everything i ate in washington, dc
plus things to do, getting around, and your recommendations
A couple weeks ago, my partner and I took a train down to Washington, DC for three days. The main event? a high school friend’s wedding at the Kreeger Museum. I haven’t been to DC since visiting with my parents in the mid-2000s. So now, with a fully-formed adult brain and many opinions on the current political climate, I was in for a good time.
It felt clean and quiet, even the places that were meant to be touristy. I enjoyed the free museums and was also intrigued by the fact that (1) DC is one of the largest deaf-friendly cities in the world. It’s home to Gallaudet University for the deaf and hard of hearing. My cousin pointed out a Signing Starbucks, which is lead by employees who are fluent in American Sign Language. (2) Washington, DC is the largest Ethiopian Community outside of Africa and there is also a sizable Arab American community, both prevalent in the restaurant recommendations shared with me.
Eats
First stop: the Best Sandwich Place (aka TBSP). Nobody recommended this but it was close to the hotel and I was craving a chicken caesar salad wrap. For $10 and 3 minutes wait at peak lunch time on a Friday, it was perfect. We ate in Franklin Park.
For dinner, we went to Lapis, an Afghan bistro in Adams Morgan. The weather was 25C and sunny, so we ate on the covered patio. We ordered:
Bolani ($16 for 2) - pan-seared crispy afghan flat bread, one with pumpkin and the other with leek and cilantro and served with yogurt and green chutney. These reminded me of scallion pancakes.
Mantoo Beef ($16 for 4) - steamed dumplings with ground beef, topped with yellow split pea and carrot tomato sauce with garlic yogurt. I want to attempt to make these at home!
Buranee Bandejan ($15) - baked eggplant and tomato sauce topped with yogurt and dried mint
Qabuli Palow ($35) - spiced pilaf rice with carrots, raisins, and boneless braised lamb (my favourite dish.. again, want to make this at home!)
Firnee ($10) - milk custard, cardamom, and pistacio (my bf’s favourite dish!)
Sheer Berenj ($12) - coconut rice pudding, cardamom, pistachios
The hotel provided breakfast. On our first full day, we had breakfast at the hotel. Coffee, eggs, toast, fruit, chicken sausage - fine. With so many great recommendations, sometimes eating breakfast at a hotel feels like a wasted meal...on the other hand, everything is expensive and it’s a budgeting mechanism. On the last day, we did grab-and-go breakfast to eat later as a snack for the train ride back.
The wedding was stunning. My friend Z, beautiful, smiling. Me, in tears of joy. Before this, I had never been to a Persian wedding but it was short and sweet. Poetry, live music, an outdoor patio ceremony, no speeches, and lots of dancing. The venue was immaculate/insane. The Kreeger Museum is a small-ish two-floor not-for-profit gallery, away from the hustle and bustle of Capitol Hill. The permanent collection includes works by Joan Miro, Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Piet Mondrian, and Claude Monet, a huge art book shelf, site-specific art and outdoor sculptures.
She had her reception at Vera Cocina, a Lebanese Mexican restaurant serving up dishes like falafel topped with cotija cheese, empanadas, and braised lamb shank. After 11pm, the restaurant turned into a club and she threw her bouquet into the crowd. Iconic!
On our last day, we went to Yellow the Cafe, which came highly recommended and absolutely lived up to the hype. It’s a Palestinian with a Michelin bib gourmand. We met up with my cousin who used to live in the area. The line was long but quick. We ordered:
Baklawa mocha ($6)
Iced turmeric + honey latte ($6)
Orange blossom croissant ($5.50)
Shakshouka with wood-fired pita ($16)
Za’atar croissant with labneh, smoked red peppers and an egg ($12)
Everything was perfect to me. Especially the orange blossom croissant — flaky, buttery, with orange blossom flavour that was strong but not soapy. I suspect everything on the menu is equally as delicious. We need to start a petition to have a location in NYC because I think it’s on the same level as my fave bakeries Radio, La Cabra, and Welcome Home.
Touristy things
Biked from Chinatown to Georgetown, specifically to the Exorcist steps and Exorcist house from the 1973 horror movie. We walked around the neighbourhood and gawked at the houses, guessing how much they cost.
Evening walk from The White House through the National Mall to the Washington Monument, along the reflecting pool all the way to the Lincoln Memorial.
All the museums are free, so we took a daytime stroll from the National Gallery of Art (multiple buildings), break in the garden, to Capitol Hill, into the US Botanic Gardens. We walked around the National Air and Space Museum (requires ticket reservations) and into the Hirschorn, a contemporary art gallery with multiple floors. Basquiat x Banksy and OSGEMEOS are currently on view. Not my fave type of art, so we walked through quite quickly but we took a pause to sit in the sculpture garden for a snack.
The National Portrait Gallery was great, but on the last day we were museum’d out. I really liked the courtyard area. More free public seating everywhere! There was a wholesome little knitting club meeting at a long table and lots of people working/reading/eating.
Getting around
We took the train from NYC to DC (~$200 roundtrip purchased 3 weeks ahead).
Near the touristy stuff (National Mall, the White House, several museums, etc), everything was within 10-30 mins walking distance. This was our main mode of transport.
DC has a bikeshare program similar to Citibike in NYC called Capitol Bikes that’s also connected to Lyft. It was $8 for a daypass. We used the bikeshare between neighbourhoods (Chinatown to Georgetown).
We also took the train/metro which has 6 lines with $2 to buy a card and trip fees based on distance. From Union Market to Chinatown/Portrait Gallery, it costed $2.25 excluding the cost of the card.
There were a few Ubers from the train to the hotel, to the wedding venue, and anywhere else we were too lazy to walk/bike. Everything seemed to be in the $10-$20.
Your recommendations
In general, I do not trust restaurant ratings from Google or Yelp...I also do not trust Tiktok/IG reviews. Who do I trust? The good people of the internet (you). Ahead of going anywhere unfamiliar, I’ll post up a story on IG to collect recommendations. THANK YOU if you’ve ever written an answer into the question box. While I was only in DC for 3 days, the two recommended restaurants that we did try were 11/10 (y’all make it difficult to choose) and I would definitely go back again to try a few more.
$ ($1pp-$30pp) / $$($30pp−$50pp) / $$$ ($50pp-$100pp) / $$$$ ($100+pp)
La Shukran ($$$), Albi ($$$), Yellow ($) - a trio of restaurants by Palestinian-American, James Beard Award-winning chef, Michael Rafidi.
Le Diplomate ($$$) - Old-school French restaurant that’s giving Pastis or Balthazar.
Lapis ($$) - Afghan neighborhood restaurant in Adam’s Morgan.
China Chilcano ($$) - A restaurant serving Peruvian Criollo, Chinese Chifa and Japanese Nikkei cuisines by Jose Andres
Founding Farmers ($$) - co-op, farm-to-table with multiple locations in DC, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania.
Tatte Bakery ($)- Fast-casual American-Mediterranean bakery and café chain. Noted that this was also a recommendation for Boston when I went late last year.
Baked and Wired ($) and Baked Joint ($) - Hole-in-the-wall Georgetown bakery known for its cupcakes (I was specifically recommended the strawberry cupcake) and its sister cafe known for coffee and sourdough.
Red Hen ($$$) - Family-friendly Italian
Rose’s Luxury ($$$) - Michellin-stared new American with a rooftop table
Le Tejana ($) - Rio Grande Valley-inspired breakfast taco shop
Purple Patch ($$) - One of the first Filipino restaurants in Washington, DC
Thip Khao (Laotian) ($$) - Celebrated Lao restaurant named after the traditional woven rice basket used to serve sticky rice
Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe ($) - Cafe in the National Museum of the American Indian. “Mitsitam” means “Let’s eat!” in the Native language of the Delaware and Piscataway peoples.
Maketto ($$) - Cambodia and Taiwanese retail, restaurant and cafe
In general, Columbia Heights for pupusas and Latino food
Duke’s Grocery ($$) - London-inspired gastropub with multiple locations (specifically for the burger with an egg on top)
Let me know if you’ve got more DC recommendations to share! Thanks for reading and hope you’re having a lovely weekend :)