Mediocre food scene in DMV

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried Baltimore? I agree with your assessment.

I find DC restaurants pretty overrated. And I'm not a fan of chains.

Helmand (Afghani food)

Thames Street Oyster House (seafood)

There used to be a wonderful vegetarian place called The Zodiac on Charles Street, but it shut down.

Sotta Sopra is an Italian place on Charles Street.

And if you are willing to venture into the Baltimore suburbs, Bombay Nights is an Indian restaurant in Perry Hall that is absolutely fantastic.

Agree with all except never tried the poster house. Baltimore has,way better food. A hole in the wall has better pizza/subs than just about anywhere here.

But I think overall, it's not the real fine dining DC is missing so much as everything else- there's virtually no good lunch food or carryout food or middle of the road places. Just nasty reheated pizza slice places, fast food, or yet another restaurant that's some type of mediteranianesque, barely decent, limited menu fare with a geographical point of reference in the name. Honestly, I'm a native and I've never eaten at a good deli in DC in my entire life. I think the MD burbs have better options by far than DC for lunch and carryout, but not VA and definitely not DC.

I think you're on crack. There are a ton of small lunch places in Farragut that are cheap and delicious, like the little greek place on 19th, or Moby Dick, or Bub and Pop's, or Wicked Waffle, or the Korean noodle place on 19th, or a bunch of other sub-$10 lunch places that are delicious. Sounds like you don't know what you're talking about at all, or you're a tourist who thinks the Smithsonian is "downtown."

Delicious?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clydes used to be a good deal. Expensive now. Other than that, I gots nothing.

Ugh, really? I put it in the same category as Applebee's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried Baltimore? I agree with your assessment.

I find DC restaurants pretty overrated. And I'm not a fan of chains.

Helmand (Afghani food)

Thames Street Oyster House (seafood)

There used to be a wonderful vegetarian place called The Zodiac on Charles Street, but it shut down.

Sotta Sopra is an Italian place on Charles Street.

And if you are willing to venture into the Baltimore suburbs, Bombay Nights is an Indian restaurant in Perry Hall that is absolutely fantastic.

Agree with all except never tried the poster house. Baltimore has,way better food. A hole in the wall has better pizza/subs than just about anywhere here.

But I think overall, it's not the real fine dining DC is missing so much as everything else- there's virtually no good lunch food or carryout food or middle of the road places. Just nasty reheated pizza slice places, fast food, or yet another restaurant that's some type of mediteranianesque, barely decent, limited menu fare with a geographical point of reference in the name. Honestly, I'm a native and I've never eaten at a good deli in DC in my entire life. I think the MD burbs have better options by far than DC for lunch and carryout, but not VA and definitely not DC.

I think you're on crack. There are a ton of small lunch places in Farragut that are cheap and delicious, like the little greek place on 19th, or Moby Dick, or Bub and Pop's, or Wicked Waffle, or the Korean noodle place on 19th, or a bunch of other sub-$10 lunch places that are delicious. Sounds like you don't know what you're talking about at all, or you're a tourist who thinks the Smithsonian is "downtown."

Delicious?

hmmm interesting. Since you mentioned the Smithsonian let's throw the NMAI food court in there too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP here - I am an avid diner, but off the top of my head:

Blue Duck - Very mediocre (used to be better), but always extremely overpriced.

Red Hen - Fine but simpleton. I've been three times (in my neighborhood) and the menu always lacks a sense of adventure.

Rasika - here I will make a NYC comparison. In NYC I would go to Tabla (now closed) which made Rasika seem like a mall franchise.

Le Diplomate - I consider this the number 1 "hype" offender. These dishes wouldn't make it past the hostess stand at Balthazar (which Le Dip is trying way too hard to be).

Founding Farmers - Organic Applebee's.

Del Campo - mediocre from top to bottom.

My takeaways are this:

- Mid and high-end DC establishments are offensively overpriced. Is there a reason for this?
- many big production restaurants where food is second to ambience.
- DC is big on commoditization, as soon as a restaurant is popular, the immediate reaction is to build another. (Why? this does not happen anywhere else)

OP, as other PPs have mentioned, the places you have listed are primarily places people go for expense account outings and not our "most acclaimed restaurants". You're also heavy on the Italian-French-American cuisines in your list. DC, like many other cities, excels in types of foods where it has a large immigrant population.

Have you ever tried Ethiopian food? When I lived in NYC for a decade, I would always try to eat it when I visited DC because it's so good here. How about Asian foods? Like the other Indian PP, I think Rasika is fine for some a night out, but there is much better Indian food in the burbs (ex: Woodlands, Mayuri). Thai X-ing or Little Serow are great for Thai. There's a Laotian restaurant called Thip Khao that was one of Bon Appetit's 50 best restaurants in America. As others have mentioned, there is excellent Chinese in the burbs (you complain it's mostly chain restaurants, but try closing your Fodor's guide and go somewhere recommended on the Washingtonian Cheap Eats list).

But if that's all too adventurous for your palate and you want to complain about how mediocre the food is here in DC, go ahead, but please retitle your post "Mediocre European cuisine at expense account restaurants in DMV "

There is no excellent Chinese, not even in the burbs. There is only good enough Chinese.

I thought VA had all of the best Chinese restaurants. Falls Church area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's some good places outside of DC. I know you said "DMV" (ew) but have you actually ventured outside of the D in DMV? Magnolia's on Main in Purcellville is good and there's a whiskey distillery right down the street where you can get drinks made from locally distilled whiskey. The Restaurant at Patowmack Farm in Lovettsville, Trummer's on Main in Clifton- all are pretty acclaimed. Tom Sietsema said some of the best food he ate all last year was in an anonymous strip mall in Nova-- can't remember the cuisine, I wish I could.

It's also just goofy to compare DC to New York. It's not, never will be, nobody tries to say it is. So to expect New York dining in DC is your fault and you're setting yourself up for failure there.

Considering the number of NYC chefs opening up DC outposts it is a fair expectation.

[Anonymous]

I thought VA had all of the best Chinese restaurants. Falls Church area.

agreed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's some good places outside of DC. I know you said "DMV" (ew) but have you actually ventured outside of the D in DMV? Magnolia's on Main in Purcellville is good and there's a whiskey distillery right down the street where you can get drinks made from locally distilled whiskey. The Restaurant at Patowmack Farm in Lovettsville, Trummer's on Main in Clifton- all are pretty acclaimed. Tom Sietsema said some of the best food he ate all last year was in an anonymous strip mall in Nova-- can't remember the cuisine, I wish I could.

It's also just goofy to compare DC to New York. It's not, never will be, nobody tries to say it is. So to expect New York dining in DC is your fault and you're setting yourself up for failure there.

Considering the number of NYC chefs opening up DC outposts it is a fair expectation.

It's not

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried Baltimore? I agree with your assessment.

I find DC restaurants pretty overrated. And I'm not a fan of chains.

Helmand (Afghani food)

Thames Street Oyster House (seafood)

There used to be a wonderful vegetarian place called The Zodiac on Charles Street, but it shut down.

Sotta Sopra is an Italian place on Charles Street.

And if you are willing to venture into the Baltimore suburbs, Bombay Nights is an Indian restaurant in Perry Hall that is absolutely fantastic.

Agree with all except never tried the poster house. Baltimore has,way better food. A hole in the wall has better pizza/subs than just about anywhere here.

But I think overall, it's not the real fine dining DC is missing so much as everything else- there's virtually no good lunch food or carryout food or middle of the road places. Just nasty reheated pizza slice places, fast food, or yet another restaurant that's some type of mediteranianesque, barely decent, limited menu fare with a geographical point of reference in the name. Honestly, I'm a native and I've never eaten at a good deli in DC in my entire life. I think the MD burbs have better options by far than DC for lunch and carryout, but not VA and definitely not DC.

I think you're on crack. There are a ton of small lunch places in Farragut that are cheap and delicious, like the little greek place on 19th, or Moby Dick, or Bub and Pop's, or Wicked Waffle, or the Korean noodle place on 19th, or a bunch of other sub-$10 lunch places that are delicious. Sounds like you don't know what you're talking about at all, or you're a tourist who thinks the Smithsonian is "downtown."

Delicious?

That Korean noodle place? The only reason it seems popular among some Koreans is because there are very few other options for Korean food in the immediate area. Their bibimbap ingredients are soaked in oil and their soup base is tasteless.

Unfortunately despite the large Korean community in parts of VA and MD, decent food options are sadly almost non-existent.

Signed,
Native Korean

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree the food scene has improved but is still
Overhyped for the most part. I never got rasika's appeal for example. We like the more hole in the wall
Places like eden center, afghan places ethiopian places etc. What truly bugs the shit out of me is the lack of high quality bread. The only decent bakery i have found in bread and water in Alexandria and some farmers market options.
The rest is terribly over priced and dry and tasteless.

Ugh! The bread here is awful! Don't they know that it it supposed to have actual taste? But, there are no real bakeries here (other than overpriced cupcake or pie ones), so this should come as no surprise.

+1

I prefer Heidelberg bakery for German style artisan bread and Praline bakery for some cakes (they have really good almond pound cakes).

Noooooooooo.....

Bread furst
Also le pain quotidien

I don't get or le pain quotidien--the one near me seemingly has no items for sale and only a couple of customers. I saw one guy eating a single tomato on a plate.

le pain quotidien is awful! It is a joke.

I once saw a woman at the Le Pain in Clarendon eating a plate of sliced tomatoes and a brown egg in one of those too precious little egg holders. I mean, WTF? We once got takeout sandwiches there and they were horrible and overpriced. What I wouldn't give to have a Panera or something more useful in that location.

[Anonymous]

Le Pain Quotidien does have some delicious food (omelettes and salads, etc.) how can you judge s restaurant by what a person is eating? I think you can only judge by what YOU ARE eating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where are you from that you expect much better food/service? I'm from CA, and I find that there isn't as much diverse ethnic foods here, especially really good Mexican. I miss good Mexican food.

I recently discovered J and J's on Georgia Ave...it's delicious! But I'm not from Cali so YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Le Pain Quotidien does have some delicious food (omelettes and salads, etc.) how can you judge s restaurant by what a person is eating? I think you can only judge by what YOU ARE eating.

Only in DC would someone go to bat for Le Pain or Clyde's (lol at the pp who mentioned that). Restaurantuers probably know this, hence the crummy food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Le Pain Quotidien does have some delicious food (omelettes and salads, etc.) how can you judge s restaurant by what a person is eating? I think you can only judge by what YOU ARE eating.

Only in DC would someone go to bat for Le Pain or Clyde's (lol at the pp who mentioned that). Restaurantuers probably know this, hence the crummy food.

* Restaurateur

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Le Pain Quotidien does have some delicious food (omelettes and salads, etc.) how can you judge s restaurant by what a person is eating? I think you can only judge by what YOU ARE eating.

The pp referenced what she was eating, dunce.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Le Pain Quotidien does have some delicious food (omelettes and salads, etc.) how can you judge s restaurant by what a person is eating? I think you can only judge by what YOU ARE eating.

Only in DC would someone go to bat for Le Pain or Clyde's (lol at the pp who mentioned that). Restaurantuers probably know this, hence the crummy food.

I'll go to bat for Clyde's any day. Ain't near what it used to be, but it is the only normal-ish decent option here.