About Eat Great Cheap 2019
This article is a part of Washingtonian’s Eat Great Cheap feature, our annual list of where to eat (and not break the bank) right now. Our food editors put together the best new restaurants around DC where you can find Detroit-style pizza, Japanese egg-salad sandwiches, chicken-nugget-filled tacos, and more—for $25 or less per person.
This offshoot of a Chinese chain does hot pot—in which you dip an all-you-can-eat spread of raw ingredients into a roiling broth at the table—a little differently than its competition in these parts. Once you order your broth (we liked a split of Szechuan spiced and mellow tomato bases), you take a tray and peruse a grocery-store-like display of ingredients: three kinds of tofu, myriad mushrooms and leafy greens, quail eggs, even Spam. Then you hit a fixings bar and concoct a dipping sauce. There are recipes for staff favorites, but you can’t go wrong with a fragrant blend of sesame oil, garlic, and heaps of scallion and cilantro.
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.
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 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.
