(Update: In the Spring of 2023, Mark’s Kitchen closed permanently after 23 years of operation as the owner retired.)
For our DC “Death March”, we ended up walking around 23 miles through the DC area, basically walking from Takoma Park, MD to Arlington, VA, via, well, almost all of the tourist sites. A walk like that requires a good, hearty breakfast, so we decided to convene our walk just a block outside of DC at Mark’s Kitchen in Takoma Park. Walking in, Mark’s looks like your standard American “breakfast restaurant”, and indeed, the menu has all of your standard American breakfast fare: omelets, pancakes, French toast, and the like. But if you dig a bit further into the menu, you notice a lot of items that aren’t on your usual breakfast menu. Ginger scrambled eggs. Seaweed omelets. Kimchi omelets. Bibimbab scrambles. Smoked salmon pancakes. In fact, a single trip back past the kitchen as you wind up the (distinctly not accessible) stairs to the restroom, the rice cookers, jumbo bottles of sesame oil, and various Asian greens being prepped in the kitchen tell you a nice little secret: Mark’s Kitchen is also a Korean place.
Myself, I dug right in and ordered the kimchi omelet. I’ll have to say, I rather liked the combination of a good, spicy, and crunchy kimchi along with some nicely-cooked eggs. Served up with some Sriracha sauce on the side, it was the perfect way to chase up the extra bits of omelet and homefries. Add in some good toast, and this was one of the better fusion concepts I’ve had for breakfast. Maybe next time I will try it with the gingered eggs.
Carol did rather well with her order as well: the French Toast. Unlike my kimchi omelet, this was a straightforward rendition of French toast, but it was nicely executed, with nicely battered and crisped thick slices of bread. Certainly no disappointment here, either.
This wasn’t my first visit to Mark’s Kitchen (I had also come here for breakfast about 10 years ago, when I similarly found myself walking about Takoma Park in the morning), but they are still churning out some tasty and inventive food. I do need to come back for dinner. And probably some people watching as well: I suspect that if I was more knowledgeable, there are probably some great off-menu specials to be had here as well.
