I haven’t been to Washington, DC since the pandemic. What are current favorite places to eat and stay?
I was there about 1 year ago. We had a fantastic dinner at Oyamel Cocina on Seventh St, highly recommended.
Yardbird Chicken in the same area was disappointing, chicken wasn’t all that good, very small portions. Subpar service at nearly empty restaurant (the bar had patrons tho). We were there sort of early, around 5-5:30.
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Daughter at GW so we have been there a bit. Favorite place to stay is Park Hyatt. Good location re walkability for us. Not foodies, but a couple places we like are CIRCA and Ted’s Bulletin.
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Didn’t check to see if it survived pandemic, but Rasika is a must if you like Indian food and has a nice wine list.
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We also ate at Rashika last year, it was really good, I recommend them also. That was early March, I suspect they’re still operating.
Jaleo is one of my favorites in DC, from Chef Jose Andres, I hear minibar is also great, but I’ve never been able to make a reservation there. I’m going to be there in a few weeks, and have reservations at Rooster and Owl, I can let you know how that is if you’re interested.
shamelessly posting my restaurant map again. There are notes on restaurants I have been to/for my records, and if there aren’t any notes it’s a place I want to try.
A few recs/highlights of mine:
Izakaya seki - my favorite japanese restaurant, very short wine list unless the owner is there and she’ll help you navigate her cellar
Da Hong Pao - chinese restaurant, they do great dim sum and classic dinner fare, skip the wine (or go to queen’s english if you want fancy chinese with wine)
Etto/2 Amys - same owner, great pizza, good wine list
Revelers Hour - Fancy pasta, good wine list
Lutece - french bistro, (french) chef previously held a michelin star at a mexican restaurant in NYC, clearly gunning for one again
Bar Spero - basque inspired, (local) chef holds a michelin star for a temp closed tasting menu restaurant, this is focused on a la carte
Rasika - already mentioned, cant go wrong
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Big fan of Barcelona Wine Bar, excellent food and casual funky vibe.
(202) 588-5500
Start with a cocktail at Jane Jane across the street
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Two new-ish places I’ve enjoyed recently are Bar Spero and Maiz64
Ben’s Chili Bowl. For the real DC.
Agreed, I didn’t mention this one because it goes without saying, one must have a half smoke, I prefer the spicy one.
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We’re supposed to get a Barcelona Wine bar in Pittsburgh.
I’ve lined up L’Avant Garde, RIS, Imperfecto, and Lutece. We’ll have lunch at Jaleo.
evidently 2 locations in DC. Which is better or recommended?
Some slightly different dishes at each, but quality has been the same in my experiences. I like the ambiance at the original Penn Quarter location better, though.
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2nd for Lutece.
Park Hyatt is wonderful!
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Dined at Jaleo last week with a large group — yummy - they just kept bringing out dishes. Everyone really enjoyed and the white sangria wasn’t too sweet!
Also a fun speakeasy called Allegory at the Eaton Hotel Workshop. Knock at the black door - bring your DL - cool atmosphere with an Alice in Wonderland vibe.
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Any recommendations for wine by the glass bars that aren’t super natty focused?
i used to go to DC every year pre covid…we went back last may to visit some family. pre-covid, we loved tail up goat. we decided to try their other restaurant, reveler’s hour this last time and it disappointed. id check out tail up goat though.
le diplomate is always solid. we have pastis in nyc and this essentially pastis in DC (i believe they are opening a pastis in DC…not sure why). for brunch or dinner, le diplomate does the job and everyone likes it.
oddly enough, our best meal last year was a small few plates at zaytinya, jose andres’ mediteranean place. ive never eaten at any of his restaurants but for our needs, it was great.
we prefer staying at the dupont circle hotel.
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We actually did go to Le Diplomate after eating at Amazonia for wine and cheese. It was a great night cap spot.
Last night, we went to Vin Sur Vingt after dinner. It was a decent spot. Hilariously, the staff didn’t know much about wine and the Somm wasn’t in. We got a bottle for 25% late night happy hour and took some home. They brought out two completely different vintages and wines from the same maker, but we were fine with it even though they didn’t have exactly what we wanted on the menu.
We really enjoyed Rasika (we were in the West End location; the Penn’s quarter location seems to have marginally nicer ambiance). Excellent Indian food, with some dishes that were a little out of the ordinary ; I have to thank @Neal.Mollen for his rec here, he didn’t steer us wrong.
For Sourthern cooking with some Korean inflections (it works brilliantly) we like Succotash in downtown DC. Also, Succotash has a long bourbon btg list.
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