About Restaurant Eve
Digging into Filipino “street barbecue” seems odd at Cathal and Meshelle Armstrong’s Old Town restaurant, given its decade-old reputation as a fine-dining destination for Continental cooking with a locavore bent. Still, sisig and kinilaw are all part of the new Eve, which has melded its tasting room and bistro and now serves both à la carte and prix fixe menus—half Filipino and Asian, half Modern European—throughout the jewel-toned 17th-century rowhouse. The split speaks to the owners’ heritages—Meshelle comes from a Filipino family; Cathal, the chef, is from Ireland—and serves as a preview of the pan-Asian restaurant they hope to open in Southwest DC. Though Cathal’s passion for both cultures comes through on individual dishes, the collision of cuisines gave us whiplash when it came to ordering. Our advice: Stick to one side of the menu. Tables can contentedly linger over a family-style Filipino tasting ($65 a person) or equally delicious Western dishes, such as squash agnolotti with smoked ricotta and sage. Co-owner, sommelier, and cocktail man Todd Thrasher deftly pairs beverages with both.
Don’t miss: Sisig (braised pork head) with runny egg; steak tartare; squab with preserved lemon; Basque seafood stew; sweet-potato clafoutis.
See what other restaurants made our 100 Very Best Restaurants list. This article appears in our February 2016 issue of Washingtonian.
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.
