What We Miss Most: The Washington D.C. Edition
If you’re the way we are here at Resy, you’ve been spending the past weeks thinking every day about your favorite restaurants. What do we miss most about them? What are we most looking forward to returning to, as they begin to fully reopen for dining? Yes, there’s plenty of takeout and delivery to enjoy, groceries and wine to buy, and lots of other ways to support the restaurants we love. But nothing beats the experience of being in a restaurant, enjoying the dishes you adore.
We’ve compiled a list of favorite things about dining in Washington we’re hoping to get back to soon.
- Getting a seat at Maydan that’s just close enough to feel the warmth from the giant live-fire hearth.
- Feasting on salmon candy, fish that’s been smoked in-house with honey and spices, while taking in a live music set at Ivy City Smokehouse.
- The grilled kimchi toast with labneh and the Reuben at Ellē, no matter the hour, and any and all of the baked goods from the bakery.
- Dim sum in all its glorious forms, like weekends at Maketto, savoring crispy gruyere dumplings with Chinese beef chilli. Or sitting in one of the jade-green booths at Q by Peter Chang and ordering the Dim Sum Platter, which is only served weekdays at lunch.
- The five-course Northern Italian menu at Obelisk changes nightly, but what hasn’t changed since 1987 is how special any meal there can be.
- Solo dining at Bad Saint: snagging a seat at the counter and digging into a pile of ginisang ampalaya — bitter melon scrambled with eggs and preserved black beans.
- A glass of red wine and a full spread of pintxos and bocadillos from the bar at Estadio.
- Making new friends at the standing-room-0nly Spoken English, over skewers of grilled Green Hill Camembert and fried chicken-skin dumplings.
- Steamy cheung fun (rice noodle rolls) with the best herbal cocktails from Tiger Fork. Also that incredible barbecue plate, with pork belly, pork shoulder, and soya chicken.
- Watching the chefs hard at work in The Dabney’s open kitchen.
Dim sum from Q by Peter Chang // Photo Courtesy Q by Peter Chang - The architectural masterpiece that is Pichet Ong’s Mykonos cheesecake, at Brothers and Sisters.
- Diving deep into the wine list at The Red Hen, and pledging eternal allegiance to Pra’s Monte Grande Soave.
- A mai tai to accompany any late-night meal at Bar Charley, along with their Sunday Night Steaks.
- Because husband-and-wife duo Yuan and Carey Tang always make you feel like a part of their extended family at Rooster & Owl. Also those tiny robot-shaped gummies at the end of the prix-fixe meal … so, so good.
- Sipping on margaritas on a balmy summer night at El Chucho.
- Working our way through the bread offerings at Tail Up Goat, while enjoying a great glass of wine and great conversation at the bar.
- The colorful hand-painted pasta plates at Napoli Pasta Bar.
- Bonding over desserts and the unusual wine selections with the table next to you at Reveler’s Hour, and periodically getting lost in the wine-themed comic wallpaper in the bathroom.
- The oyster- and Champagne-fueled happy hours at Hank’s Oyster Bar.
- Cheese, cheese, and more cheese and Swiss fondue/raclette specialist Stable DC, especially the cheese flowers served with pear bread and pickles.
- Boozy milkshakes and housemade Pop Tarts (aka Ted’s Tarts) from Ted’s Bulletin.
- Devouring a whole bowl of shrimp wonton ramen at Jinya Ramen Bar in the bar upstairs.
- Sitting at a curtain-covered booth at Pappe, feasting on chaat dhai puri, sipping on chai, and sharing small plates with friends.
- Getting a seat inside the dining room at ANJU — feeling like you’re inside a pub in Seoul — and ordering the spiraled tornado potato.
- Seeing the smiling faces of owners Jocelyn Law-Yone, Simone Jacobson, and Eric Wang when you walk inside Thamee.
- The cheesy, buttery goodness of Supra’s arajuli khachapuri, the boat-shaped, egg-topped cheese bread that’s so hot right now.
