100 Very Best Restaurants: #96 – Elephant Jumps

Fried watercress salad, banana-blossom salad, and pork stew at Elephant Jumps. Photo by Scott Suchman

About Elephant Jumps

cuisines
Thai
Location(s)
8110 Arlington Blvd
Falls Church, Virginia 22042-1002

What makes this strip-mall Thai restaurant stand out from the (formidable) competition? Songtham and Panida Pinyolaksana’s boundary-pushing “authentic Thai” menu (separate from the main document), which holds delicacies you won’t find many other places around town. Crunchy shrimp over tamarind; smoky Chinese broccoli with marinated pork; and banana-blossom salad, an electrically spicy, herb-filled special. That said, the regular menu is no slouch. The kitchen slings a mean crab fried rice, too. Inexpensive.


Ann Limpert
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.

Jessica Sidman
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.