Amy suggested that she and Peter and Debbie and I go to Joon, a new restaurant that has been open since June and seats up to 230 people in a variety of connected rooms.
The restaurant represents that it offers the best in Persian Cuisine. The Michelin starred co-chef & co-owner is Christopher Morgan.
Morgan is the son of Amy and Peter’s close friends Peter & Vicki Morgan. Najmieh Batmanglij is the co-chef. Morgan refers to Batmanglif as a “second mother” and she calls him her third son.
Christopher’s wife just had a baby, and he was on paternity leave. The Executive Chef came over to same hello.
The restaurant’s menu is broken down into 8 sections: For the Table, Soup, Salads, Khoresh, Kabob, Platters, Rice Dishes, and Desserts.
We received a complimentary starter – Sabzi Khordan – Mixed fresh herbs, radish, cucumber, spring onion walnuts, goat cheese, feta, lime.
The group ordered Mirza Ghasemi – eggplant, sungold cherry tomatoes, onion, garlic, olive oil, poached egg. And
Shirazi – tomato, cucumber, spring onion, lime, olive oil
(As we were finishing dinner, we realized that none of us had eaten anything from that plate. Perhaps we were put off by the onion which was a whole skinned onion cut in half.)
The group also ordered Duck Fesenjoon – duck legs, pomegranate, walnuts, crispy onions;
Fried Sardines;
Lamb & Pistachio Meatballs;
Sour Cherry Rice – tadigh cristy rice with sour cherry, lime saffron, rose water and pistachio.
I ordered – Pistachio Soup – pistachios soup, leek, chick broth, ginger, saffron sour orange – served hot.
For dessert Peter ordered Najmieh’s Baklava with vanilla ice cream, brandied almonds.
Mike ordered Persian Love Cake -strawberry and barberry compote, lemon curd, whipped cream pistachio – share by all.
Joon Restaurant
8045 Leesburg Pike
Vienna, Virginia 22182
571-378-1390