circusliz

If you're an adventurous eater, be sure to try Ethiopian while you're in DC! Most books recommend Meskerem on 18th St in Adams Morgan, but I actually prefer Lalibela at 14th and P NW or Etete, somwhere around 9th and U NW.

Also, I highly HIGHLY recommend Central and Founding Farmers. Both metro accessible, and both on my husband's and my "must visit" list when we pass through DC on home leave. I understand the Founding Farmers guys opened a new seafood place in Georgetown -- Farmers and Fishers? something like that -- and it's supposed to be good as well. Haven't had a chance to check it out yet though.

While visiting the mall/Chinatown area, I recommend Ella's for good pizza.

Lots of people will recommend Ben's. It's fun for its status as a DC icon, but really not all that good, IMO.

Let me know if you have any specific cuisine/price points in mind and I can come up with other recommendations.

circusliz

Just noticed you're staying in Columbia Heights. In that neighborhood I recommend Red Rocks Pizza, Julia's Empanadas (you'll find these throughout DC), Room 11, and Wonderland Ballroom if the adults want to spend some time drinking with self-satisfied hipsters!

And it's an easy walk down to U St where there's a ton of restaurants and food options. It's also a quick walk (at least for city dwellers!) over to Columbia Rd. You can then walk along Columbia right to 18th St (Adams Morgan), where you'll find a good variety of eating and drinking options.

Epartida

Don't miss the Kennedy Center, they have free shows the entire family can enjoy. Skip the boat trip on the river (but they usually let the little kids steer the boat), but take the bus tour - it stops at all the tourist places. I wish we had taken that first, because you can decide which places to spend more time at, like the cathedral. Warning metro rail starts late on the weekends. As for food, if your hitting the mall, most of the museums have great cafeterias in their basements and its cheap.

virginiafish

Agree with Newseum and Embassy Suites has always proven good location and value for our family http://embassysuites1.hilton.com/en_...umbia/index.do.

ktspiv4

thank you all for the great recomendations. Keep them coming we have 2 months till we leave. I am researching everything you all share & making a file.

Josh_MacDonald

Ben's is fun and good, can be a huge line, if you are coming during the cherry blossom festival, even more tourists are sure to be there. I enjoy We the pizza, but it's expensive. Filomena in Georgetown is great, pretty much anything owned and ran by Jose Andres is great. If you're out in the Mclean area a great local place that you would not see in any guide book is http://www.viennainn.com/ it is a hole in the wall, dingy, run down establishment, but if you enjoy a good chili cheese dog, or chili...this is the place. Sadly you need a car.

bardo1

Good idea. I think your file will be most helpful when looking for places close to "home" in Columbia Heights.

You might organize your file by neighborhood:
* Columbia Heights Metro area
* U St. Metro area
* Gallery Places Metro area (also convenient when visiting the National Mall)
* Adams Morgan area (walkable from your rental)
* Mt. Pleasant area (walkable from your rental)

As mentioned above - Gallery Place metro area has tons of good options. So as not to overwhelm, I'll highlight just three:
http://www.jaleo.com/ (7th & E st. NW) Very biased here, my favorite of all time - I'm there about once a month going on 8 years now.
http://www.matchboxchinatown.com/
http://www.oyamel.com/

Some "places near places":
Near National Gallery of Art or Archives - http://www.jaleo.com/

Near the Capitol/Supreme Court/Library of Congress - http://www.montmartredc.com/seventhhill/

Near the White House (note hours)-
http://breadline.com/

Near the Monuments-
NOTHING!! (except horrid hot dogs from a cart)- eat before touring the monuments or bring a picnic (lots of nice places for a picnic)

Nelson

For our trip to DC I pasted Google maps of several different neighborhoods into Powerpoint. Then, using recommendations from here on Fodors or other research, I marked locations of restaurants that looked promising. On the next page I listed each, with phone number, hours, perhaps a note.

This produces one page per neighborhood, with a map on one side and a list of restaurants on the other.

Worked great! But this is because I don't have a GPS, iPhone or similar cool device.

ktspiv4

again, wonderful information.

Bardo, thank you for taking the time to give us all this. You are a wealth of great info.

tenthumbs

You give some awesome recommendations, Bardo! Any recommendations for moderately prices restaurants near the Capitol building?

ktspiv4~there is an exhibit in the National Museum of American History called "America at War" that has WWII exhibits. The exhibit chronicles American's involvement in wars beginning with the Revolutionary war up to the war in Iraq. Walking through the exhibit and seeing how things have changed is amazing.

tenthumbs

sorry, Bardo, I meant any MORE recommendations near Capitol Hill! Seventh Hill and Jaleo are already on my list....

RileyD

http://www.ebbitt.com/main/home.cfm?...out_the_Ebbitt

This is a must to add to your list!

ktspiv4

Thank you tenthumbs (it always makes me laugh to address people by their funny usernames) I have that exhibit on my list.
RileyD: Old Ebbitt is a GO! thank you.

2 weeks before we leave!!