Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington’s Winter Restaurant Week kicks off Monday, January 15. And though the deals now range from $40 to $65 for dinner, many of DC’s newer eateries are still offering inexpensive set menus, such as $25 and $35 lunches and brunches. Here’s how to get a taste of the city’s latest hotspots.
Any Day Now
location_on 2 I St., SE
language Website
Tim Ma’s all-day cafe in Navy Yard is focusing on comfort foods with its $40 three-course dinner. Griddled bread comes with all of the first course choices—pimento cheese dip, whipped ricotta, or charred eggplant—and second course options include a green-papaya caesar and honey/walnut calamari. Main course choices are roasted chicken with crispy yuca, kimchi spaetzle with braised beef, and eggplant katsu with garlic rice. Add a dessert for an extra $5.
Balos
location_on 1940 N St., NW
language Website
The brand new Dupont Circle eatery, a tribute to the Greek isles, has launched a pricier three-course dinner menu ($65) and a three-course lunch menu ($35) in honor of Restaurant Week. The menus feature traditional starters like Greek salad, avgolemono soup, and spanakopita, then move onto dishes like chicken souvlaki with pita and fries and grilled branzino. Hellenic desserts like galaktoboureko and baklava are included, but some main dishes like grilled octopus and lamb chops have upcharges.
Casa Teresa
location_on 919 19th St., NW
language Website
Anchoring The Square food hall on K Street, chef Ruben Garcia’s upscale new restaurant focuses on Catalan home cooking. For Restaurant Week, Garcia’s $65-per-person dinner menu is served family style and incorporates tapas like chicken croquetas and pa amb tomàquet along with large-format dishes like fricandó beef stew and Basque-style grilled whole fish. A multi-course Spanish wine pairing will run you an additional $35.
Corso Italian
location_on 4024 Campbell Ave., Arlington
language Website
The Del Ray flagship of Cheesetique is still offering Restaurant Week menus, but its Shirlington location has turned into Corso Italian, a retro-themed bistro, which is offering its own extensive Restaurant Week menus: a three-course $35 lunch and a three-course $55 dinner. Start off with a whipped ricotta dip or Italian bread soup before moving onto homemade rigatoni with bolognese, or porchetta (which comes on a sandwich at lunchtime). For dessert, how about mascarpone cheesecake or fig leaf panna cotta?
El Presidente
location_on 1255 Union St., NE
language Website
Starr Restaurant Group’s extravagant Mexican eatery near Union Market is offering a variety of deals. There’s a $35 weekend brunch—think huevos rancheros and breakfast burritos—and $35 weekday lunch, during which you can follow guac or a tuna tostada with enfrijoladas or a house burger. At night, the $55 three-course menu features mains like a carne asada platter and whole roasted cauliflower with ancho-pine nut pipian. Mexican chocolate pudding and tamarind sorbet are the dessert options.
Flora Flora
location_on 655 Water St., SW
language Website
A $35 three-course lunch menu at the Pendry hotel’s Latin-influenced waterfront dining room kicks off with choices like guacamole and beet aguachile, before a set of main course options that alternate between Peru (chicken or mushroom anticuchos) and Mexico (mahi mahi tacos or truffle quesadillas).
Hiraya
location_on 1250 H St., NE
language Website
The upscale, colorful Filipino arrival on H Street has a $55-per-person dinner menu, with a two-person minimum. Calamansi caesar salad and tinola dumplings are among the starter options, and mains like vegan beet adobo and king salmon escabeche come with sides of garlic rice. Desserts, such as a champorado tart and a Milo crepe cake, riff on classic Filipino sweet flavors.
Joon
location_on 8045 Leesburg Pike, Vienna
language Website
Restaurant Week deals get as low as $25 at chef Najmieh Batmanglij’s masterful Persian restaurant in Tysons. The three-course $25 lunch menu starts with falafel, hummus, or lamb-pistachio meatballs before a choice of traditional salads or pistachio soup and finally, a kabob sandwich—kubideh, chicken, or lamb—with fries and Joon’s torshi remoulade. The $35 brunch and $55 and dinner menus add a wider variety of dishes and dessert.
Josephine
location_on 109 South Saint Asaph St., Alexandria
language Website
Old Town’s contribution to the wave of classic French brasseries is offering Restaurant Week menus for lunch and brunch ($35)—with options like onion soup gratinée and a croque monsieur—and dinner ($55), when you have your choice of an hors d’oeuvre, entrée, and dessert from the entire menu.
Meli
location_on 1630 Columbia Rd., NW
language Website
Restaurant Week at this members-only “Greek-ish” mezze club in Adams Morgan—first timers are welcome to eat without paying the $25 membership fee—involves a $40 three-course dinner with main dishes like chicken or veggie souvlaki and head-on giant prawns. Mosaiko, a chocolatey, salami-shaped Greek cake, is one dessert option.
Mita
location_on 804 V St., NW
language Website
A brand new plant-based Latin American restaurant across from the 9:30 Club, Mita is getting started with a Restaurant Week dinner menu on the spendier end ($65 per person) featuring dishes like fava beans with sweet plantain and charred banana puree with pearled barley and grilled maitakes. Dessert is more familiar: chocolate cake spiked with rum.
Moon Rabbit
location_on 927 F St., NW
language Website
Chef Kevin Tien’s Vietnamese restaurant, which abruptly shuttered last May, returns from the dead this month just in time for Restaurant Week. Tien’s $65 dinner menu, available by reservation only, is a preview of things to come for the new Moon Rabbit. The exact menu is not available ahead of time, but expect a deep exploration of regional Vietnamese cooking.
Petite Cerise
location_on 1027 Seventh St., NW
language Website
At his distinctive French bistro, the Dabney chef Jeremiah Langhorne is offering three separate Restaurant Week brunch ($35), lunch ($35), and dinner ($55) menus, each three courses. Lunch and brunch start with a choice of pastry or yogurt parfait and move onto selections of salads or buckwheat crepes. Main courses are classics like quiche lorraine and moules frites. Dinner includes a dessert like a hazelnut Paris-Brest or citrus pavlova.
Philippe Chow
location_on 635 Wharf St., SW
language Website
This Wharf outpost of a scene-y Manhattan spot is offering its Chinese-American specialties in the form of a $55 dinner menu. Chicken lettuce wraps and vegetable lo mein are among the straightforward appetizers, and main courses like sweet-and-sour chicken and stir-fried filet mignon are served with broccoli and veggie fried rice.
