Need Restaurant Recommendations in DC, Please

Cafe Society
1

My husband and I are going to need at least a couple of restaurants to go to during our upcoming trip for the inauguration. We’re staying in the Dupont Circle area at 17th & R.

I don’t know anything about the proximity to other areas, such as Georgetown, Downtown, Foggy Bottom, etc., so choosing a random restaurant from opentable.com is a bit daunting.

For instance, Beacon Bar & Grill looks like it could be within walking distance, and it is a “Diner’s Choice” winner, but knowing nothing about it, it’s a complete shot in the dark

All of these are in the Dupont Circle area and in our affordability range:

Al Tiramisu
Beacon Bar and Grill
Cafe Trope
Dupont Grille
Firefly - DC
The Front Page - DC
Grillfish DC
Jack’s Restaurant & Bar
Levante’s
M Street Bar & Grill
Mar de Plata
Mezza Luna Restaurant & Lounge
Odeon Cafe Italian Cuisine
Penang - DC
Primi Piatti
Russia House
Sesto Senso
STARS Bistro and Bar (formerly Mimi’s American Bistro)
Trattoria Nicola’s
Urbana Restaurant

Does anyone know any of these to make a strong recommendation?

Which other areas outside of Dupont Circle are close enough to access either by foot or by Metro (we’ve already got day passes lined up)? Any recommendations in those areas will also be welcome.

Thanks so much.

2

Resident of DC checking in. Tiramsu is ok, but nothting that special, IMHO. A really nice Italian place is Dino. It is a couple of stops up the red line of the metro from Dupont (Dupont is on the red line so no changing of trains. Their website is at www.dino-dc.com (full disclosure, a former colleague owns the place with her husband, but I sincerely like it.)

It’s not too far from the National Zoo so you could combine a visit to the zoo with eating at Dino.

3

Looks yummy, and they’re a “Diner’s Choice” on opentable, too. I doubt we’ll do the zoo, though. Anything else of note nearby?

Thanks for the recommendation!

4

You can also check out the Washington Post Food and Living section. You can search by neighborhood (i.e. Dupont) and get reviews. http://www.washingtonpost.com/gog/dc-restaurants.html

5

Here’s the Metro map:

http://www.stationmasters.com/System_Map/system_map.html

Correlate this with the restaurant reviews given in the last post. Note that Georgetown is a mile or so from the nearest Metro station. Here’s another restaurant guide:

I personally suspect that any restaurant in D.C. we could recommend to you will already be booked solid for the next week. You might want to go out to the Metro-accessible neighborhoods of Maryland and Virginia, which might have some space. You can consider yourself lucky to find space at any place for the next week. If you have time before coming to the area and there’s a good bookstore near you, get yourself a travel guide to the Washington area. That would allow you to look up places as you walk around.

6

Lots of terrific, not-too-expensive restaurants in Adams-Morgan (in walking distance, but more easily accessed by the Woodley Park/Zoo Metro). On 18th St. between Columbia Rd. and U St, you can just walk around and follow your nose.

Turn it into a scandal tour. Cashon’s Eat Place (1819 Columbia Rd NW) was a favorite haunt for Monica Lewinsky before and during her notoriety. Tryst (2459 18th St NW) was where Shondra Levy and Gary Condit used to hook up. Perry’s (1811 Columbia Rd NW) has a Drag Brunch on Sundays.

7

Kramer Books in Dupont is the store that refused to comply with Starr’s supeona during the Lewinsky scanda.

8

Eh. Pass on both and go to 600 at the Watergate. Fantastic restaurant, and you can take advantage of their three course prix fixe for just $29.

9

Thanks for the link. I’ve been going through it and a few places sounded good to me. Know anything about Afterwords Cafe, Floriana Mercury Grill or Pesce?

Love the description for Giovanni’s Trattu:

Thanks! Printed that out in color and will take it with us.

Another good list, but still kind of shooting in the dark. Mourayo sounded interesting – know anything about that place?

You’d think everything would be booked up, but I’m not finding that to be the case. I made quite a few reservations for my boss at very upscale places without any problems whatsoever, including Le Paradou and Citronelle (my boss said if I could get him in at Citronelle he’d give me $50 – he was that sure I’d have no luck - HA! Showed him! ;)), as well as the Bombay Club and TenPehn. That’s one of the reasons I was hoping to get recommendations from the Opentable list; I don’t know if they hold aside a certain number of tables for opentable users, or if they’re given priority, or what, but so far I’m finding tables at reasonable hours at most of the places I check through their system.

Ok, that’s just too funny! We may have to do that. :smiley:

That sounds great, but it doesn’t look too easily accessible from where we’re staying. We can get in there on Saturday night, but not Monday night (unless we want to eat early; 6:30). But their Opentable listing says it’s in Foggy Bottom, which doesn’t look like it’s convenient to the red line, based on the map Wendell Wagner provided.

Thanks again, everyone!

10

I’ve never been to Washington, but Obama stopping in at Ben’s Chili Bowl last weekend was played every hour for a whole day on BBC. That looked like a good spot, actually.

11

As useful as the Dope is, the best food discussion forum I’ve found is Chowhound. I’ve not asked for Washington, DC recommendations, but their Chicago discussions have been spot-on. They were the place where I discovered the joy of 24 hour Pakistani cab-driver spots.

12

I really like Levante’s, although I’ve been to their other location more often than the one in Dupont.

Foggy Bottom is well within walking distance of Dupont Circle. D.C. is a very walkable town.

Jaleo is great; it’s a bit of a schlep, but you could take the red line to Metro Center and it’s only a few blocks from there.

I think TenPhen is also really good, and while it’s nice, it’s not super-pricey like Citronelle is.

The food at Ben’s Chili Bowl is merely good, but it’s got a lot of atmosphere, and it’s famous. I’m sure it will be a madhouse (even moreso than usual) the next few days though.

–Cliffy

13

Ben’s is a Metro-area classic. And they serve real half-smokes!

To the OP, if you want to hed up the red line to Bethesda, you can eat at The Pines of Rome. It’s not fancy, but a family restaurant with great rustica food. And a good value too.

14

In DC the cabbies tend to be from Afghanistan, and they congregate at Kabob Palace just a hop from the Crystal City Metro, near Reagan National.

23rd and Eads, near the 7-11 and the famous Crystal City Restaurant.

15

DC has some of the best Ethiopian food in the country, especially in the Adams-Morgan area.

16

Afterwords cafe is the restaurant area of Kramer Books - decent food, nice desserts. Though it’s main draw id the outside seating area which off course won’t apply to you…
FMG (Floriana Mercury Grill) is a townhouse converted into a restaurant with nice food but too pricey for the quality (in my opinion). MFG has a nice bar downstairs in the basement that I used to hang out at and have had some good times…

If you’re up for authentic chinese food then I can only recommend taking the Red Line to Wheaton and visit Paul Kee (5mins walk from the metrostation which boosts the longest (or steepest?) escalator in the DC Metro area)

17

A slight hijack but if you are in the Dupont Circle area and like French impressionist paintings, The Phillips Collection is an easy walk and has Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party" as the highlight of its collection. They are closed on Mondays.

18

Thanks for all the additional suggestions! I’m going to print this thread and bring it with us in case I can’t get wireless access from where we’re staying.

We love impressionist works, so that’s a great recommendation - thank you!

I’m having a hard time working out our schedule of events, but I’d love it if we could fit a Dopefest in there somewhere.

Here’s what I have so far. . .

Saturday
[ul]
[li]6:00AM arrival, then pick up keys to studio from Park Hyatt (where boss and son are staying), go to studio at 17th St. & R to freshen up.[/li][li]9:00AM Meet the boss, his GF and son somewhere and see the Museum of Natural History[/li][li]Unsure what time we’ll be done there, but if we separate from the bossman after lunch, Thomas and I were thinking of heading over to the Washington Monument, Vietnam Memorial, etc.[/li][li]Perhaps we could have dinner somewhere in that vicinity (recommendations there also appreciated!), perhaps make it a Dopefest???[/li][/ul]

Sunday
[ul]
[li]Not sure what we’re going to do all morning, but the gates open at 8AM for the Opening Ceremonies at the Lincoln Memorial. However, the program doesn’t start until 2:30, so not sure how early we really should try to head over there (8AM seems awfully early!)[/li][li]2:30 Opening Ceremonies[/li][li]6:00? 7:00? 8:00? Not sure what time it starts, but we’re attending the California Bash at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum, where I’m sure they’ll be serving some kind of food.[/li][/ul]

Monday
[ul]
[li]Brad Sherman’s office has promised at private tour of the Capitol for us (and so far we have 2 friends from home, as well as 2 Dopers joining us), but he hasn’t told us what time it’s been scheduled for. [/li][li]We have no other plans for this day, so suggestions are welcome![/li][li]Perhaps a Dopefest that evening?[/li][/ul]

Tuesday
[ul]
[li]9:00AM arrive for Swearing-in Ceremony Security[/li][li]11:30 Swearing-in ceremony[/li][li]5:00?? Neighborhood Ball at the Washington Convention Center[/li][/ul]

Wednesday
[ul]
[li]4:00AM leave for the airport[/li][/ul]

19

Maybe too late now, but I used to go to a conference at the Marriot (former Sheraton) at the Woodley Park / zoo metro stop. Right around there is an Afghan restaurant called Khyber Pass (across the street from the hotel and around the corner - on the second floor) which is good. I went there with my daughter last year. My wife and I went there during our honeymoon 30 years ago, so it has been there a while. There is also a good Thai restaurant on the same side of Connecticut Ave. as the hotel which had fantastic soft shell crab in season. There are also some Indian restaurants there, but they were pretty mediocre.

20

My companies HQ is in Dupont Circle, and whenever I go there, I make a point of having lunch at Meiwah at 1200 New Hampshire. I’ve never been disappointed. It’s a nice place and very popular with the locals.