These days, dining well on a budget can be a challenge.

Menu prices are up almost everywhere—you’ve probably gotten used to paying $20 for a sandwich or a single cocktail—and you have to look extra hard to find restaurants that are both very good values and very delicious. That’s exactly why this felt like the perfect time to resurrect Washingtonian’s once-annual guide to the area’s best cheap eats. We scoured more than 200 places—from far-flung strip-mall dining rooms to old-school delis to TikTok-famous burger joints—to curate this list of our 60 favorites. And while our $25-per-person budget doesn’t include drinks, tax, and tip like it used to, it does cover a satisfying, superlative meal.

 

A&J Restaurant

In the decades we’ve been visiting and revisiting these spare dim sum houses, not much has changed. The Taiwanese-style beef noodle soup and pot stickers are still big hits, but there’s so much more to tick off the checklist-style menu: Braised pork on rice; thousand-layer pancake; bean-curd skin with mustard greens and soybeans; tofu with peanuts and cilantro; and cold noodles in A&J’s special hot-and-sour sauce are all staples, and most cost less than $8.

 

Arepa Zone

Gabriela Febres and Ali Arellano founded Arepa Zone as a food truck more than a decade ago—now it has seven brick-and-mortar locations for a tasty Venezuelan lunch. It’s hard to narrow the options for antojitos, but a good starting point is the pabellón arepa, filled with shredded beef, queso fresco, plantains, and black beans, or the sifrina, with chicken-avocado salad and shredded cheddar. Or try a sweet-corn cachapa with white cheese tucked inside.

 

Bánh Mì Oi

There’s a new reigning bánh mì in town. The signature sandwich at this Eden Center spot combines a traditional medley of deli meats—Viet bologna, ham, steamed pork belly, pâté—with a housemade aïoli, pickled veggies, jalapeño, and cilantro. Just as noteworthy is a Nashville hot chicken bánh mì, in which the bird is brined for 12 hours, double-fried, and tossed in a fiery wet rub. Best of all are the house-baked baguettes, airy as a cloud with a crackly exterior.

 

Bao Bei

Kevin Hsieh came on the scene during the pandemic, when he started serving Taiwanese bao out of a ghost kitchen. Word spread fast, and now he has a sunny cafe of his own, done up with cute murals and colorful dumpling squishies. His bao—fluffy housemade buns stuffed with soy-braised pork belly (or tofu), plus cilantro, ground peanut sugar, and pickled mustard greens—are still the thing to get. But we love his similarly accented rice bowls and, for dessert, brown-sugar buns.

 

Beteseb

The excitement of a sizzling fajita platter is something normally reserved for Tex-Mex places. But at this Ethiopian dining room, you’ll feel it when you order the crispy beef tibs, a fry-up of lean steak, onion, tomato, peppers, rosemary, and clarified butter that a server brings out on a searing cast-iron skillet. Vegetable dishes such as lentils and collard greens are nicely rendered, too. If you wanted to pick one of the area’s many excellent Ethiopian places to make your regular joint, this would be a very good choice.

 

Boogy & Peel

This Dupont dining room fuses two of our favorite things: sandwiches and pizza. There are thin, perfectly baked pies inspired by Italian subs, Big Macs, and Reubens. All very tasty, but we’re just as enamored with the simpler pizzas, whether pepperoni strewn with fiery salsa macha and honey or just plain cheese. Pregame with wings and pimiento cheese, and take advantage of the place’s daily happy hour—especially if you’re into natural wine—and Wednesday half-price pizza deal.

 

Camba Cafe

This is one of the area’s most regionally specific restaurants, serving food from the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, eastern Bolivia’s economic hub. The pastry case is filled with empanadas de arroz (squishy patties made from rice, yuca, and cheese, all sandwiched in a banana leaf) and cuñapes (crisp, cheesy rolls made with yuca flour, almost identical to Brazilian pão de queijo). There’s also a full menu of hearty mains such as majadito, a jambalaya-like toasted-rice dish flecked with salted beef and topped with yuca, plantains, and a fried egg.

 

Chaia

A certain kind of foodie might be wary of a (mostly) vegetarian taco place in Georgetown, but Chaia—which started at a DC farmers market and now has a second location in Penn Quarter—is hard to fault. Bettina Stern, Suzanne Simon, and their kitchen team fashion reliably tasty, balanced taco fillings out of combinations such as creamy kale with potato and pepper jack, or seasonal veggies like asparagus with spring garlic, whipped goat cheese, and sweet-pepper relish. One big, recent addition to the lineup: a chicken taco.

 

Charga Grill

The menu at this strip-mall joint is a baffling sprawl of fried-chicken sandwiches, kebab platters, and Nepali-style dumplings. But the main attraction is its whole chicken. The birds come in different styles, and the signature is the skinless Pakistani-style “charga,” which is steamed, marinated with yogurt and house-ground spices, and flash-fried. It’s finished off with slivered red onion and chaat masala. Pair it with a wide-ranging choice of sides such as biryani rice, curried chickpeas, or okra masala.

 

Chay

This Vietnamese standout serves a stellar spicy lemongrass beef noodle soup—minus the beef. Instead, chef Lan Tran uses vegan beef, soy ham, tofu, and vegetables to create a rich, comforting bowl. It’s one of many dishes on the all-vegetarian/vegan menu that will convert faux-meat skeptics into true believers. Try the “clam” dip made with soy protein, a convincing shaky “beef,” and a bubbling clay pot of caramelized “fish” and ginger.

 

Chiko

Disguised as a simple fast-casual bowl place with a heavy emphasis on delivery, this Chinese/Korean concept—from the team behind Anju—is actually something far more special. Witness the soy-glazing and furikake-buttering treatment the kitchen gives to sliced brisket smoked by the barbecue experts at 2Fifty, or the orange chicken with candied mandarins and crispy garlic, which may be the best version of the takeout classic we’ve ever tried.

 

Desi Breakfast Club

You could have French toast or pancakes, but eating your way through the Pakistani side of this all-day breakfast menu is much more gratifying. Go for paratha wraps filled with ground meat or long-cooked stews such as tangy chickpea curry and velvety haleem with shredded chicken and lentils. Our desert-island pick? A tossup between sweet and savory: a bowl of torn, flaky flatbread with melted butter and sugar or a crepe-like paratha enfolding a spiced omelet to slather with eggplant chutney.

 

Eggholic

Many of the downtown DC professionals who work within lunching distance of Eggholic seem unsure what to make of it: an egg-focused Indian restaurant that isn’t open for breakfast. It’s worth doing a little research, though. This place and its Chantilly sibling are devoted to recreating a specific genre of eggy snacks served on the streets of Gujarat. The masala-and-cheese topped katori are essentially leveled-up deviled eggs, and gotalo tastes something like shakshuka on steroids. Bombay grilled sandwiches are a nice vegetarian option, too—eggs aren’t usually considered vegetarian in India.

 

El Viejo Central American Kitchen

This small cafe is two things at once: a design-forward creative outlet for proprietor Henry Blanco and an affordable workaday pupusa joint for the community. Pupusas—$3 a pop—are some of the best around, and the Blanco family also incorporates dishes from El Salvador’s neighbors, such as Guatemalan chuchitos (chicken tamales) and a mighty Nicaraguan-style fritanga platter with carne asada, long plantain chips, and fried cheese.

 

Fava Pot

Koshari is perhaps the most famous Egyptian comfort food, and chef Dina Daniel makes a craveable rendition loaded with rice, macaroni, lentils, chickpeas, crisp shallots, and a zesty tomato sauce. But Fava Pot has many more comforts to explore: fava-bean falafel; chicken kofta with béchamel; feta pies encrusted in za’atar; and eggplant-and-ground-beef moussaka studded with raisins.

 

Habesha Market

DC’s most spartan, rough-and-ready Ethiopian restaurant is also one of its best. Habesha stays open till 11 to serve U Street revelers, and you won’t find doting service or elaborate coffee ceremonies here. What you will encounter is the Taste of Habesha platter, featuring spicy lentils, yellow split peas, collards with beef, chickpea-flour shiro, salad, cabbage, and two rich stews—doro wat and ground-beef-based menchet abesh—all on one crowded injera. Dinner for at least three for $35.

 

Haifa Grill

The first thing to note at this Palestinian shawarma spot is the shrak flatbread, nearly large enough to swaddle an infant. It’s slathered with tahini and garlic sauce (we add hot sauce), then heaped with juicy beef or chicken carved from the spinning rotisserie. Sumac onions, lettuce, pickles, tomatoes, and cucumbers are bundled in, too, creating a sandwich so hefty it feels like a two-for-one deal.

 

Hello Vietnam

There’s no corner-cutting at this humble strip-mall dining room. The aromatic pho broth gets its richness from a daylong simmer, and the fish sauce that accompanies several rice and noodle dishes is conjured up in-house. Chef/owner Luc Pham’s menu is, for a Vietnamese restaurant, relatively short, which means you can order across it with confidence, whether you’re craving bánh mì, bun cha (vermicelli with meatballs and grilled pork), or summer rolls, which here are leveled up with grilled shrimp.

 

Hijos del Maiz

El Salvador–born, Gaithersburg-raised, Oaxaca-trained chef Saul Zelaya’s first solo project—a tiny food trailer with outsize ambitions—is a paean to corn. His tacos, quesadillas, and tortas are made with masa he mills himself. The most distinctive offering is the tetela, a Oaxacan specialty made by folding a tortilla three times around a bean-and-cheese filling, forming a pouch that resembles a tricorn hat, and then throwing it onto the griddle.

 

Honeymoon Chicken

The fried chicken at this popular Petworth diner has been markedly crispier and tastier lately—and it’s even better when sprinkled with savory-sweet “honey dust.” For the best value, get it on a combo plate, which comes with delightfully buttery, salt-flecked honey rolls. We also love the crunchy tenders with honey mustard or a slaw-topped chicken sandwich with rémoulade-like comeback sauce.

 

Joia

Purple Patch chef/owner Patrice Cleary hits all the right notes at her smash-burger shops—Wagyu patties that stay juicy, soft but sturdy potato buns, and one brilliant condiment: special sauce mixed with diced lettuce, tomato, pickle, and onion, so you get everything in one bite. The colorful, very snug original in Mount Pleasant is geared toward carryout. Its Glover Park sibling has more room and another perk: a breakfast menu of espresso drinks and housemade biscuits.

 

Jon’s Joint

The superlative smash burgers at this quickly growing local chainlet start with halal beef, butchered and ground in-house, then crisped into thin saucers on the grill. Potato buns can barely contain the caramelized patties (choose one, two, or three), oozing with American cheese and special sauce. You can’t go wrong ordering the Jon’s Classic, with onion, tomato, lettuce, and pickles, but we’re suckers for the jalapeño burger, with pickled peppers, pepper jack, and grilled onions.

 

Kao Sarn Thai Street Food

Chef/owner Arin Lapakulchai’s tiny Thai storefront is hidden in the Eden Center’s indoor mall. Her wondrous take on khao soi, the curry soup gilded with crunchy noodles, is finished with pickled mustard greens and shallots. Other musts include eggplant stir-fried with ground pork and Thai basil; crispy pork belly with Chinese broccoli; and boat noodle soup, packed with pork rinds, meatballs, sprouts, and basil in an intense, blood-enhanced broth. “American spicy” will be hot enough for most; “Thai spicy” here is truly incendiary.

 

Keren

This 40-year-old Eritrean joint in Adams Morgan was down for the count for two years after a kitchen fire. But following a remodel, it made a triumphant return late last year. All-day breakfast is still a major draw, centered on ful (slow-cooked fava-bean mash topped with bright tomatoes, jalapeños, and yogurt); flaxseed silsi (tomato sauce infused with the fiber-rich superfood); and kicha (torn flatbread fried in clarified butter).

 

Khan Kabob House

Well-marinated and beautifully grilled kebabs are the mainstay at this Indian Pakistani eatery. Think glistening skewers of lamb tenderloin, juicy chicken, or oniony ground sirloin—sided with fluffy basmati, a mini salad, and shatteringly crisp Pakistani naan. A lineup of daily specials yields more treasures: Thursday’s chicken keema and Friday’s eggplant with potato are especially fine. Sides such as crunchy vegetable pakoras and soulful chickpea stew round out things. The signature karahis—chili-forward stews cooked in a wok-like pan—stretch the limits of our budget. They’re sized for two but work well for groups.

 

Kuya Ja’s Lechon Belly

The titular Cebu-style crispy roast pork at Javier Fernandez’s Filipino restaurant is actually just one of several destination-worthy items on the menu, which also includes unimpeachable lumpia (spring rolls) and spiced adobo-glazed wings. Struggling to choose? Opt for the “fully stacked” combo: slow-roasted crispy pork belly, garlic rice, coins of sweet longanisa sausage, a fried egg, and the Filipino pickle known as atsara.

 

La Tejana

This tiny Mount Pleasant taqueria serves just one thing: breakfast tacos that are worth crossing state lines for. Housemade flour tortillas swaddle fluffy scrambled eggs with refried beans, crispy potatoes, and queso made the proper Texas way, with Velveeta. Add on meats such as house-cured chorizo, bacon, or—best of all—chopped brisket that’s smoked by the barbecue pros at 2Fifty. Don’t forget to throw in the charred-tomato salsa and cilantro crema served on the side.

 

Los Hermanos and Mecho’s Dominican Kitchen

DC’s Dominican food scene would be nowhere without twin brothers Aris and Raymond Compres, who own both the humble lunch counter Los Hermanos in Columbia Heights and the more expansive Mecho’s in an out-of-the-way Northeast DC shopping center. Both are great places for the time-honored Dominican—and New York City—tradition of pointing at various fried and stewed meats to be scooped over beans and rice from the steam table. For a more elaborate dinner and a beer, head to Mecho’s.

 

Makeda

Most evenings, this sleek strip-mall eatery hosts live jazz and traditional Ethiopian music, providing a lovely soundtrack for the wonderful East African cooking coming out of the kitchen. Each colorful lentil variety, each beefy entrée, each stewed vegetable gets its own distinctive preparation. Plus, you’ve got your choice between deep-brown imported injera made from 100 percent teff flour and the supple locally prepared stuff with wheat mixed in.

 

Mandalay

Salads rule at this Burmese eatery—we love the fermented tea leaf with ribbons of green-tea-flecked cabbage, toasted garlic, and fish sauce. Ginger salad with shaved carrots and cabbage is even more intense. Spicy pickled-mango curry with pork or chicken is wonderfully complex, while a simpler onion-based curry mates well with proteins, tofu, or vegetables. If you’re craving comfort, stir-fried noodles with a shower of spring onion and a fried egg on top is all you need.

 

Manifest Bread

It started as a cult bakery business selling sourdough to some of DC’s top chefs. But since 2023, Manifest has been a winning neighborhood restaurant in its own right. Riverdale Park locals stop in at lunch for apple and cheddar on a baguette or a muffuletta on sesame focaccia. At dinner, the menu is centered around wonderfully charred pizzas with toppings like roasted broccoli, fontina, and garlic fonduta.

 

Marufuji Japanese Market

This new Japanese grocery store is a must-visit for sushi-grade fish, specialty ingredients, and beauty products, but don’t sleep on the cafe in back. There you’ll find udon soup in a lightly sweet dashi—the springy noodles are hand-stretched in Okayama, Japan—alongside hearty carrot-and-potato-studded curry with rice and your choice of katsu. Meanwhile, directly imported fish is showcased in hand rolls and eye-catching chirashi bowls.

 

Marv’s Dogs

DC can be a tough place for a homesick Chicagoan, at least on the food front. Enter this cute mint-green hot-dog shop from the owners of Cork Wine Bar and Market. The menu’s star is the classic Chicago dog: an all-beef frank carefully laden with sliced tomatoes, sport peppers, pickle spears, celery salt, mustard, and zingy relish. Bookend it—and maybe a chili dog, too—with a ’90s arcade game downstairs and the best vanilla soft-serve in the city.

 

Mélange Foods

Former fine-dining chef Elias Taddesse showcases three masterful menus —centered around burgers, fried chicken, and tacos—at this arty indoor-outdoor hangout right by the 9:30 Club. Craving a cheeseburger? It’s tough to beat the dry-aged one here, done up with brown-butter aïoli and pickled onions. Taddesse cleverly weaves Ethiopian ingredients into his fried-chicken menu, spicing buttermilk-brined birds with berbere and topping fabulous mac and cheese with injera crumbles. When it comes to tacos, it’s all about the crunchy fried cod on housemade corn tortillas.

 

Melt Gourmet Cheeseburgers

This is one of the rare burger joints worth driving out of your way for. Thick house-ground aged-beef patties come on airy, freshly baked buns in a dizzying number of styles, from a fire-roasted-green-chile cheeseburger to an applewood-bacon-and-Gorgonzola version. A surprise hit is the Paris Burger, with a smear of sweet roasted garlic, Dijon mustard, balsamic-glazed onions, and thick slabs of Brie. Don’t miss the balsamic-drizzled onion rings or sweet-potato fries with a side of marshmallow fluff.

 

Nha Trang

This Eden Center gem is hidden inside the sprawling Vietnamese shopping center’s interior mall. A perfect meal starts with the barbecue pork sausage rolls—a meaty take on summer rolls packed with herbs and crispy shallots. The kitchen excels at comfort food like ground-pork congee, which gets better and better as the flavors meld. (It’s even more delicious the next day for breakfast.) Clay pots boast a layer of gorgeous, paella-like caramelized rice, best scooped up with loads of fresh seafood and vegetables.

 

Pho Ga Vang

Pho ga (chicken pho) too often tastes like a watered-down version of its beefy sibling—but not here. This popular Eden Center soup spot specializes in the poultry version of “Vietnamese penicillin,” turning out a broth that’s rich and intoxicating. The classic bowl is topped with juicy, skin-on chicken, though beef also makes an appearance on the menu. (We love the thinly sliced, tender brisket.) The tight menu is all about pho, but the restaurant shares space with a colorful boba joint that makes fun dessert drinks like toasted-brown-sugar boba milk.

 

Pho Thin

This legendary Hanoi pho shop recently landed in Falls Church, where it quickly drew crowds and hype. The restaurant is famous for the garlicky wok-seared rib eye that fills its scallion-topped bowls. While many other pho broths in our area lean sweet with a distinct star-anise flavor, this one is deeply savory with a hint of roasted garlic. And instead of thin, stringy rice noodles, the ones here are wide with just the right amount of chew. Load up on the sweet pickled raw garlic that comes as a table condiment.

 

Ravi Kabob House

For nearly three decades, this Pakistani joint has remained one of the region’s go-tos for charcoal-grilled kebabs. Styrofoam plates on plastic trays come heaped with tender, charred chicken and ground beef, plus rice, salad, curried chickpeas, yogurt sauce, and Frisbee-size disks of bread tandoor-baked to order. From adjoining Ravi Chatkhara, try the fiery karahi curries sized for two (or more), with bone-in chunks of meat and slivers of ginger.

 

Rice Paper

Even for lunch on a random Tuesday, crowds are jockeying for tables at this Eden Center standby. The sprawling Vietnamese menu provides a lot to keep fans coming back, starting with spiced ground beef wrapped in grape leaves and sweet lacquered roasted quail. Other favorites include an expertly crisped bánh xèo crepe stuffed with shrimp, pork, and mung beans or a generous combo platter of grilled meats and seafood ready to wrap with thin vermicelli patties, lettuce, herbs, and rice paper.

 

Ruan Thai

Staying power matters, and this humble storefront has been ladling up gorgeous curries from family recipes for more than 25 years. Red curry with duck and a shrimp-studded yellow-curry stir-fry are particularly fine. Fried watercress with seafood and cashews is a textural thrill, and skewers of caramelized pork get extra punch from herb-flecked vinegar. But the bowl everyone will be fighting for: a heap of fermented pork with red onion, peanuts, and crunchy rice.

 

Saints Paradise Cafeteria

There will never be anywhere else in DC quite like this decades-old lunch counter in a light-filled side room of the United House of Prayer for All People, in Shaw. Try the fried whiting, the fried chicken, the meatloaf, the smothered pork chops, the collards, the cakes, or really anything that looks good from the ever-shifting steam table. The restaurant is as much an institution as the place of worship that houses it.

 

San Pancho

Wildly popular with Takoma locals since it opened in 2024, San Pancho is a tribute to the influential Cal-Mex cuisine of San Francisco’s Mission district— “Pancho” is a classic nickname for Francisco. Super burritos are stuffed into slightly translucent, unctuous Sonoran flour tortillas. Salsas are deeply flavorful. Even the cocktails and creative coffee drinks are worth a shout-out.

 

Sardi’s Peruvian Chicken

Kids’ soccer teams after a game, UMD students, immigrant families—they all gather on busy evenings at the many locations of this Peruvian-chicken chain, founded by a Greek family 20 years back. Expect deeply burnished, fall-apart charbroiled birds, plus unexpected sides like deep-fried Brussels sprouts alongside the typical fried yuca and rice and beans. The fridge is stocked with two-liter bottles of Inca Kola, a goldenrod-colored DC-area takeout staple.

 

Spice Kitchen

These colorful eateries come off like the Chipotle of Nigerian food, and that’s exactly what owner Olumide Shokunbi wants them to become. But his places pay more attention to detail than most fast-casual chains do: Witness the grill-blackened suya salmon, sprinkled with red onions and an addictive seasoning powder imported from northern Nigeria, or even the grilled corn on the cob, slathered in spicy honey.

 

Sushi Hachi

Affordable, high-quality sushi that doesn’t involve a happy hour isn’t a pipe dream at this Barracks Row dining room. Each night, you’ll find $8 rolls filled with, say, hamachi, fried green beans, and jalapeño, or eel, crunchy shrimp, and avocado. Want to splurge—but still stay within our $25 budget? Order thin slices of prime beef sizzling on a hot stone and sprinkled with truffle salt.

 

Taqueria Habanero

The high-quality housemade corn tortillas at these family-run Mexican places elevate every taco to the point that it’s hard to go wrong—whether classic al pastor with pineapple; goat barbacoa; or chicken tinga. Worth your time, too: grilled octopus and cactus with avocado.

 

Taqueria Sabor Mixteco

Maybe you remember Mixtec, a pioneer of serious Mexican cooking in DC that closed in 2014 after 40 years in Adams Morgan. This taqueria is the project of a Mixtec veteran, Juan Solano, with help from Apolinar Cervantes and Marisol Gonzales. Oaxacan dishes such as a pizza-size tlayuda—a crispy tortilla topped with beans, chorizo, and more—and the hearty pork-and-potato stew called chileajo really shine. We’re also fans of the alambre: The melty mix of grilled meat, poblanos, onions, and cheese becomes a make-your-own-taco experience.

 

Taqueria Xochi

Having grown to four locations since it opened in 2020, Taqueria Xochi has become one of DC’s go-to Mexican spots. Diners certainly post a lot of pictures of the birria online—it’s solid—but don’t forget the cemita, Puebla’s entry in the pantheon of the world’s great sandwiches. A chicken-milanesa cutlet is stacked on a seeded roll with onion, tomato, strands of queso Oaxaca, smoky chipotles in adobo, pickled jalapeño, and a liberal schmear of avocado.

 

Tempo Shack

If you’re walking down H Street after a couple of drinks, Tempo Shack feels like an improbable apparition: a small takeout window from which Dipesh Acharya dispenses uncompromising Himalayan street food late into the night. The Nepali dumplings called momos are the one essential here (try the water-buffalo version, stir-fried with a vibrant chili glaze) but chow mein and spiced meat or veggie skewers are good options, too.

 

Thai Square

Colorful boxes of Thai bubblegum line the walls of this eatery, a longtime favorite of Thai expats. Spot-on classics, sometimes with a dash of the unexpected, are what keeps customers loyal. Think glossy pad see ew noodles; expertly fried morsels of duck in a fiery sauce; a jumble of spicy shrimp tossed with lemongrass, scallions, and cilantro; and a bowl of garlicky Chinese broccoli strewn with pork belly.

 

323 Dhaba Express

Jasdeep Singh and his wife, Sandeep Kaur, first opened a West Virginia truck stop to serve the large community of intercity truckers who hail from their native Punjab. Soon after, they expanded to this Sterling cafe, which serves vegetarian Indian fare as hearty as you’d expect for a truck stop: rich curries made with chickpeas, dal, and mustard greens, all topped with plenty of ghee, plus a full menu of freshly baked flatbreads such as the potato-stuffed, coriander-studded Amritsari kulcha.

 

Trippy Tacos

The birria tacos at this food truck turned storefront are some of the best around, and the rich, red-chili-laced stew lends star power to other plates, such as birria ramen or the popular Mexican street snack called mulitas (tortillas filled with birria and cheese and griddled till crisp). Flour and corn tortillas, both made in-house, shine in tacos with fillings of tender lengua and al pastor pork and in the baleada sencilla, a flour tortilla overflowing with egg, beans, cheese, avocado, and crema.

 

Truong Tien

The spicy lemongrass beef noodle soup, with its cure-all broth and craggy meatballs, is what keeps us coming back again and again to this transportive Vietnamese restaurant tucked into the depths of the Eden Center mall. The menu is also full of lesser-seen specialties from central Vietnam’s Hue province, including banana-leaf-wrapped tapioca dumplings and fried and steamed rice cakes stuffed with tiny shrimp.

 

2Fifty

There’s more than delicious—but pricey—Wagyu and prime brisket at these Texas-style barbecue destinations. Thickly sliced smoked turkey puts all others in the shade. Pork ribs are tender and peppery, while pulled pork has all the hallmarks of meat smoked nice and slow. Don’t overlook such daily specials as the Monday brisket burger or sides like mustardy potato salad, crunchy slaw, and beans with nubbins of brisket.

 

Upstate FTW

Chiko/Anju cofounder Scott Drewno switches his attention from Korean cooking to his native upstate New York’s cuisine on this menu, served inside the U Street bar Sport & Social. Classic Buffalo wings are a thing of beauty—fried to order so they arrive hot and crispy, then sided with chunky blue-cheese dressing—and the creamy Buffalo-chicken dip is just as delicious. Chili dogs are made with snappy Zweigle’s franks. Our main advice: Bring friends. Order a French-bread pizza here and you’ll get an entire, full-size split baguette.

 

Vit Goel Tofu (Lighthouse Tofu)

Korean staples such as bibim bap and bulgogi are solid at this cozy Annandale fixture, but the real draw is the unparalleled sundubu-jjigae (tofu stew). Every bubbling pot stars fresh, silky tofu, though the flavors are distinct: The beef-and-kimchi bowl is tangy and spicy, while the seafood pot is subtle and comforting, hiding plump mussels and head-on shrimp beneath the surface. Crack an egg immediately into the cauldron for even more depth and richness. A round of delicate pan-fried vegetable dumplings makes a satisfying snack while you wait for these made-to-order masterpieces.

 

Yellow

Chef Michael Rafidi’s fine-dining Palestinian restaurant, Albi, and his French/Middle Eastern bistro, La’ Shukran, are two of the most sought-after reservations in town. But you can breeze in for a far more affordable meal at these Levantine cafes. The perfect morning is a za’atar-encrusted croissant filled with labneh alongside a coconut-cardamom iced coffee, while lunch brings wood-fired pita sandwiches stuffed with BBQ lamb shoulder or harissa cauliflower.

 

Yu Noodles

This fast-growing local chain is devoted to the spicy street food of Chongqing and to all things noodle (the ones here are made in-house). We go for yibin, spicy dry noodles with minced pork and crushed peanuts; an elixir-like soup of flounder, sour pickled cabbage, and noodles; colorful “rainbow” soup dumplings; and wontons in fiery oil—even better topped with a fried egg. Fruity boba drinks are the perfect foil to the bold, often numbing, tastes.

 

Z&Z Manoushe Bakery

Yes, the manoushe—thin flatbreads, often described as the Levantine version of pizza—emerge from the ovens here with the blistery bubbles you’ll find on a great Neapolitan pie. But mostly, the similarities end there. Our favorite rendition, the “Lebanese bride,” is topped with a cooling mix of labneh, chopped tomatoes and cucumbers, and plenty of fresh herbs. Or opt for the “cocktail,” a flatbread with molten cheese on one side and a thick paving of za’atar on the other. (The owners run a company that specializes in the spice blend.)

This article appears in the August 2026 issue of Washingtonian.