Food

18 Summer Restaurant Week Extensions to Check Out Around DC

You haven't missed your shot at a Restaurant Week deal.

Destino will keep its Restaurant Week menu going until September 10. Photograph courtesy of Destino.

Summer isn’t over yet, and a bunch of restaurants are keeping their Restaurant Week deals—$25 lunches and brunches and $40 or $55 dinners—going for a week or more after Labor Day:

Ala

1320 19th St., NW

The Dupont Circle Levantine restaurant (with a Bethesda location coming soon) will extend its Restaurant Week lunch and dinner offerings through Sunday, September 10. Three-course lunches—available from noon to 2 PM—and $55 four-course dinners kick off with a watermelon-sumac amuse bouche, then offer classic mezze and mains like grilled kebabs and roasted pepper dolma.

 

All-Purpose

1250 Ninth St., NW; 79 Potomac Ave., SE

Tuscan fried potatoes are on the Restaurant Week brunch menu at the Navy Yard location of All-Purpose. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.

The Shaw and Navy Yard locations of this pizzeria are extending their large $40 dinner menus and $25 brunches through Sunday, September 10. For brunch, try Nonna’s banana bread or a Caesar salad, followed by a focaccia “crostino” with fried egg and chicken sausage. Dinner starts with an antipasto like twice-fried mozzarella or corn arancini, then moves onto a 12-inch pizza. Finish off with ricotta cheesecake or a baked-to-order chocolate chip cookie. 

 

Ambar

523 Eighth St., SE; 1547 Seventh St., NW; 2901 Wilson Blvd, Arlington

These Balkan small plates destinations have bottomless dining deals year-round, but are extending their all-you-can-eat $25 weekday lunches and $55 dinners through Sunday, September 10. Sample spreads, kebabs, stuffed peppers, lamb lasagna, and more. There’s also a $70 takeout option for two. 

 

Birch & Barley

1337 14th St., NW

Through Sunday, September 10, head to this beer-obsessed 14th Street dining room for a $40 three-course dinner. The new American menu includes starters like Red Apron ham with melon and arugula, a jumbo lump crab cake, and zucchini flatbread. Second courses range from a pork porterhouse to bucatini with pesto, and there are dessert options like doughnut bread pudding and blueberry crumble.

 

Buena Vida Gastrolounge

2900 Wilson Blvd., Arlington

The rooftop at Buena Vida in Clarendon. Photograph courtesy of the restaurant.

This upstairs Mexican lounge in Clarendon will keep offering its $25 lunch and $40 dinner for another week. On the menu: guacamole, chips, salsa, a choice of various tacos and enchiladas—along with appetizers like corn ribs and mussels a la diabla at dinner—and, perhaps most importantly, an included margarita or Mexican beer. 

 

Bresca

1905 14th St., NW

After Labor Day, chef Ryan Ratino’s $55 three-course dinner will pick up Wednesday, September 6 through Sunday, September 10. It involves a few snacks, a cavatelli pasta with parmesan fonduta and corn, wagyu beef with balsamic jus and shishitos, and for dessert, a pistachio-and-olive-oil cake with blueberries and meringue. 

 

Certo

2121 P St., NW

Summer Restaurant Week, at the Italian place in Dupont’s Royal Sonesta Hotel, runs the entire month of September. A $55 three-course dinner includes appetizers like meatball sliders and a charcuterie platter, main dishes like lobster ravioli and spaghetti carbonara, and a dessert. 

 

Cranes

724 Ninth St., NW

This Spanish-Japanese spot in Penn Quarter will keep its $55 three-course dinner going for a week after Labor Day. The set menu moves from gazpacho to squid fideuà (Valencian noodle paella), then to pork collar with miso-peach puree and mustard. The restaurant can also accommodate vegetarians and pescatarians.

 

Destino

1280 Fourth St., NE

A modern Mexican restaurant that’s one of the anchors at Union Market’s La Cosecha food hall, Destino is extending its brunch and dinner offerings into September (though it will be closed September 4th and 5th). A salsa trio opens the $55 dinner menu, followed by raw bar items like Chincoteague oysters with prickly-pear ice; antojitos like a huitlacoche quesadilla; and main courses like charred octopus or mole verde with vegetables. Brunch includes such entrees as flour gorditas with ricotta and blackberries.

 

Dirty Habit

555 Eighth St., NW

The eclectic restaurant in the Penn Quarter’s Hotel Monaco is extending its Restaurant Week menu through Sunday, September 10. The $25 lunch and $55 dinner are both three courses, incorporating items like a karaage chicken sandwich and, for dessert, a “hibiscus cloud” with coconut cremeux and Sichuan peppercorn millefeuille.

 

Ellie Bird

125 Founder’s Ave., Falls Church

Ellie Bird’s bird cage-like booths. Photograph by Andrew Noh.

This whimsical, family-friendly dining room from the creators of DC’s Rooster and Owl is extending its Restaurant Week meal for the whole month of September on weekdays only. Every $55 dinner starts out with focaccia with grilled-scallion butter. Then choose dishes like a little gem wedge salad, pan con tomate, an elote-inspired riff on cacio e pepe, and chicken piccata. 

 

Immigrant Food 

925 13th St., NW; 1701 Pennsylvania Ave., NW

Chef Enrique Limardo’s cafes at Planet Word and near the White House will extend their specials for an extra week. Lunch could start with hummus, Belgian fries, or gazpacho, and move on to West African-inspired shrimp and chicken gumbo or a falafel plate curiously called “Mumbai Mariachi.” Three-course dinners might kick off with samosas or tamarind-glazed ribs, and mains include chicken milanesa and a Korean burger. The most elaborate dessert is a dish of French-Caribbean ricotta beignets.

 

Jiwa Singapura

2001 International Dr., McLean

You’ll have another week to try the $25 lunchtime nasi padang at this modern Singaporean restaurant that livened up Tysons Galleria this year. The Sumatran meal consists of jasmine rice with assorted side dishes like shrimp satay, beef rendang, and bean-and-snow-pea salad. There’s also a $55 four-course dinner that includes a Kam Heung crab roll and a pork belly main course, among other dishes.

 

Nina May

1337 11th St., NW

After Labor Day, you can still bring a group to try the locally focused Shaw eatery’s shareable, family-style $55-per-person dinner. Highlights include flounder crudo with strawberry gazpacho, littleneck clams with chorizo, and cacio e pepe agnolotti stuffed with caramelized onions and ricotta.

 

Opal

5534 Connecticut Ave., NW

This Chevy Chase newcomer (and Nina May’s sister restaurant) recently lured Jay-Z and Solange to upper Connecticut Avenue, and  is extending its brunch and lunch options through Sunday, September 10. For the $25 “simple lunch,” you could choose gazpacho with crab and follow it with a mushroom risotto. At brunch for the same price, try a seasonal pastry and then a salmon gravlax mezze plate. Assorted non-alcoholic drinks are included.

 

Philippe by Philippe Chow

635 Wharf St., SW

The celeb-catering Manhattan restaurateur’s new Wharf outpost will keep offering its $55 dinner with straightforward, no-surprises Chinese fare. Appetizers of choice include chicken lettuce wraps or chicken satay with peanut sauce, and your second course might be stir-fried filet mignon with green beans, sweet and sour chicken, or wok-seared branzino.

 

Shilling Canning Company

360 Water St., SE

The three-course Restaurant Week menu from Reid Shilling’s mid-Atlantic dining room in Navy Yard—extended for a week past Labor Day—changes frequently. Recent highlights include country ham biscuits with apple butter; summer squash blossoms stuffed with ricotta; and chicken ballotine. Brunch includes deviled eggs and buttermilk fried chicken with a hoe cake and spicy honey.

 

Tonari

707 Sixth St., NW

Were you a fan of The Bear? This Japanese-Italian fusion concept from the team behind Daikaya will keep slinging its Restaurant Week dinner menu, inspired heavily by the HBO series, for an extra week. The $55 menu moves through five courses, and dishes have names like “Carmy’s Silent Contemplation of a Mound of Cannoli,” “Richie Serves Pequod’s Deep Dish Pizza,” and “Chef Sydney’s Lamb Ragu Mishap.”

Ike Allen
Assistant Editor