I was quite wary when I received this assignment from my benevolent overlords. Elephants can’t jump. Therefore, this restaurant shouldn’t exist. Because it does exist, this must mean that restaurant owners no longer have respect for the laws of physics and will mock them with impossible names. But my suspicions about Elephant Jumps were eliminated after sampling their delicious Thai food.
Located inside the Yorktowne Shopping Center, Elephant Jumps is a mom-and-pop Thai restaurant that has recently experienced a sizable upswing in popularity due to a very positive review from slightly-more-famous-than-me food critic Tom Sietsema a little over a week ago. While my power to influence the masses with my opinions on food is not quite at his level, I can get behind his general feeling towards the place, albeit with a few minor differences.
Because I was feeling lazier than usual, and because it had only recently been implemented, I decided to get my order delivered. This may have affected the taste ever so slightly, but this could also just be a psychological thing. The thai dumplings, a steamed shrimp and pork concoction inside a thin layer of bread, were delicious with the house soy sauce (slightly sweeter and less salty than regular soy sauce), but felt the tiniest bit dry. However, combined with the spicy shrimp soup (shrimp and mushrooms in a spicy but not hot broth), the slight dryness is quickly forgotten. Also, the dryness might not exist in the restaurant because I assume it will take less time for the dishes to reach your table than it will for them to reach my house.
I could’ve gone wilder with my order, but the crab fried rice looked too tempting to pass up. This was one of the smarter decisions I have made recently. This big dish has rice that is perfectly fried without getting lumpy and refuses to skimp on the crab chunks. I respect that, especially because a few places I’ve been recently seem to think that this recession gives them an excuse to put less meat in my fried rice. News flash: it does not.
For those of you who demand something sweet after meals, I’d recommend the mango sticky rice. However, it claims to be seasonal, so get the fried bananas as a backup. I wasn’t too crazy about the chocolate sauce and powdered sugar, because although it didn’t ruin the dish in any way, it just felt unnecessary. A fried banana is similar to a Christo art piece, in that it should stand on its own without any fancy add-ons or embellishments. I’ll bet cash money that if they took the bananas right out of the fryer and put them onto a plate with no chocolate, whipped cream or maraschino cherries, Elephant Jumps would become world-famous in less than a month.
While the slight dryness of the dumplings may be accredited to my not visiting the restaurant in person, their delivery time could use some improvement. After being told that the order would arrive in approximately thirty minutes, I had to wait on my widow’s walk for almost a half an hour after the initial half-hour. Because my house is not that far away from the Yorktowne Shopping Center, I can only assume that they’re not used to delivering that often. In any case, the food is good enough that I’ll actually dine-in at some point to determine if my laziness caused the dryness. For those of you who are more physically active than me, do yourself a solid and dine-in at Elephant Jumps.
Elephant Jumps
8110 A Arlington Blvd.,
Falls Church
703-942-6600
elephantjumps.com
Hours:
Monday – Thursday, 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Friday, 11 a.m. – 10:30 p.m.; Saturday, 11:30 a.m. – 10:30 p.m.
Sunday, 11:30 a.m. – 9:30 p.m.