Downtwon DC restaurants
 

We are staying in downtown DC for the weekend. Looking for great restaurants that are also good bargains (We love good food, but don't want to pay for pretense!). A few of places appear on washingtonian.com as being both "100 best" and "100 best bargains" They are:

Tony Cheng's Seafood restaurant
Malaysia Kopotiam
Pizzeria Paradiso (Dupont Circle and Georgetown)

What do you think? Others?
BTW, we love Thai! (so the Malaysian place looks interesting...)

Thanks, Joe

Pizzeria Paradiso at Dupont Cr. is excellent. I've never been to the one in G'town.

Tony Cheng's has been around forever and is great. I like it for dim sum. Can't go wrong there. In Chinatown I also like Eat First.

Don't know about the Malasian place.

Lots of the best food & best bargains combos are in the burbs. Are you willing to travel? My favorite thai place is Tara Thai but I don't think there are any downtown.

Still within the Distrtict, Cleveland Park has some really good restaurants. Look into Mixtec and Sala Thai.

You might want to check chowhound.com for trustworthy restaurant recommendations.

Note that Dupont Circle, while extraordinarily easy to access via Metro, is not really "downtown" near the capital, mall, Smithsonians etc. That said do not let that discourage you in any way from visiting the neighborhood - its one of my favorites.

Thaiphoon is one of my favorite small budget restaurants in Dupont Circle - great prices, good food, wonderful service and great ambiance (if notsometimes a little bit loud) Pizzeria Paradiso (both locations) is great and yummy as well. Mimi's American bistro is also pretty good (also near Dupont Circle)

I would suggest checking out the Washington Post's website (washingtonpost.com), the food section has decent coverage of DC's food scene. Tom Sietsema's dining guide is a good start, as are the archives of his weekly chats (where questions like this get posted every week).

I agree with Obxgirl that Sala Thai in Cleveland Park is excellent, but they also have another location in Dupont Circle which is even better. Delicious, nice ambience, good value.

Jaleo downtown is a tapas place, so you can easily control your bill by how many of the wide variety of small dishes you order. All will be special.

White Tiger on Capitol Hill, very close to Union Station (which you should see), is a very good Indian by any standard and in addition a good value.

I wouldn't call Dupont Circle downtown, either. I don't know any of those expect Pizzeria Paradiso. I have read the one in Georgetown is good, also, although I know the dupont one. Well, it's good pizza but it's just pizza, after all. Not a cosmic experience, but that depends what you are looking for. I would not spend my time in a city on travel that way, I'd want something different (unless I was coming from a great restaurant town and big city). Besides, that restaurant is often really crowded and you have to wait and it's noisy. Tara Thai is good, I agree, but . There are lots of good small ethnic restaurants just north of the Woodley Park metro stop, a real variety. I think there is a Thai one up there, Jandara, but I don't know it.

I love Thai restaurants but haven't eaten at one in DC, so don't know the quality. There are several, and several good ones up in Bethesda if you want to go up there by metro (I think there is a Tara Thai up there). For something very good and Asian, you can go to the Vietnamese restaurant in Adams Morgan at 1207 18th St, Saigonnais. I have eaten there and it is very good, and cheap enough.

There are a lot of good restaurants in DC and if you llok at Washingtonian, I would trust their comments. With all the good places, I wouldn't personally go to a pizza place, even if it is good pizza.

We have enjoyed Old Ebbitt's Grill and the Rooftop at Hotel Washington

Actually Washington is a pretty gtood city for many, many good restaurants. There's a great mix of ethnic restaurants and a lot of seafood, and heck you can sit at the bar of the Old Ebbitt's grill and they'll shuck fresh oysters for you while you're having a brew. There's many good pubs around and China town is right there around 7th st NW - go have a good time!!

A good, inexpensive, casual place for breakfast and lunch - Reeves Bakery, www.reevesbakery.com Very popular with local office workers, Saturday breakfast buffet served until 11:00 or so.

I would recommend Pizzeria Paradiso in both locations. I'm partial to the Dupont location though. Also in Dupont is an Asian restaurant called Raku, which is my favorite place in D.C. Really good food.

we enjoyed the view at the Terrace Cafe.

More ideas for restaurants in downtown Washington:

- Lauriol Plaza - near DuPont circle. Good Tex Mex food, GREAT ambiance, especially if you're going for a night on the town afterward.

- Ben's Chili Bowl - U Street. A walk up place with tables. The menu consists mostly of chili, hot dogs, and milk shakes, but it's a DC landmark, and it's really good!

- Ten Penh - Pennsylvania Avenue, between downtown and the mall. Tasty Pan Asian food. Try the delicious wasabi mashed potatoes.

I'll second Jaleo's (7th and E Streets). Great tapas. Also Zayintha's, a few blocks from Jaleo's with the same owners.

Pizzeria Paradiso is excellent.

You probably won't go wrong with any of Washingtonian's recommendations.

Zaytinya and Jaleo are both excellent suggestions - they both have menus based on small dishes (tapas or mezze) and it's very easy to create an inexpensive meal from a few of those. Both are downtown, one on 7th St. and one on 9th St. Also in that neighborhood is Ella's for great pizza and Matchbox for pizza, salads, and other casual fare.

Teaism (Dupont and downtown locations) is a great spot for lunch or an afternoon snack and tea.

Just a warning - Ten Penh, while excellent, is not cheap. And the roof at the Hotel Washington is neither cheap nor (in my opinion) very good at all.

Try the cafeteria in the Department of Agriculture building for a really inexpensive meal.

There is a Tara Thai in Bethesda within walking distance of the Bethesda metro station. There is also a Jaleo (which I like but is not supposed to be as good as the one downtown). Also in Bethesda near the metro station is Raku--it's pan Asian/Japanese (sushi, saki, tempura, as well as more eclectic specials). It's not exactly cheap but not terribly expensive either. If you want to walk all that good food off, there is a nice walking trail nearby (1 block) called the Capital Crescent Trail which goes all the way to Georgetown and follows the C&O Canal for part of the way along the Potomac. You can make a reservation at Raku and bypass the long wait on a weekend night. Another favorite of mine in downtown DC is C.F. Folks. It is a little hole in the wall next to the Palm (v. expensive "power" restaurant) that has wonderful sandwiches and great daily specials. You can sit down inside but it is really tiny. I don't think that it is open at night.

My son went to college in DC and we loved visiting him just so we could go out to eat. Sala Thai in DuPont is good as is Pizza Paradisio. But I agree with previous poster - it is just pizza. My son really liked Bangkok Bistro in Georgetown and we all enjoyed Aditi (Indian food) on M Street in Georgetown. We also liked City Lights near DuPont Circle - great Chinese food. So many good places that are reasonably priced - have fun!

Pam

The places recommended downtown are all good choices. That's the Penn quarter, around the 7th and E area. Another good one in that vicinity is Cafe Atlantico.