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Dining in DC: The Original Pancake House

February 21, 2025 / / 0 Comments 
Dining in DC: Notes from a Week in the Capital

The pancake choices are endless at this Falls Church pancake house.

For our last meal in the DC area, our friend Lavinia took us to The Original Pancake House (hereafter TOPH) for breakfast. This had been a favorite breakfast spot for her family for years, though they hadn’t been back for a while. Apparently, the same was true of many people. Once a very busy spot, it was half empty that Sunday morning. In an area home to federal workers and a time when these are being decimated by the Trump administration, perhaps that’s to be expected.

TOPH is a casual, old fashioned sort of place. It’s part of a small chain with locations in Bethesda and Rockville, MD, as well. Its main attraction are the endless variations of pancakes and other breakfast goodies it offers. Choosing among so many great sounding options was very hard.

I decided on the Croissant Cinnamon Nut French Toast ($14), which consisted of two croissants, sliced in half, dipped in egg batter and grilled. I came with sliced almonds and cinnamon sugar. There was corn syrup at the table, which wasn’t bad, but obviously not nearly as good as maple syrup would have been. The French toast itself was good, but nothing special. I think I actually prefer the texture of regular bread to that of the croissant. I’m not a big breakfast eater, so one croissant was plenty for me – fortunately Mike finished the rest.

Mike ordered the Two by Two by Two ($12.5) from the Senior Menu. It came with 2 eggs, 2 slices of bacon and 2 buttermilk pancakes. He found it unexceptional but satisfying.

My daughter had the carrot cake pancakes ($13.5), which came with six regular size pancakes (I was expecting them to be smaller!) with cream cheese frosting. She felt they tasted like carrot cake and were very good.

We also had a side of hash browns ($5), which were pretty average and of the raspberry filled beignets ($4.50 for 2). My daughter had never had beignets before, and she was curious due to multiple viewings of the Princess and the Frog when she was little. She was disappointed. She found the beignets to be heavy, and compared them to a denser, unglazed jelly doughnut. I’d learned during our trip to New Orleans the previous year that I wasn’t fond of beignets either, and these didn’t change my mind.

I don’t remember what Lavinia and her son had, but I think they were satisfied. i had a cup of pretty average coffee ($4.5).

In all, I’d go back because I’d be curious to explore more of the many, many options in the menu – and the prices seemed pretty reasonable.

The Original Pancake House
7395 Lee Highway
Falls Church, VA 
703-698-6292

Dining in DC: JD Bar & Restaurant

February 19, 2025 / / 0 Comments 
Dining in DC: Notes from a Week in the Capital

You won’t get a more authentic Ethiopian dining experience outside of Addis Ababa.

JD Bar & Restaurant is my friend Lavinia’s favorite Ethiopian restaurant, and it’s there where we headed for a very late lunch/very early dinner on the Saturday we were visiting her at home. We had visited a museum during the morning, had been delayed after an incident with law enforcement – it turns out the NSA does not take kindly to people photographing the surveillance equipment on their police cars -, and Mike had headed off to another museum while the rest of us sought to satisfy our hunger. We figured that at that midafternoon hour, the restaurant would be empty. Boy, were we in for a surprise.

It turns out that, for whatever reason, 3 PM on a Saturday is the preferred time for Ethiopians in Virginia to go out for a meal. JD Bar & Restaurant’s parking lot was packed when we got there – and the restaurant had nary an empty seat. Or almost. There was one table that could accommodate us, and the host quickly took us to it even as we suggested that we might do take out instead. As the only obviously non-Ethiopians in the place, he could have easily turned as away, but he was extremely accommodating. Indeed, everyone in the restaurant was very nice, though we did get some stares (friendly ones), and we got check upon by the chef and the manager in addition to our waiter. We felt welcomed.

So crowded was the restaurant that it was difficult to appreciate any decore it might have, though I think I remember some paintings of daily life on the walls. They have a small stage set up with microphones, though fortunately (given that we were seated right next to it) there wasn’t a show while we were there.

We ordered quite a bit of food, which was surprisingly affordable for the price and quantity given. I had the meat combo (~$20), which included key sega wot, alecha sega wot, menchet alecha, menchet key, and lega tibse. They were all delicious, none too spicy and while I ate until I couldn’t fit another morsel in my stomach, it probably amounted to little more than a third of the foot in the plate.

Lavinia ordered the JD Special 3 (~$60), which consisted of a HUGE platter with layers of ferrari tibs (chicken), derek tibs (beef) and kitfo topped with aybe (cheese). It was really a monumental platter, that which legends are made of and I’m sad I didn’t take a photo (I hadn’t brought my phone with me). Obviously it’s for many people to share. All the meats were very good, but the derek tibs, in particular, where out of this world. It’s a dry dish, but the pieces of beef were very tender and really nicely seasoned.

Lavinia also ordered a veggie combo ($20), but I didn’t try any of the dishes. My vegetarian ate all the kik alecha from it plus ordered another side of it ($4). She loves this dish, but feels it tastes pretty much the same at every restaurant. This was true here as well.

We had, as you can imagine, enormous amounts of food to take home. The waitress transferred each combo into a take home container, but of course, everything got mixed up there.

In all, this was a great experience and if I visit Lavinia again, I’d definitely want to go back.

JD Bar & Restaurant 
6669 Little River Turnpike 
Annandale, VA
703-333-2819

Dining in DC: Curry Mantra

February 18, 2025 / / 0 Comments 
Dining in DC: Notes from a Week in the Capital

Great Indian food at this Fairfax restaurant

We spent the last part of our trip to Washington DC visiting my friend Lavinia in the DC suburbs in Virginia. Curry Mantra is her favorite Indian restaurant in the area and that’s where we headed that Friday evening in February.

It was a bit late, and the restaurant wasn’t very busy. It’s nicely and only a bit garishly decorated with red tones. Service was good, though our waitress had problems understanding and remembering our order and we had to suggest she write it down. I’m in awe of very experienced waiters who are able to remember everything, but it’s not something that most wait staff should attempt to do.

As there were six of us for dinner, we tried a variety of dishes. I didn’t take any photos as the evening was about seeing an old friend and didn’t want to be too intrusive.

The samosas ($7) had your regular vegan potato and pea filling, but were much larger than usual. Everyone liked them quite a bit but they were on the spicy side. The chicken tikka ($18) was moist and flavorful, and I enjoyed it very much.

I ordered the lamb shashi korma ($20), and was quite pleased with the mild, sweet and fruity curry. That is, until I tried the butter chicken ($18), which was absolutely delicious. One of the best butter chickens I’ve had. Lavinia also ordered the Chicken 65 ($18), one of her favorites, but I don’t remember if I tried it or what I thought of it. I am not sure if we ordered another meat dish – but in any case, we had more than enough food to feed the five meat eaters in our party.

The vegetarian among us ordered the tadka dal ($15) and she thought it was fine, though not remarkable. She wouldn’t order it again.

I ordered a sweet lassi ($5), not on printed the menu, and while the server had some problems understanding what I wanted, I eventually got it and it was pretty good. We ordered both garlic nan ($4) and shahi nan ($4) and enjoyed both of them.

In all, if I’m ever in the area visiting Lavinia again, I’ll definitely make sure we go there.

Curry Mantra
9984 Main St 
Fairfax, VA
(703) 218-8128

Dining in DC: Brookside Restaurant

February 17, 2025 / / 0 Comments 
Dining in DC: Notes from a Week in the Capital

This unpretentious restaurant in rural Virginia reminded us we were in the South

After several days of enjoying the sights of Washington DC, it was time to explore the surroundings. Most specifically, of visiting Shenandoah National Park. Alas, winter is definitely not the time to do so. The trees were bare, the birds were hiding and the scenery was monolithic and boring – though there was the occasional road side waterfall and family of deer to bring momentary joy.

After hours of driving and sight seeing, we were pretty hungry so when we came about signs for Brookside Restaurant on the road, we headed there for some fuel. The restaurant is located in a resort of sorts, where they rent cabins year round for those wanting to venture into the nearby Luray caverns or visit Shenandoah. It serves standard American cuisine at quite reasonable prices. The restaurant itself is pretty cute, and the lone waitress that day seemed to be an institution – we heard her say she’d been working there fore decades.

I had a cheeseburger with chips ($9.50). I was a bit apprehensive about it because of the price and because they didn’t ask me how I wanted it, though I did ask for it to be medium-rare. As expected, it was served well done and while it wasn’t particularly juicy, it tasted fine. Still, I didn’t really fancy it so I exchanged with Mike for his sandwich.

Mike had a bowl of “Bob’s best chili” ($9) and a grilled cheese sandwich with bacon ($5). The sandwich was just white bread, American cheese and bacon, but the bacon was pretty tasty and while the sandwich was a bit too bready, it was good enough. Mike likes the chili well enough.

My daughter had a basic grilled cheese sandwich ($5). It was a very basic sandwich, bread and American cheese, but she isn’t picky.

While the food was pretty basic, Mike mentioned that, being a country restaurant in the South, it was likely in the desserts that it would shine through – and he was right! They had a variety of pies, cobblers and cakes, but we all decided on the cobblers. I’ve been on a cobbler kick lately, and I much prefer them to pies.

Mike and I ordered the peach cobbler a la móde ($7.25) and it was delicious, though a tad too sweet (which I expected). It was served warm, the portion was generous and the fruit shined through.

Betty still was the berry cobbler a la mode ($7.25) which my daughter ordered. The biscuit was just as good and the berries were less sweet.

In all, we had a fine lunch and really enjoyed the desserts.

Brookside Restaurant
2978 US Highway 211 East
Luray, VA
540-743-5698

Dining in DC: Live! at the Library of Congress

February 17, 2025 / / 0 Comments 
Dining in DC: Notes from a Week in the Capital

Drinks and Nibbles at this American Institution

We visited the Library of Congress on a Thursday afternoon, after a visit to the Capitol, the beautiful botanical gardens and the National Museum of the American Indian. While the Library of Congress is open to visitors weekly, on Thursday afternoons they have extended hours and also offer food and drinks for sale. It’s an opportunity to check out the atrium, a couple of galleries and look at the Main Reading Room, while feeling you are in the midst of a soiree.

We had dinner reservations for later in the evening, but it had been a while since lunch, so Mike got a snack tray that came with very tasty homemade bread with apple, brie and sweet onion jam or prosciutto, fig and mascarpone.  It was actually quite decision, and a reasonable price (he thinks $12 or $14). Drink prices were also reasonable.

The one thing I wish I’d done is check in my coat before I started walking around.

Live! at the Library
Library of Congress
Thomas Jefferson Building
10 First Street SE
Washington, DC 20540

Dining in DC: Ethiopic

February 17, 2025 / / 0 Comments 
Dining in DC: Notes from a Week in the Capital

Accessible and tasty Ethiopian food in stylish surroundings

Washington DC is not known for any particular dish or cuisine. As a city that attracts people from all over the US and the world, its strengths are in the variety of food found here, rather than on any particular manifestation of it. However, it has gained a reputation for its Ethiopian food offerings, as it homes the largest population of Ethiopians outside Ethiopia itself.

Now, I happen to live next to Oakland, California, which is another mecca for Ethiopian and Eritrean food. Ethiopian food was one of the first I tried my hands on – back at a time where I had to make my own berbere and injera -, and thus it’s not a cuisine I’d have sought out but for the fact that I was pretty sure my Argentinian cousin Adriana and her family would not have tried it. As common as Ethiopian food may be in DC and in the Bay Area, it’s still pretty niche in most of the US (you literally have to go to Little Ethiopia to find an Ethiopian restaurant in Los Angeles county) and I was sure it was totally inexistent in Argentina. Adriana was game for trying it, so I made a reservation at Ethiopic for our last night together in Washington DC.

Ethiopic is an upscale, stylish and popular restaurant in the H Street Corridor, The soft yellow walls are decorated with modern Ethiopian art, which was cool to see after our visit to the African Art Museum. Its clear that the restaurant caters to an international audience, as they were very friendly and patient with our not-fully English speaking party.

The menu offers traditional Ethiopian dishes and what is the largest variety of honey wines I have ever seen. Usually, Ethiopian restaurants in the Bay Area offer just a couple of options, if that – Ethiopic has about seven! Mike and my daughter both ordered the Mama’s Honey Tej ($12 per glass), a pretty sweet version that feels almost like a dessert wine. They both really liked it. I had the smooth bethel tej ($12), which was less sweet but bubbly and a lot of fun. I’ll try to find it locally.

As appetizers, we got both the beef and lentil sambusas ($8 per order of 3). These cousins to Indian samosas are popular throughout Eastern Africa and consist of fried, flaky dough with seasoned fillings. Neither were spicy but they were both very tasty.

We ordered several dishes, but they weren’t actually served family style as we expected. That was probably better, as it would have been a bit hard to reach given our rectangular table for six.

The Beef & Chicken Wot Sampler ($40), which is meant to serve two people, was a delight. It includes minchet abish key wot and minchet abish aletcha wot as well as doro key wot and doro aletcha wot. The doro dishes are chicken, while the minchet abish are ground beef based. The aletcha offerings are basically the mild versions of the wots, cooked without berbere. They were all delicious, and the wots weren’t very spicy, no one in Adriana’s family had a problem with them. My favorite, by far, was the minchet abish aletcha wot – it was sooooo good, I’m still dreaming about it.

We also got an order of beef tibs ($22). These was a dry dish, but the beef cubes were nicely spiced and not terribly spicy. Everyone liked them.

The Yebeg Aletcha Be Dinich ($18) was good but I didn’t like as much as the other dishes. the lamb was tender, however, and not terribly fatty.

My nephew, Lito, who has not yet reached his teenage years, surprised us all by saying he wanted to get the asa tib ($16) – a marinated and fried fish. The fish came with the skin on, which was a novelty for him, and it wasn’t the easiest thing to eat without silverware, but he was a champ and dug right in. So did the rest of us, and we all found the fish to be absolutely delicious. It was crispy, flavorful and perfectly cooked.

My daughter, a vegetarian, had the kik alicha ($17), a favorite of hers. This is a mild dish of split peas. She felt that it tasted just like it was supposed to and liked it.

She also had the honey nut baklava ($7). She didn’t enjoy this one quite as much as it was very syrupy and she prefers drier versions.

We must have been pretty hungry, as while the portions seemed generous we ended up eating everything and had no leftovers to take with us.

In all, we had a very nice meal and I was very happy that Adriana and her family liked the food so much. I think it’s a little bit Americanized, and it definitely does not have the level of spice that I expected – but I feel that Ethiopian food has been getting milder over the years (or, more likely, I’ve adjusted to spicier flavors). 

Ethiopic
401 H St NE,
Washington, DC 20002
202-675-2066

Dining in DC: The Members Dining Room Restaurant @ the Capitol

February 16, 2025 / / 0 Comments 
Dining in DC: Notes from a Week in the Capital

We got to dine at the Congressmember-Only Dining Room!

Our trip to Washington DC was amazing, and one of the main highlights was having lunch at the Members Dining Room at the Capitol. This is a dining room reserved exclusively for members of the US House of Representatives, their staffers, (the US Senate has its own dining room) and their guests. It only operates when Congress is in session, though before the pandemic it had been open for reservations to anyone on the days Congress wasn’t in session. This no longer seems to be the case.

The Members Dining Room has actually two main dining rooms. One appears to be for Congressmembers only and the other for members and their guests. The latter one, named after Ernest Petinaud, who served at the dining room for fifty years, is relatively small, though on the day we were visiting it was also rather empty – only two other parties were dining there (no congressmembers that we could identify, mind you). It has a simple, old fashioned elegance – with a rich crimson carpet, yellow walls, crystal light fixtures and a huge painting of the British surrender to Washington at Yorktown. The tables had white tablecloths and blue napkins, and looks exactly like the photos of it you can find online. The dining room has been operating at its current location since 1858, and I daresay it hasn’t changed much.

The Dining Room was offering a buffet lunch that day with table service for drinks. The offerings were limited but broad enough that most people should be able to find something they liked.

“Bean soup” has been a staple of both the Senate and the House dining rooms for many decades, and while I don’t like beans, I urged Mike to have it. As it happened, they had both a black bean soup and a white bean soup. He thought the white bean soup was very good, with the black bean one less so. I had the DIY salad, and found it pretty average.

Mike had the salmon and the Brussel sprouts. He found the salmon to be good, though not particularly remarkable. The Brussel sprouts were very good, but he is a fan of them in general.

I had the chicken thigh, and it was well seasoned and moist – better than what you’d expect from buffet food. The roasted potatoes were a bit dry, as they usually are.

My daughter, a vegetarian, tried both the rigatoni and the rice pilaf. She found both of them to be fine but, again, unremarkable.

My cousin Adriana, who was with us, raved about the food – but I think she might be less picky than we are.

But, of course, regardless of the food, eating at the Members Dining Room was an extremely cool experience. We felt the history of the room, the uniqueness of the experience, and are extremely grateful to have been invited to enjoy it.


Dining in DC: Capitol Cafe

February 16, 2025 / / 0 Comments 
Dining in DC: Notes from a Week in the Capital

Convenient Eats while Touring the Capitol

Thursday started as a miserable day. The rain which was supposed to stop mid morning had other plans, the streets around the Capitol were cut off, the line to get in – even with tour tickets – was very long and under the pouring rain. And, of course, the Felon-in-Chief was doing his worst to destroy America – but that’s another matter.

Once we actually got into the Capitol, however, things started to improve. Staff was very friendly and solicitous, they have a free coat check and there was much to admire while we waited for my cousin Adriana and her family to join us. As we’d arrived early, we also had time for some breakfast at the Capitol Café, located just to side of the Visitors Center.

The Café is really a cafeteria, where you order at the counter and then stand in line to pay at a checkout counter. They serve standard American fare for breakfast, everything from bagels and pastries to waffles, eggs, hashbrowns and oatmeal. Most of the breakfast food is sold by weight – they weigh your whole tray at the checkout. The attendants were very friendly, but I can imagine service could be slow if there were more than a few guests.

All I got was a mocha ($4) and a pastry ($2.25), as I’m not a big breakfast drinker. The mocha was fine, but my choice of pastry – a Danish with custard – was unfortunate. The custard just tasted off.

Mike had a breakfast sandwich with bacon, eggs and cheese and a side of scrambled eggs. He thought the was was unremarkable but fine – pretty much what you’d expect.

My daughter also had scrambled eggs, as well as a waffle, biscuit and potatoes. She also found the food to be unremarkable. The biscuit was dried, and she couldn’t find any butter to go with it.

I was more intrigued by the inaugural lunch menu, which featured seafood stew, quail stuffed with wild rice and duck confit and apple cinnamon cake ($25 for all), but we weren’t there for lunch.

In all, a perfectly fine place to eat with reasonable prices while visiting the Capitol.

I should note that the Capitol tour was great, and we learned a lot. Including that California still has a statue of Junípero Serra representing it – California has gotten rid of most of his public statues at home, as we came to understand the evil that the Missions brought upon the native Californian people – so it surprised me this one is still there.

Capitol Café
US Capitol Visitors Center, Lower Level
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 226-8000

Dining in DC: Ocean Terrace Café

February 15, 2025 / / 0 Comments 
Dining in DC: Notes from a Week in the Capital

Expensive eats at the National Museum of Natural History

We had spent quite a bit of time at the National Museum of Natural History the previous day, but we hadn’t been able to see everything, so my husband wanted to return. Before leaving, we stopped by the Ocean Terrace Café in the first floor for a bite.

The café didn’t have much food when we got there, just some sweets and pre-packaged sandwiches. Mike got the a sandwich, perhaps a chicken salad one though he can’t quite remember. And, indeed, the sandwich was only memorable because i was expensive, somewhere in the high teens for a rather small sandwich. My daughter had a slice of chocolate cake, which she enjoyed.

Given the dearth of places to eat in the area, this place is not too bad, but it is expensive for what you get.

Dining in DC: Refreshment Kiosk @ The National Mall

February 15, 2025 / / 0 Comments 
Dining in DC: Notes from a Week in the Capital

Where we felt like St. Francis of Assis

After a morning exploring the magnificent National Museum of African Art and the National Mall, we were hungry, but he options for food in the area are extremely poor. We thus decided to stop at the refreshment kiosk in front of the National Museum of Natural History, our next destination. This is one of several refreshment kiosks at the Mall – all, I’m assuming, offering the same menu.

I knew the food was going to be expensive, but even I was shocked. A hot dog – a miserly hot dog – was $18! The other food had equally outrageous prices. I did notice, however, that the funnel cake was reasonable. I don’t remember exactly how much it was, but I think around $6.50. Now, we are just talking about fried dough here, dusted with powdered sugar, but at that moment it hit the spot. The funnel cake was actually quite tasty and large enough for all of us to share.

It turned out that we weren’t the only ones that liked funnel cake. As soon as we sat down, we started getting visitors at our table, and more and more came once we brought the cake to our table. It’s clear that these birds are used to being fed by humans. I totally get the appeal for them in winter, when I imagine food is hard to find.

One squirrel was particularly aggressive. Though I didn’t get any action pictures of the little rascal, he tried to grab the whole funnel cake off the plate, and even climb on Mike as he was eating a piece.

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