitake mushrooms served with plum sauce & pancakes. What I got was a decently flavored sautéed dish, mostly flavored with Oyster sauce I believe, served with--white flour tortillas. I did not ask for tacos, but that's what I got. read more

Great food, great staff. I recommend getting the boiled dumplings in hot sauce and the spicy green beans!!!

I visited a friend who lives near Columbia Plaza apartments and we decided to order in. It was a cold and icky night out anyway, so Chinese food sounded good to us. She told me she had heard good things about this place, that was located inside the Columbia Plaza complex. So, the plan had been set. We started off with steamed pork dumplings that were just OK. Fine for your run-of-the-mill. The Gourd did better with the entrees: Crispy Eggplant and Twice-Cooked Tofu. The tofu was really appealing- moist and tender on the inside and crunchy on the outside. We are going to check out the actual restaurant soon and try some other Chinese treats-- and Gourd's happy hour. read more

Magic Gourd Restaurant - Chinese Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

Good food, good service!!! Regular sized entrees are perfect for sharing. We went with a group of 10, no reservation, on a Wednesday afternoon- and they took great care of us. read more