If you’ve ever encountered eel on a menu, it’s probably been atop sushi rice at a Japanese restaurant—and that’s about it. Lately, though, the slippery snake-like fish are turning up in some unexpected ways across a range of cuisines.
Kevin Tien, chef/owner of Moon Rabbit in Penn Quarter, says he encountered a lot of eel dishes, from soups to congee, when he traveled to Vietnam for the first time a year ago. “I didn’t realize myself that eel is a really popular source of protein in Vietnam,” he says. “And with my background in Japanese cuisine, I thought it was just an easy thing to put on our menu.”
Now, at his own modern Vietnamese restaurant, Tien pairs a torched sweet-soy-glazed freshwater eel with a fried mochi ball known as bánh rán. A southern Vietnamese version is studded with sesame seeds and often filled with mung-bean paste or red bean, but Tien models his beignet-like doughnuts on the unadorned style in the north, where eel is more prevalent. A pickled-carrot-and-daikon salad, smoked-tuna aïoli, and habanero jam finish off the multi-textural dish.
Eel is also popular in Korea, even though you won’t find it at too many Korean restaurants in the area. At Ingle Korean Steakhouse in Tysons and its new location on 14th Street, you can get it grilled tableside, just like the beef.
Owner James Jang says eel can be expensive and hard to source unless you buy the pre-marinated packaged versions. At first, he got live eels from a sustainable farm in Maine, but the preparation was labor-intensive, so now the kitchen buys them already fileted. The fish is partially cooked in the oven, but the staff renders the fat and crisps the skin at tabletop grills, then dips it in a sweet eel sauce that’s further caramelized.
Even more surprising are the eel croquettes at Maison Bar à Vin, the Paris-inspired wine bar in Adams Morgan. While eel is a “forgotten” ingredient in old-school French cuisine, chef Matt Conroy is incorporating it in new ways. At his Georgetown neo-bistro, Lutèce, he has previously whipped eel into an aïoli over asparagus, or layered it into potato pavé. Conroy thought eel’s smoky flavor would be a delicious substitute for ham in croquettes, which are topped with more brûléed eel. Conroy says a higher-quality domestic product has become more accessible in recent years.
“It’s super clean, beautiful, fatty, unctuous meat,” Conroy says. “You’ll probably see it start popping up more and more.”
This article appears in the January 2026 issue of Washingtonian.
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind DC’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.
