Todd Kliman, Bethesda Magazine's restaurant critic, began his March 2026 review with a question: how has Dolan managed to thrive when so many mid-level restaurants are struggling just to survive? Only a handful of restaurants in the region specialize in Uyghur cooking — "which marries the flavors and traditions of Turkey with those of northwest China" — and one group, he noted, now owns four of them, with a fifth on the way in Crystal City.
Part of the answer, he decided, is Hamid Kerim's "gift for balancing the warmth and accessibility of family dining with some of the comforts of fine dining." At Rockville, "a museum-like display of cultural curios dominates the entranceway, glowing in dramatically lit cornices. In the dining room, the eye goes immediately to the globe lights above, intricately ornamented in gold, which seem to have been lifted from a Turkish teahouse from the 1850s. The servers are unfailingly attentive and caring and speak in soft tones."
Kliman was candid about what Dolan is and is not. "What Dolan is, at heart, is a mom-and-pop establishment, and you'd be wise to approach it accordingly," he wrote. The cooking is "more homestyle than haute and built upon noodles, breads and dumplings," and it "excels in the kind of deep, rib-sticking pleasures that you might find, if you're lucky, at a communal table in another country." He had no interest in plating flourishes, and neither do we.
Then he ate. The Piter Manta — "six hearty dumplings filled with loosely packed ground lamb seasoned with loads of black pepper and soft-cooked onions" — and the samsa, the flaky baked meat pies with the same filling, differ only in the dough, he observed: "Both are terrific and are must-haves for any visit — duplication be damned." The Korma Chop, "which isn't a chop at all, but a tangle of long chewy noodles that have been tossed until gloriously sticky with a zesty, chili-spiked sauce," was another must-have — "just as wonderful without meat."
His advice was practical: order lightly at first, because the dough adds up; and end with tea. "Better to load up on the dumplings, meat pies and noodles and end the meal with a pot of excellent tea, which will be brought to the table with a smile and in small, delicate cups. And which may leave you, as it did me, in a place of quiet contemplation — oblivious, at least for a few peaceful minutes, of the cares of the world."
Kliman also told Hamid's story — blacklisted, fleeing with fifteen import-export businesses left behind, buying the Cleveland Park restaurant without knowing how to cook, and learning in "a three-month crash course" from the man who sold it to him. He called Hamid "this accidental chef" and credited him with "a kind of earnest soulfulness, trading on the rarity of a cuisine that most people know nothing about."
The review appeared online on March 13, 2026, and in the March/April print issue; the magazine later corrected details about the korma chop's protein options and the spelling of Hamid Kerim's name. The photograph accompanying it — an overhead spread of our dishes — was our own.
Dolan Rockville, 20-A Maryland Avenue, 301-284-3805. Order the manta and the samsa. End with the tea.
This article is our own account of the coverage; short quotations are attributed to Bethesda Magazine, which holds the copyright to the original piece.
