100 Very Best Restaurants: #27 – Rasika/Rasika West End
Rasika West End. Photograph by Scott Suchman
Restaurateur Ashok Bajaj continues to set the standard for Indian dining in Washington—and beyond. Whether you’re at the modern West End location or the moodily lit Penn Quarter original, you’ll find a kitchen that has mastered the art of spicing. Decorated chef Vikram Sunderam serves excellent renditions of crowd-pleasers such as chicken tikka masala but also indulgences like truffled minced-lamb kebabs and silky glazed cod. Vegetables also get star treatment. Don’t miss the artichoke-and-cremini-mushroom korma or the asparagus uttapam, a rice-lentil pancake, topped with coconut chutney. Expensive.
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Executive Food Editor/Critic
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
Food Editor
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
Food Editor
Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.