Mike Airhart was the founding editor of Ex-Gay Watch, until he left in 2007. He has returned as a contributing writer. He is a project manager and data scientist for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and an interfaith advocate, living near Phoenix, Arizona.
My partner and I tend to eat food at casual and inexpensive restaurants. All of the following are good casual, local restaurants that are predominantly Metro-accessible. If you’re looking for fine dining experiences, check out Washingtonian magazine’s index of top restaurants.
Asian: Two XGW authors live in Chinatown. Most people come to Chinatown for sporting events and concerts followed by meals at chain restaurants such as Ruby Tuesday and Fuddrucker’s. Still, if you’re looking specifically for Asian food, take your pick among the restaurants in the vicinity of 6th and H Streets.
But if you’re looking for great Mongolian food, skip Tony Cheng’s Mongolian restaurant on H Street — the buffet is small and the spice selection is bland. For the best Mongolian buffet and grill in the region, check out BD’s Mongolian Barbecue in Bethesda, about 30 minutes from downtown D.C. on Metro’s Red Line. The commute may sound long, but downtown Bethesda has bars, boutiques, art galleries and movie theaters to explore after your meal.
Best food court: The best all-purpose food court in town is in the basement level of Union Station near the Capitol — there are about 40 walk-up eateries, many of them locally owned. There are also some good dine-in restaurants at the station. The best is B. Smith’s, an expensive soul-food restaurant hidden away in the east end of the station.
Brewpub: Our favorite local brewpub restaurant is Capitol City Brewing Co. — decent food, great beer and pretzels. Runner-up: We like the Brickskeller saloon at Dupont Circle (see below) for its 600 beers from around the world, but at times the cigarette smoke can be distracting.
Chili / Bethesda-Arlington:Hard Times Cafe has great Cincinnati and Texas chili dishes served over spaghetti (Ohio style) or over corn bread, corn chips, or salad. Don’t be deceived by the restaurant’s name — this is a noisy, family-friendly tavern. (Kids like the chili dogs.) The buffalo wings are good, the beer is decent, the root beer is great. Skip the desserts — depending on whether you eat at the Bethesda or Arlington cafe, you can find either Ben & Jerry’s or a Cheesecake Factory nearby.
Chili / D.C.: For local chili in an unpretentious (OK, greasy) takeout environment, Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street NW is wildly popular with blue-collar locals.
Ethiopian: One of the best not-so-casual Ethiopian restaurants is Meskerem on the west side of 18th Street NW in the Adams Morgan neighborhood. Dukem on U Street has great food and is more casual. Many of the city’s other international restaurants are clustered in the Adams Morgan neighborhood and along U Street NW east of 16th Street NW. If you go to Adams Morgan, leave before midnight — the 2 a.m. crowds have become dangerously rowdy recently.
Healthy dishes: As Dupont Circle has evolved over the years into a mainstream commercial district, young urban residents (including gays) have migrated to more affordable neighborhoods including 14th and P Streets NW. The deli at Whole Foods Market has evolved into an eat-in, sit-down neighborhood hangout for health-conscious and vegetarian eaters. The deli food is not for the budget-minded, though: It’s as expensive as any restaurant.
Italian: The Dupont Italian Kitchen on 17th St NW is tasty, popular and affordable. For somewhat finer dining, La Tomate near Dupont Circle gets some great reviews, but we haven’t eaten there yet. See Randi Schimnosky’s suggestion below.
Irish food and music: There are many Irish restaurants around D.C., but Ireland’s Four Provinces in the Cleveland Park neighborhood has historically been the best, in my opinion, with great food and a dedicated clientele that knows and sings along with the musicians. This restaurant was recently renamed Ireland’s Four Fields.
Mexican: For home-cooked Mexican-Salvadoran food, I like El Tamarindo, a modest and very inexpensive traditional family restaurant located in an old storefront about 15 minutes on foot from the Dupont Circle or U Street metro stations.
For a much livelier and pricier time, walk a few blocks south on 18th Street to Lauriol Plaza, a modern Tex-Mex palace with three levels and two outdoor patios. Entree prices can average $15 (we paid $60 for dinner for two), but Southern Living also ranks Lauriol Plaza among the city’s best bargains. When we visited, the complimentary chips were freshly cooked, and the green salsa had a nice smoky bite. Dishes included a wide variety of creatively cooked shrimp, pork, quail, chicken, beef, and Mahi-Mahi with Tex-Mex and Latin touches. Service was fast and professional. Upscale dress is preferred, but the waiter politely tolerated our matching “Jesus is a liberal” T-shirts and jeans. I found the “Swirl” frozen margarita irresistible, the sangria just average.
Neighborhood food – Capitol Hill: If you’re on the north side of Capitol Hill, try out Union Station (see “Best food court”) or Cap City Brewing (see “Brewpub”). There’s also an Armand’s nearby (see “Pizza”). Across Massachusetts Avenue from the station and brewpub, you may notice two Irish pubs, the Dubliner and Kelly’s Irish Times. In my limited experience, both are OK for lunch, but tend to be obnoxiously noisy and overcrowded at night — check out Ireland’s Four Fields in Cleveland Park or Ri Ra in Bethesda instead.
On the south side of Capitol Hill, walk southeast from the Capitol along Pennsylvania Ave. SE toward Eastern Market, D.C.’s miniature version of Boston’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace. On the avenue between 3rd and 8th Streets, and then southward on 8th Street, there are numerous good, inexpensive to moderately priced restaurants catering to exotic tastes as well as the upscale burger crowd.
Neighborhood food – Chinatown: Besides its lingering traces of Asian food (see “Asian”), Chinatown has two of Southern Living’s top 10 D.C. bargain restaurants: Matchbox and Capital Q Texas BBQ. Who knows, you might bump into me at the Starbucks next door.
Neighborhood food – Dupont Circle: For quick and casual Greek food in the Dupont Circle area, Zorba’s at Dupont Circle is super. Next door, The Childe Harold is a popular burgers-and-sandwiches restaurant. After hours, Kramerbooks and Afterwords Cafe & Grill is open all night. The food strives to be upscale — and pricey. If you’re looking for Asian food around the Circle, skip the lousy service at Raku, and eat at Sala Thai instead. For sandwiches, wraps and smoothies, WrapWorks at Connecticut and Q Streets isn’t locally owned but it’s good. For a selection of 600 beers and standard brewpub fare (with a sometimes-noticeable dose of secondhand smoke), queue up for drinks at the Brickskeller dining house and saloon. See also: Mexican and Pizza.
Neighborhood food – Dupont East: Most of the restaurants along 17th Street NW (East Dupont neighborhood) are popular and suit many tastes. It’s worth the 15-minute walk to this neighborhood from the Circle — for the food and for the gay people-watching. See also: Italian, Mexican and Steak.
Neighborhood food – Logan Circle/Studio Theatre: As Dupont Circle became pricey and commercialized, gay residents and restaurateurs migrated east from the Circle and resettled in one of the city’s two theatre districts, this one located around the formerly dilapidated corner of 14th and P Streets NW. Among other restaurants, the 1409 Playbill restaurant and bar caters to that crowd of urban pioneers with a Mediterranean-Mideast chef and a friendly clientele that knows one another by name.
Neighborhood food – White House: We haven’t eaten there, but downtown workers and the Washington Post rave about tasty bargain lunches at Breadline. I like the Old Ebbitt Grill, a very old D.C. saloon; it was also popular with Clinton White House staffers. We haven’t eaten at the Rooftop Terrace at the Hotel Washington, but friends have liked the spectacular view of the monuments.
Neighborhood food – Woodley Park-Zoo: Several restaurants at the Woodley Park Metro station strive to lure passersby who otherwise would walk 15 minutes to the Adams Morgan restaurant district. But some of the Woodley Park restaurants are actually good — among them, the moderately priced Lebanese Taverna. See also: Irish food and music — Cleveland Park is a short walk from the Zoo and has its own Metro station.
Pizza: If you’re hungry for Italy-style pizza, Pizzeria Paradiso near Dupont Circle is excellent. For Chicago-style thick-crust pizza, Armand’s is a very casual local restaurant chain. D.C. doesn’t seem to have good New York-style pizza — I welcome suggestions.
Seafood: Looking for a little outdoor urban adventure? Skip the bland, pricey, touristy joints like Phillips, Legal Sea Foods, and McCormick’s, and check out the open-air floating fish market at 1100 Maine Avenue SW on the waterfront below I-395. No formal seating here — just find a comfy bench and eat away.
Spanish: Two chains — the expensive Jaleo and the inexpensive La Tasca — are battling to dominate the local market for Spanish tapas. There are independent Spanish restaurants in town, but we haven’t tried them yet. Suggestions are welcome.
Steak: If you like your steak gay, don’t miss Annie’s Paramount Steak House, a gay Washington institution on 17th Street NW. It’s a bit pricey and crowded, but both tasteful and casual.
Best chain restaurant in Washington: My favorite restaurant is the Cheesecake Factory (locations in D.C., Arlington and Bethesda). It’s an upscale chain, with a diverse lunch and dinner menu that’s 20-plus pages long and a dessert menu of 30-plus cheesecakes. Dinner portions are huge, and each slice of cheesecake contains 1,500 calories. If you haven’t been to a Cheesecake Factory before, then toss your diet aside and visit during off-peak hours. (Primetime waits can be 45 minutes or more.)
Washingtonian magazine has an excellent database of reviews for the city’s best restaurants and best bargains.
We’re tempted to go next weekend so we can celebrate the first birthday of a certain very adorable panda cub. I’ve seen him, but not outside, and anyway, that was back in December.
Thanks for the comprehensive list of places to eat, Mike! Mom will probably want to have lunch with us, so that’ll help a lot.
The city is drying out finally, but be sure to call the zoo and confirm it has reopened. It was closed by flooding in the parking lots and along one of the access roads.
Mike said, “Italian: The Dupont Italian Kitchen on 17th St NW is tasty, popular and affordable. For somewhat finer dining, La Tomate near Dupont Circle gets some great reviews, but we haven’t eaten there yet.”
Skip La Tomate and head a little farther up the street to a nice little place called The Pines of Florence. It’s a pleasant little place tucked into the basement of a (is it a hotel or an apartment building? I can’t remember!), unassuming but the food is 100 times better than tomate at any price.
Whoa, that’s a comprehensive list! Thank you Mike and Steve. I’ll be sure to check some of these places out. I hear that Ethiopian cusine pretty popular in DC.
I’ve already went to the cheesecake factory and it was pretty good. Unfortunately they don’t have my favorite kind of cheesecake: Bailey’s chocolate cheesecake. Maybe I should make the request. ^_^
Hey Mike,
I’m coming down to DC next week. Hope the weather will be great. Can you recommend any good restaurants?
My partner and I tend to eat food at casual and inexpensive restaurants. All of the following are good casual, local restaurants that are predominantly Metro-accessible. If you’re looking for fine dining experiences, check out Washingtonian magazine’s index of top restaurants.
Asian: Two XGW authors live in Chinatown. Most people come to Chinatown for sporting events and concerts followed by meals at chain restaurants such as Ruby Tuesday and Fuddrucker’s. Still, if you’re looking specifically for Asian food, take your pick among the restaurants in the vicinity of 6th and H Streets.
But if you’re looking for great Mongolian food, skip Tony Cheng’s Mongolian restaurant on H Street — the buffet is small and the spice selection is bland. For the best Mongolian buffet and grill in the region, check out BD’s Mongolian Barbecue in Bethesda, about 30 minutes from downtown D.C. on Metro’s Red Line. The commute may sound long, but downtown Bethesda has bars, boutiques, art galleries and movie theaters to explore after your meal.
Best food court: The best all-purpose food court in town is in the basement level of Union Station near the Capitol — there are about 40 walk-up eateries, many of them locally owned. There are also some good dine-in restaurants at the station. The best is B. Smith’s, an expensive soul-food restaurant hidden away in the east end of the station.
Brewpub: Our favorite local brewpub restaurant is Capitol City Brewing Co. — decent food, great beer and pretzels. Runner-up: We like the Brickskeller saloon at Dupont Circle (see below) for its 600 beers from around the world, but at times the cigarette smoke can be distracting.
Chili / Bethesda-Arlington: Hard Times Cafe has great Cincinnati and Texas chili dishes served over spaghetti (Ohio style) or over corn bread, corn chips, or salad. Don’t be deceived by the restaurant’s name — this is a noisy, family-friendly tavern. (Kids like the chili dogs.) The buffalo wings are good, the beer is decent, the root beer is great. Skip the desserts — depending on whether you eat at the Bethesda or Arlington cafe, you can find either Ben & Jerry’s or a Cheesecake Factory nearby.
Chili / D.C.: For local chili in an unpretentious (OK, greasy) takeout environment, Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street NW is wildly popular with blue-collar locals.
Ethiopian: One of the best not-so-casual Ethiopian restaurants is Meskerem on the west side of 18th Street NW in the Adams Morgan neighborhood. Dukem on U Street has great food and is more casual. Many of the city’s other international restaurants are clustered in the Adams Morgan neighborhood and along U Street NW east of 16th Street NW. If you go to Adams Morgan, leave before midnight — the 2 a.m. crowds have become dangerously rowdy recently.
Healthy dishes: As Dupont Circle has evolved over the years into a mainstream commercial district, young urban residents (including gays) have migrated to more affordable neighborhoods including 14th and P Streets NW. The deli at Whole Foods Market has evolved into an eat-in, sit-down neighborhood hangout for health-conscious and vegetarian eaters. The deli food is not for the budget-minded, though: It’s as expensive as any restaurant.
Italian: The Dupont Italian Kitchen on 17th St NW is tasty, popular and affordable. For somewhat finer dining, La Tomate near Dupont Circle gets some great reviews, but we haven’t eaten there yet. See Randi Schimnosky’s suggestion below.
Irish food and music: There are many Irish restaurants around D.C., but Ireland’s Four Provinces in the Cleveland Park neighborhood has historically been the best, in my opinion, with great food and a dedicated clientele that knows and sings along with the musicians. This restaurant was recently renamed Ireland’s Four Fields.
Mexican: For home-cooked Mexican-Salvadoran food, I like El Tamarindo, a modest and very inexpensive traditional family restaurant located in an old storefront about 15 minutes on foot from the Dupont Circle or U Street metro stations.
For a much livelier and pricier time, walk a few blocks south on 18th Street to Lauriol Plaza, a modern Tex-Mex palace with three levels and two outdoor patios. Entree prices can average $15 (we paid $60 for dinner for two), but Southern Living also ranks Lauriol Plaza among the city’s best bargains. When we visited, the complimentary chips were freshly cooked, and the green salsa had a nice smoky bite. Dishes included a wide variety of creatively cooked shrimp, pork, quail, chicken, beef, and Mahi-Mahi with Tex-Mex and Latin touches. Service was fast and professional. Upscale dress is preferred, but the waiter politely tolerated our matching “Jesus is a liberal” T-shirts and jeans. I found the “Swirl” frozen margarita irresistible, the sangria just average.
Neighborhood food – Capitol Hill: If you’re on the north side of Capitol Hill, try out Union Station (see “Best food court”) or Cap City Brewing (see “Brewpub”). There’s also an Armand’s nearby (see “Pizza”). Across Massachusetts Avenue from the station and brewpub, you may notice two Irish pubs, the Dubliner and Kelly’s Irish Times. In my limited experience, both are OK for lunch, but tend to be obnoxiously noisy and overcrowded at night — check out Ireland’s Four Fields in Cleveland Park or Ri Ra in Bethesda instead.
On the south side of Capitol Hill, walk southeast from the Capitol along Pennsylvania Ave. SE toward Eastern Market, D.C.’s miniature version of Boston’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace. On the avenue between 3rd and 8th Streets, and then southward on 8th Street, there are numerous good, inexpensive to moderately priced restaurants catering to exotic tastes as well as the upscale burger crowd.
Neighborhood food – Chinatown: Besides its lingering traces of Asian food (see “Asian”), Chinatown has two of Southern Living’s top 10 D.C. bargain restaurants: Matchbox and Capital Q Texas BBQ. Who knows, you might bump into me at the Starbucks next door.
Neighborhood food – Dupont Circle: For quick and casual Greek food in the Dupont Circle area, Zorba’s at Dupont Circle is super. Next door, The Childe Harold is a popular burgers-and-sandwiches restaurant. After hours, Kramerbooks and Afterwords Cafe & Grill is open all night. The food strives to be upscale — and pricey. If you’re looking for Asian food around the Circle, skip the lousy service at Raku, and eat at Sala Thai instead. For sandwiches, wraps and smoothies, WrapWorks at Connecticut and Q Streets isn’t locally owned but it’s good. For a selection of 600 beers and standard brewpub fare (with a sometimes-noticeable dose of secondhand smoke), queue up for drinks at the Brickskeller dining house and saloon. See also: Mexican and Pizza.
Neighborhood food – Dupont East: Most of the restaurants along 17th Street NW (East Dupont neighborhood) are popular and suit many tastes. It’s worth the 15-minute walk to this neighborhood from the Circle — for the food and for the gay people-watching. See also: Italian, Mexican and Steak.
Neighborhood food – Logan Circle/Studio Theatre: As Dupont Circle became pricey and commercialized, gay residents and restaurateurs migrated east from the Circle and resettled in one of the city’s two theatre districts, this one located around the formerly dilapidated corner of 14th and P Streets NW. Among other restaurants, the 1409 Playbill restaurant and bar caters to that crowd of urban pioneers with a Mediterranean-Mideast chef and a friendly clientele that knows one another by name.
Neighborhood food – White House: We haven’t eaten there, but downtown workers and the Washington Post rave about tasty bargain lunches at Breadline. I like the Old Ebbitt Grill, a very old D.C. saloon; it was also popular with Clinton White House staffers. We haven’t eaten at the Rooftop Terrace at the Hotel Washington, but friends have liked the spectacular view of the monuments.
Neighborhood food – Woodley Park-Zoo: Several restaurants at the Woodley Park Metro station strive to lure passersby who otherwise would walk 15 minutes to the Adams Morgan restaurant district. But some of the Woodley Park restaurants are actually good — among them, the moderately priced Lebanese Taverna. See also: Irish food and music — Cleveland Park is a short walk from the Zoo and has its own Metro station.
Pizza: If you’re hungry for Italy-style pizza, Pizzeria Paradiso near Dupont Circle is excellent. For Chicago-style thick-crust pizza, Armand’s is a very casual local restaurant chain. D.C. doesn’t seem to have good New York-style pizza — I welcome suggestions.
Seafood: Looking for a little outdoor urban adventure? Skip the bland, pricey, touristy joints like Phillips, Legal Sea Foods, and McCormick’s, and check out the open-air floating fish market at 1100 Maine Avenue SW on the waterfront below I-395. No formal seating here — just find a comfy bench and eat away.
Spanish: Two chains — the expensive Jaleo and the inexpensive La Tasca — are battling to dominate the local market for Spanish tapas. There are independent Spanish restaurants in town, but we haven’t tried them yet. Suggestions are welcome.
Steak: If you like your steak gay, don’t miss Annie’s Paramount Steak House, a gay Washington institution on 17th Street NW. It’s a bit pricey and crowded, but both tasteful and casual.
Best chain restaurant in Washington: My favorite restaurant is the Cheesecake Factory (locations in D.C., Arlington and Bethesda). It’s an upscale chain, with a diverse lunch and dinner menu that’s 20-plus pages long and a dessert menu of 30-plus cheesecakes. Dinner portions are huge, and each slice of cheesecake contains 1,500 calories. If you haven’t been to a Cheesecake Factory before, then toss your diet aside and visit during off-peak hours. (Primetime waits can be 45 minutes or more.)
Washingtonian magazine has an excellent database of reviews for the city’s best restaurants and best bargains.
We’re tempted to go next weekend so we can celebrate the first birthday of a certain very adorable panda cub. I’ve seen him, but not outside, and anyway, that was back in December.
Thanks for the comprehensive list of places to eat, Mike! Mom will probably want to have lunch with us, so that’ll help a lot.
Are y’all staying dry down there?
Hi, Jayelle,
The city is drying out finally, but be sure to call the zoo and confirm it has reopened. It was closed by flooding in the parking lots and along one of the access roads.
I like The Cheesecake Factory. Huge menu, reasonable prices.
Boo, how funny — I was just updating my comment to include the Cheesecake Factory when you posted.
MSNBC recently reported that the CF may finally give diners the option to trim their oversized meal portions.
But… but… how can I eat a piece of chicken that’s less than twice the size of a dinner plate? It’ll just feel wrong.
Mike said, “Italian: The Dupont Italian Kitchen on 17th St NW is tasty, popular and affordable. For somewhat finer dining, La Tomate near Dupont Circle gets some great reviews, but we haven’t eaten there yet.”
Skip La Tomate and head a little farther up the street to a nice little place called The Pines of Florence. It’s a pleasant little place tucked into the basement of a (is it a hotel or an apartment building? I can’t remember!), unassuming but the food is 100 times better than tomate at any price.
Whoa, that’s a comprehensive list! Thank you Mike and Steve. I’ll be sure to check some of these places out. I hear that Ethiopian cusine pretty popular in DC.
I’ve already went to the cheesecake factory and it was pretty good. Unfortunately they don’t have my favorite kind of cheesecake: Bailey’s chocolate cheesecake. Maybe I should make the request. ^_^
Don’t miss El Pollo Rico in Arlington, Virginia. No atmosphere, but inexpensive chicken to die for.