I am posting this here instead of the restaurant forum because I thought it would get more eyeballs…
I will be in DC with my wife and adult kids for a long weekend starting tonight through Sunday. We already have reservations for dinner on Friday and Saturday nights. We will be driving down today, so after a longish drive, I was hoping to find a decent restaurant for dinner tonight (I am open to the type of cuisine). We are staying near Dupont Circle. I am thinking of a fairly casual place with good cocktails and a decent, fairly priced wine list. Not looking for a long, formal, Michelin Star type of dinner, more of a have fun with the Fam and eat and drink type of night. Any help would be appreciated!
Hi Paul. I can help with the restaurant part, but I don’t drink cocktails much and almost never buy wine off a list, so I am not a good one to ask. Let me know if you want just the food bit.
Sure Neal, I will take any rec’s that you have! Thanks (PS, when you say "you almost never buy wine off of a list), I am certainly open to BYO friendly restaurants as well, in fact, that would even be preferred!)
Just about every DC restaurant permits BYO now, so that shouldn’t be a problem (notable exceptions are the Fiola restaurants: destination type places that are not in your casual category). Since I retired my knowledge of the latest and greatest in the city has taken a hit, but these are some we go to regularly.
In the Dupont Circle area, our favorite by far is Rasika West End, for modern Indian. A very classy joint, and seriously world class food, but casual in terms of dress etc. Cannot recommend it more highly.
All of Jose Andres’ restaurants are worthy. Jaleo is one (tapas), but our favorites are Zaytina (Greek/Med/middle eastern small plates), and Oyamel (upscale Mex; not terribly conducive to wine, but killer margaritas). He also just took over the prime spot in the former Trump Hotel (now a Waldorf property) with a “Spanish influenced” restaurant called Bazaar, but that might be a little more fancy than you are looking for. We have not been.
We love Centrolina (very good Italian with a brief but excellent menu) too, as well as Le Diplomate (excellent bistro; make reservations as soon as possible). Ditto Unconventional Diner, which isn’t a diner at all but has great food. Near the Convention Center. All of the above are a easy cab/Uber ride from Dupont.
A little further afield we love Billy Sud in Georgetown, which can be a mess getting to bc of traffic but a lovely spot on the canal and fun people watching if you’re up for it. Walking the residential parts of GTown is always fun for us. We also love Red Hen and St Anselm for beef.
IF you want any particular type of food let me know. The best Vietnamese and Korean places are all in Northern VA.
no clue. We bring Champagne pretty much every time we go.
Also, forgot to mention that the same owner has an Indian street-food place a couple of blocks away “on” the GW campus (pro-tip; here is no campus) called Bindaas. Excellent and uber-casual.
Lutece in georgetown is french bistro fare with good cocktails and wine. +1 on all the jose andres restaurants, can’t go wrong with any of them. Etto is another place owned by the same guy as 2 amys, theyre both great pizza+wine+small plates, but is closer to dupont than 2 amys is.
Revelers hour (pasta) and tail up goat (mediterranean) are both near dupont and very good as well.
edit to shamelessly link my DC food map again. Most places have notes on them if I’ve been, and loosely color coded/grouped by food type.
They have a cocktail menu, can’t speak to the quality of the finished drinks as I’m not a cocktail guy but friends that are cocktail geeks have generally been pleased.
I’ll second the recs for both 2Amys and Etto. There’s a reason both places see an absolute ton of local wine industry business. The pizzas are great at both (the Marinera at Etto is one of the things I miss most about living in DC) but the real genius of both places is the small plates. If you’re going as a group of ~4, I’d top out at two pizzas, max. Wine lists at both places are smaller but very well chosen, and both places make great cocktails.
