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Tag: Virginia

Dining in DC: Notes from a Week in the Capital

February 21, 2025 / / 0 Comments

Some months ago, my cousin Adriana mentioned that she’d be visiting New York and Washington DC for her family’s annual vacation this year. Mike and I had been in New York earlier that year, but I thought that a visit to Washington DC might be warranted. I hadn’t been there since my oldest was a baby, and I enjoy spending time with Adriana a lot – she is one of the most positive people I know.

Dining out and exploring local cuisines is one of the great pleasures of traveling, but unlike New York and New Orleans, there isn’t actually a Washingtonian cuisine. People come to Washington from all over the country and the world, so there are all sorts of restaurants and I think competition and fat expense accounts do make this a foodie town, but there is nothing particularly unique about the cuisine. Thus, rather than try to hit specific cultural culinary experiences as we did in the other two cities, we just went for what was convenient and well reviewed.

We got to DC at the tail end of winter restaurant week, so for our first two meals we got to enjoy restaurants that might otherwise have been out of budget.

We had an exciting dinner at Imperfecto in Foggy Bottom
And a nice brunch at Balos Estiatorio in Dupont Circle

Also in Foggy Bottom, we got take out twice from Charm Thai and had a nice Italian dinner at Matera.

There aren’t too many choices near the National Mall but we had a very tasty lunch at Sweet Home Café in the African American History and Culture Museum, a much more common place one at Ocean Terrace Café at the Natura History Museum and a funnel cake at Refreshment Kiosk @ The National Mall.

After visiting the outside of the White House, we had a wonderful lunch at The Hamilton.

And while visiting the Capitol, we had breakfast at the Capitol Cafe and an unforgettable lunch with my favorite Congressmember at the The Members Dining Room Restaurant. We also got snacks while enjoying Live! at the Library of Congress.

Finally, we convinced Adriana to try Ethiopian food and had a great meal at Ethiopic.

We then left DC for Virginia and had lunch at Brookside Restaurant in Luray after visiting Shenandoah National Park.

We finished our trip visiting my friend Lavinia and enjoyed several great meals with her. We had wonderful Indian food at Curry Mantra in Fairfax and amazing Ethiopian, plus a cultural experience to boot, in JD Bar & Restaurant in Annandale. Finally, our last day, we started with a comforting breakfast at The Original Pancake House in Falls Church.

As great as the food was, the best part of the trip was seeing Adriana and her family, Lavinia and hers and my favorite Congressman!.

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

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