Eat Great Cheap 2013It’s true, dinner here might take 45 minutes, max—and chances are you waited about two hours to get a barstool. But this teeny ramen perch overlooking H Street is well worth the hassle. (Plus, for those who don’t feel like chancing the line, Toki now takes a small number of reservations each night.) The five varieties of ramen are terrific across the board, with robust, pork-fortified broths; long, springy noodles; and accoutrements like bright pickled ginger and a runny sous-vide egg. The one-pot meal’s bookends are just as enticing: Start with bracingly refreshing cocktails and finish with a plate of chocolate-chip cookies, salty red-miso buttercream, and ice-cold milk.
Cuisine: Taiwanese
Where you can get it: 1234 H St., NE; 202-388-3086
Also good: Pan-fried pork dumplings; fried-chicken steamed buns; dan-dan noodles with fried chicken; pork-fat noodles; classic, kimchee, and red-miso ramen.
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
