Nine weeks after we opened in Crystal City, we gave the dining room to the Yelp Elite Squad for a night. On Wednesday, September 23, 2026, our Arlington restaurant at 320 23rd Street S — Dolan's fifth location — hosted its first Yelp Elite event, a "Silk Road Feast" organized with Yelp Northern Virginia and its community manager, Kimi S. We had the whole space for the evening, and we used it the way a Uyghur family would: long tables, everyone seated together, and more food than anyone could finish.
A dinner party, not a dinner service
Check-in was quick. Every guest received a raffle ticket at the door and was shown to the long tables, first come, first seated, under the ornate lamps and the shelves of Uyghur objects that line our blue walls. Then came the tea — pots of Dolan Chai, our caffeine-free floral blend, and a spicier cinnamon version alongside it, poured from French presses and refilled all night. One guest — Nadine L., of Fairfax, VA — wrote afterward that it had "an incredible floral taste that I'm still thinking about now."
Before the buffet opened, Kimi S. introduced our founder. Hamid Kerim told the room his story: arriving in America with his wife and two young children and not much else, taking whatever work he could find, saving until he could buy a small restaurant in Cleveland Park in 2018 — and building, one dining room at a time, the five Dolans that now stretch from Washington to Rockville, Chantilly, Falls Church and Arlington. He explained what the word "Dolan" means. It was the moment guests mentioned most. "The message was clear. Hard work is how he got here!" wrote Shani L., of Alexandria, VA. James L., of Arlington, VA, saw a man who has "quietly and steadily built a very successful life"; Tanya B., of Centreville, VA, called it "a true American Dream story."
The feast
Buffet service is something we do not offer in the restaurant — this was built for the night, and we set it up the way a Uyghur table unfolds: cold dishes first, then pastries, then the meat and the noodles, each dish labeled with its key ingredients. On the line:
- Uyghur Salad — crisp greens, tomato and onion in a tangy dressing of vinegar, oil and spice. "I went back for seconds," admitted James L.
- Cold Egg Noodle and Cold Skin Noodle — chewy, hand-stretched, dressed to refresh.
- Samsa with beef and lamb, and Kawa Samsa with pumpkin — flaky, oven-baked, and for many the favorite of the night.
- Big Plate Chicken — bone-in chicken braised with potatoes until it fell apart. Monika B., of Fairfax, VA, called it "some of the most tender chicken I've ever had."
- Uyghur Pilaf with Beef, Tofu, and two Korma Chops — beef and vegetarian — our signature hand-pulled noodles, stir-fried until sticky. Shani L. called them "a total revelation"; for Karen R., of Dumfries, VA, "the star was the pulled noodles."
Each table finished with a trio of cakes — honey cake, chocolate and red velvet, cut small and topped with lollipop picks — before the raffle, where the prizes were our own pantry: tins of Dolan Gül Chai and jars of Dolan Chili Oil Sauce.
Demand outran our sixty seats. Guests who could not be fitted in received a $30 credit from Yelp Northern Virginia and Dolan to dine with us another night — and several did, coming back for goshnan, royal laghman, dry hotpot, Korma Chop and our beef burger with the regular menu. "Will be back!" promised Krystal A., of Alexandria, VA, after that visit.
The room
We are a smaller, more open room than Falls Church — no open kitchen, but a wider floor, chandeliers and good energy — and our team filled it. Guests singled out the staff as much as the food: "every single person I interacted with was so welcoming and kind," wrote Monika B. "Dolan Uyghur knows how to entertain!" said Gellie E., of Washington, DC. Hannah H., of Northern Virginia, VA, summed up the evening as "a Wonderful Wednesday."
Thank you to Kimi S. and Yelp Northern Virginia, and to every Elite member who came hungry and left with a story. Arlington is open daily from 11 am to 10 pm, about a ten-minute walk from the Crystal City Metro; metered street parking and garages are adjacent. The noodles are pulled by hand every day, the samsa and dumplings are made in-house, and the chai is always on. Online ordering is coming soon — call 703-223-8277 for pickup, or reserve a table online.
Quotations are short excerpts from attendees' public reviews on Yelp's event page, attributed by their Yelp display names.
From the evening
Founder Hamid Kerim in a grey blazer shaking hands with a guest in the Arlington dining room The full Arlington dining room during the Silk Road Feast — every table occupied under the chandeliers and blue walls 
Guests moving along the buffet line with plates at the Silk Road Feast, chafing dishes in the foreground 
Tongs lifting hand-pulled noodles onto a plate at the buffet, guests blurred behind 
Chafing dish of Korma Chop — stir-fried hand-pulled noodles with lamb and peppers — on the buffet line 
Hands holding a black Dolan Gül Chai tin, the dining room soft behind
Photos: Dolan Uyghur Restaurant
This article is our own account of the coverage; short quotations are attributed to Yelp Elite Events (event page saved by the owner, 2026-10-07), which holds the copyright to the original piece.
