Written by DCist Contributor Oscar Bunoan

We’ve all heard it before. “You’ve got to try this place out. It’s a complete dive but the food is just to die for!” A friend told me about a hole-in-the-wall place in Chinatown, Full Kee, that’s popular with the lunchtime crowd. Is it really? Mythbusters Adam and Jamie should have tried cracking this mystery back in season one, but since they’re in San Francisco, it’s up to me.

With the deluge of trendy, new meeting spots and renovated mainstays at Gallery Place, it can be easy to see how the “other side” of the Verizon Center can be easily overlooked. But this unfortunate, juxtaposed ghost town is still dotted with many culinary signs of life that appear to be holding their own against the influx of modern and contemporary bullies. Full Kee is one of those signs.

By no stretch of the imagination would this restaurant be worthy of hanging aesthetically with the big dogs at Gallery Place. The drab but warm, yellow paint job and ample amounts of natural light that strikes each tacky decoration in this establishment prevents it from doing so. However, most Chinese restaurants wouldn’t have gone to such decorative lengths. It was all a little strange. To add to this, the efficient staff showed an uncanny ability of being helpful and pleasant without cracking even the faintest of smiles. Spooky.

No, this definitely was not a hole-in-the-wall. A dent, maybe. But no hole.