Where to Eat in Washington
Merrill, Jill
Where to Eat in Washington by Jill Merrill CAPITOL HILL Congressional Cafeterias. The two cafeterias on the House side and two on the Senate side are open Monday-Friday when Congress is in...
...A popular singles place...
...At lunchtime on weekdays there’s a soup/ salad/sandwich buffet that’s a bargain at $2.95...
...You’ll get a good, light meal here...
...While the genial, back-slapping atmosphere can be an annoyance, the food isn’t bad...
...A gandy dancer is an old-time railroad worker...
...It’s justifiably uncrowded...
...Hyatt Regency, 400 New Jersey Ave...
...Yolanda’s, 223 Pennsylvania Ave...
...It’s been transformed into yet another California-style place, full of redwood and plants, and the quality of the food has gone downhill...
...209?4, 209% Pennsylvania Ave...
...Toscanini’s, 313 Pennsylvania Ave...
...Monday-Friday, 10 a.m...
...Friday and Saturday until 3 a.m...
...Dubliner Restaurant and Pub, 4 F St...
...They don’t have a liquor license, which ends up as a bonus for the customer-bring in your own bottle of wine (there are three liquor stores in the same block as La Ruche) and the cafe cheerfully supplies the glasses...
...Saturday, 11 a.m...
...Here you’ll find sporadically good, moderately priced Southern Italian cooking in a decor right out of a Jean Harlow movie...
...Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-2 a.m., Sunday, 11 am.-1 a.m...
...This used to be a cranky, unpretentious restaurant with no-nonsense waitresses and menu...
...It’s a nice place to sit and talk over a drink...
...Hugo’s serves dinner only, 6-10:30 p.m...
...A very attractive wood-paneled restaurant with wood-burning fireplace...
...It’s on the roof of the hotel-an impressive setting-and the food, like the Hyatt itself, is expensive and more pleasing to the eye than the soul...
...This elegantly simple restaurant offers a few exquisitely prepared entrees for lunch and dinner...
...closed Sunday...
...Deli-Phone, 515 2nd St, N.E., 547-4774...
...S.E., 547-8360...
...Sunday 10:30 an.-2 a.m...
...Saturday, lunch only closed Sunday...
...The best deal at the Hyatt is the Sunday buffet brunch, served in the lobby from 11 a.m...
...Jenkins Hill is open 11 :30 a.m.-2 a.m...
...S.E., 544-6352...
...Tavern the Greek Islands, 307 Pennsylvania Ave...
...Machiavelli’s, 613 Pennsylvania Ave...
...If you can put up with slow, often discombobulated service, you’ll find the food good, attractively prepared, and moderate in price...
...This is a marvelous place where the secret rednecks on the Hill (and they are legion) hang out...
...Expensive...
...Friday until 3 a.m...
...Friday and Saturday, 6-1 1 p.m...
...S.E., 544-6603...
...It consists of a series of small rooms with vaulted ceilings and tile floors, and it’s open to the public...
...Monday-Friday, 11 :30 a.m.-2:30 pm...
...This is by far the best government-operated restaurant on Capitol Hill...
...N.E., 546488...
...Good, inexpensive Greek food enhanced with live Greek music every night except Monday...
...This is a cafe on the Senate side of the Hill that can seat up to 80 people when it’s nice enough for the out-door tables...
...The Refectory, Capitol Building (ground floor, North Wing, Senate side), 2244870...
...It’s cheerful and airy, with a dining room downstairs and a bar, tables, and comfortable sofas upstairs...
...The prices are moderate and they take no reservations...
...Sunday 4-1 1 p.m...
...There’s a jukebox full of old tunes and a cheerfully decadent atmosphere...
...The restaurant is above Jenkins Hill, which is more of a singles bar than a restaurant, although you can order standard pub fare...
...No credit cards or reservations...
...Tiber Creek Club, 15 E St...
...Open 11 a.m.-midnight, seven days a week...
...Rating them is a little like choosing between long and short knives to kill oneself, but the Senate cafeterias are a bit more cheerful and conducive to digestion, and are famous for their good down-home breakfasts, including grits and homemade breads...
...to 3 p.m...
...Open seven...
...Expensive...
...Although this restaurant is attractive, it’s so crowded and noisy at lunch it should be called Crow and Raven...
...to noon and 1:30 to 3:OO...
...This charming French cafe offers pleasant, airy surroundings and excellent food...
...MondayThursday, 6-10 p.m...
...Weekdays, 11 :30 a.m.-2:30 p.m...
...S.E., 543-1930...
...There’s good pizza, but everything else is fairly expensive and not very subtle...
...3 p.m...
...to 4 p.m...
...dinner 6 p.m.-midnight, Saturday and Sunday open until 1 a.m...
...The service is terrible, but the soups are good...
...Lunch, 11 :30 am.-2:30 pm., Monday-Friday only...
...weekdays and until 11 p.m...
...days, 7 a.m.-2 a.m...
...The service is attentive and the prices moderate...
...Monday-Wednesday, 11 a.m.-1 1 p.m...
...Mike Palm’s, 231 Pennsylvania Ave...
...Definitely need reservations for lunch...
...No reservations...
...S.E., 543-3300...
...closed Monday...
...N.E., 546-9 154...
...The food is mercifully American with a few continental specialties and moderately priced...
...closed for lunch Saturday and all day Sunday...
...S.E., 543-8337...
...The worst of the lot is the Longworth Building cafeteria on the House side, which used to be a garage-not much has changed since that incarnation...
...Tuesday-Thursday and Sunday, 5-1lp.m...
...It’s very popular, but the herding is efficient so the service doesn’t suffer...
...Though not at a Joycean level of grubbiness, the Dubliner does have a noisy charm...
...Yolanda herself creates delicious pastas every evening, At lunch the menu is conventional but good...
...A comfortable pub in the kllevue Hotel where you can stretch out and enjoy a yard of draft Whitbread or Courage with a tasty English meat pie and other pub fare at lunch or dinner...
...on weekends...
...The seafood quiche and the pastries are especially good...
...The two cafeterias on the House side and two on the Senate side are open Monday-Friday when Congress is in session...
...Friday and Saturday, 5 p.m.-midnight...
...N.W., 737-3773...
...and dinner 5:30 -10 p.m...
...The wall-hangings alone make it a must (there’s kitsch of every description), but it also happens, rather incidentally, I think, that the food is quite good...
...With the pleasant surroundings and impeccable service, reservations are recommended...
...Many congressional aides like the Dubliner, so if you don’t like crowds, avoid lunch and happy hour...
...The drawback: the tables are napkin-sized...
...seven days a week...
...Jonah’s Oyster Kitchen serves lunch 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m...
...S.E., 543-2725...
...Reservations recommended at lunch...
...Monday-Saturday, 6-10:30 pm...
...Friday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-3 a.m...
...Park Promenade offers three expensive meals seven days a week and is convenient, but not much else...
...S.E., 544-2338...
...Hawk and Dove, 329 Pennsylvania Ave...
...As the timetable suggests, this is a place for working meals...
...Tune-Inn, 331% Pennsylvania Ave...
...The atmosphere improves markedly in the evening...
...Moderate...
...Monocle, 107 D St...
...Monday-Friday, 11:30 a.m.-1 a.m...
...Sunday-Thursday, 11 :30 a.m.-midnight...
...No credit cards or reservations...
...All are open only to staff and guests at peak lunch times (roughly noon to 1:30, though it varies some) and to the general public from (again, roughly) 8 a.m...
...No reservations...
...The specialties of the house are Senate bean soup (45 cents) and hot Southern pecan pie (75 cents...
...N.E., 546-3377...
...Monday-Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-midnight...
...There are three restaurants in this hotel...
...Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-2 a.m...
...Monday-Thursday...
...Candy Dancer, 200 E St...
...7 p.m...
...this restaurant is so called because it’s near Union Station...
...It’s expensive, but this is a good town for seafood, and it’s well-prepared here...
...closed Sunday...
...The restaurant is open from 10 a.m...
...until whenever the senators leave the floor for the day...
...when Congress isn’t in session, it’s open 8 am...
...La Ruche, 239 Massachusetts Ave...
...N.W., 638-0900...
...Open every day, 8 a.m.-2 a.m...
...A great meal for the money...
...For $7.95 you get all the champagne, eggs, meat, and seafood you can eat...
...The crab cakes and butterfly shrimp, in particular, as well as the cheap beer, rescue the Tune-Inn from being the dive it longs to be...
...Thursday-Saturday, until midnight...
...N.W., 737-1234...
Vol. 10 • April 1978 • No. 2
