We like our burgers dressed the old-fashioned way, with cheddar, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and grilled onions, alongside a double chocolate shake and sweet-potato fries.
In the mood for something gooey and indulgent? Look to the bronze-crusted, three-cheese macaroni or one of the six grilled cheeses.
Jaeger schnitzel is a thin cut of veal topped with a homey mushroom-cream sauce and served with a mound of sautéed vegetables such as carrots and zucchini.
Appetizers of sambosa and bulanee, perfectly fried triangles filled with beef, potato, or leeks, make for outstanding starters. For entrées try one of the stews or rice dishes.
Try the sesame cakes (on weekend mornings, get them filled with scrambled egg), pork-filled wontons in a bowl of red-chili oil, and giant baton-shaped crullers.
The East/West mash-up at this slick-looking sports bar filled with Beatles memorabilia turns up such curiosities as kimchee quesadillas and tacos stuffed with galbi (marinated short ribs).
Try one of the soups, such as the restorative beef soup with noodles, egg, and turnips or the clam-and-tofu soondooboo with a red-pepper broth and an egg whisked in for richness.
While you don’t want to miss the grilled meats, other parts of the menu are worth exploring. Those include chul pan stocked with baby octopus and pork, as well as a scallion-studded seafood pancake.
While the soondubu is the star of the menu, there are other gems. The selection of pa jun—egg-and-scallion pancakes with seafood, kimchee, or vegetables—make for good additions to the table.
We recommend: Shrimp salad with lemongrass; crispy fish with green mango; crispy pork belly with chili and basil; coconut ice cream.
The veggie sandwich is one of the best things on a menu that abounds in bacon and pork. Also good: Shrimp with green-onion rémoulad; gumbo; turkey-meatball sandwich; crawfish pot pie.
We recommend: Tuna burger with grilled pineapple; Greek-style lamb burger; Wellington burger with blue cheese and roasted mushrooms.
The produce here is bright and fresh and tossed into an array of salads, including a noteworthy one with shredded beets, walnuts, and garlic. Also good: Carrot salad with garlic and chili peppers.
Burgers have always been a strength here, fries have a double-fried crispness, and wings get a zippy Sriracha-stoked glaze. Also good: Fettuccine w/ olives & sausage meatballs
Try the crispy salmon, a moist filet encased in a crunchy shell and set on steamed jasmine rice. Or a dish of deep-fried bay scallops tossed with basil, scallions, and red peppers.
This colorful cafe specializes in hearty portions of Bolivian cooking. Adventurous eaters will have lots to choose from, including soups with beef kidney & beef tripe, both available Sat. and Sun.
Considered the king of the area’s Peruvian-chicken houses. A tip to up your chances of a getting a great chicken: Prime time might mean waiting in line, but the birds won’t sit in a warmer.
The kitchen’s skill is evident in its mole, a sauce that involves no fewer than 15 ingredients and lots of hours. The rich and nutty version here comes ladled over chicken enchiladas.
The kitchen gets many things right, whether it’s perfectly greaseless yam-and-shrimp cakes from the fryer, beautifully glazed pork skewers off the grill, or well-balanced salads.
We recommend: Fried risotto balls with mozzarella and roasted eggplant; Margherita pizza with buffalo mozzarella; chorizo pizza with onion and roasted red pepper; prosciutto-and-arugula pizza.
Note the color coding on the menu. For most people, yellow will be plenty hot; red means the kitchen has seasoned with abandon.
The Sorbillo’s Original, a turnover stuffed with cured meats, ricotta, and tomato sauce, is filling and flavor-packed. Seasonal antipasti are as healthy as they are tasty.
Of all the restaurants Pres. Obama has visited in Washington, the only one to have merited a 2nd visit is this bare-bones burger joint. The patty is 10 oz. of prime, aged beef and eats like a steak.
Some might find it overkill, but if you’re the kind of person who’s more likely to give up chocolate than cheddar, this wine bar within a cheese shop is cause for celebration.
Start things off with a round of mantu, the thin-skinned, free-form beef dumplings that are smothered in tangy meat sauce, mint, and thick yogurt.
The kitchen makes its own lemongrass-laced pork and roasts a perfect, plump quail. But there are rewards up and down the menu, and many of the best dishes don’t make meat the star.
The 149-item menu has many good entry points, but we like to start with the shrimp toast—airy baguette halves slathered in shrimp paste and deep-fried to a crisp —or a round of spring rolls.
Good starts to the meal include a simple dish of cold cucumber with cilantro. Pork with crunchy cucumber and seaweed-like mushrooms is good for those who shy away from spice.
Look to servers for help with unfamiliar dishes. They’ll readily demonstrate, say, how to make the lime-salt-and-pepper dip that perks up sweetly lacquered roasted quail.
Begin with the superb veggie combo platter, which includes fine renditions of baba ghanoush, hummus, tabbouleh, and foul (fava beans). It’s a good primer for the zesty, garlicky flavors that abound.
Start w/ something from the fryer—such as batter-dipped squash batons or bundles of watercress fritters dipped in tamarind-chili sauce—then balance it with the crunchy, earthy pickled tea-leaf salad.
Enhance any of the phos with accompanying plates of bean sprouts, basil sprigs, lime wedges, and jalapeños or with a dollop of the Sriracha chili sauce found on the tables.
Most entrées are hearty enough to share—a good way to stick to a Cheap Eats budget. In Louisiana fashion, the owners are big on live music, and bands play most weekends.
There might not be a better value than the $4.99 refillable bowls of sul leung tang, a soup made by simmering beef bones for 48 hours and studding the broth with beef slices and rice noodles.
Dosas, those ultra-thin crepes that are a meal in themselves, are expertly made. Lemon rice and chole—a chickpea stew topped with chopped jalapeños—make good pairings.
The warm pita holds spit-grilled pork and is finished with a handful of crispy French fries. Dips such as kalamata-olive tapenade and tyrokafteri make nice shares with lightly griddled pita.
Each pie’s tender crusts hold fillings made with locally raised meats. There’s a traditional Cornwall-style ground-beef-and-potato pasty, but we preferred the Philly cheesesteak, laced w/ provolone.
Accompany all the meat on the menu with a generous plate of the sweet, fragrant rice-and-carrot pilaf called shirin polo and a dish of warm eggplant dip.
The stars of the menu are the generous entrées, particularly a spicy, cilantro-rubbed chicken tandoori kebab. The juicy ground-beef chelo kebab kubideh impressed with its meatloaf-like flavors.
