Where to Get Winter Restaurant Week 2024 Brunch Around DC

Winter Restaurant Week will soon be upon us; it runs from Monday, January 15 to Sunday, January 21. And while dinner prices have jumped—set menus now are $40, $55, and $65 a person—some of the best deals can be found during the day, when restaurants turn out $25 or $35 lunches and brunches.

 

Agora

Extra-hungry? The Tysons outpost of this Mediterranean restaurant is offering bottomless brunch for $35. Graze on  htipiti (feta-and-red-pepper spread); scrambled eggs with Turkish-style sausage, French toast with baklava syrup, a cheese plate, and more. Mimosas and bloodies are $3 a glass.

 

Bar Chinois

The $25 two-course menu kicks off with a choice of soup dumplings, chive dumplings, or croque monsieur-inspired spring rolls. Next, we’ve got our eye on the duck confit Benedict, served with brioche buns and five-spice hollandaise. Add bottomless mimosas or beers for $20 more.

 

Belga Cafe

At this neighborhoody Belgian spot on the Hill, the $25 brunch includes two courses—an entree and dessert—plus a drink (Irish coffee, pomegranate lemonade, or a cider fizz with Calvados-infused apples). Main courses include a s’mores waffle, a quiche made with bacon, prosciutto, and French ham, or Parmesan risotto.

 

Brasserie Liberte

You get three courses for $25 at this Georgetown hangout, and there’s lots to choose from. Entrees include three Benedicts, a double cheeseburger, and avocado toast. Among the desserts: pot de creme, flan, Basque-style cheesecake, and a lemon tart.

 

Dauphine’s

The Louisiana-inspired three-courser ($35) at this Midtown Center dining room includes smoked-chicken gumbo, a shrimp andouille half-smoke po’boy, and fried catfish with Prosecco beurre blanc and grits. For dessert, beignets.

 

El Presidente

Been wanting to try Stephen Starr’s flashy Union Market Mexican spot? The $35 three-course menu includes one of the menu’s top dishes—a tuna tostada with salsa macha—among the appetizers (the guac is great, too). Next, choose French toast with candied pecans, huevos rancheros, or a breakfast burrito. Dessert is either tamarind sorbet or Mexican chocolate pudding.

 

Iron Gate

This pretty Dupont Mediterranean spot is offering three courses for $25. Start with, say, loukoumades with orange-blossom syrup or Greek yogurt with pomegranates and pistachios. Entrees are a roasted-squash panino with red-onion marmalade and goat cheese, poached eggs with feta and puttanesca sauce, or grilled beef patties with crispy potatoes and fontina. For dessert, there’s a chocolate budino or an olive oil torta.
 

Joon

One of our favorite newcomers this past year is this Persian fine-dining restaurant in Tysons. The $35 three-course menu includes starters like a lovely mint-and-shallot yogurt dip and falafel. Follow those with French toast with apple/barberry compote and brandied almonds, or an omelet with fillings like feta-and-goat-cheese, feta-and-smoked-salmon, or date-and-cinnamon. The single sweet course is a rosewater cookie with tea.

 

L’Ardente

This Italian hotspot at the Capital Crossing development is offering three courses for $35. We recommend the Caesar with preserved lemon, and there’s also fried calamari, a Margherita pizza, grilled salmon, or gnocchi with mushrooms. For dessert, go for the green-apple soft serve or the vanilla semifreddo with maple granola and cassis.

 

Mariscos 1133

One thing we appreciate about the Restaurant Week menus at Jessica and Alfredo Solis’s seafood-focused Shaw dining room: there is always plenty to choose from. On the $25 three-course menu, you could graze on ceviche, seafood Benedict with jalapeño hollandaise, or hues rancheros with crab and octopus. Birria comes in three forms: tacos, an omelet, and hash. For dessert, there’s flan, churros, or tres leches cake.

 

Osteria Morini

This Navy Yard Italian place with waterfront views, which just celebrated its tenth anniversary, is putting out a rustic Italian three-course menu for $35. Start with mortadella-and-prosciutto tortellini en brodo, a poached egg with truffle fonduta, or mortadella mousse with crostini. Next, choose citrus-and-ricotta pancakes, a vegetable frittata, or a poached egg with sausage, potatoes, and hollandaise. Dessert is a lemon-and-berry crostata, banana cake, or blood orange and Concord grape sorbet.

 

Passionfish

Jeff Tunks’s three-course Sunday brunch ($35) at his Reston seafood room features plenty of globe-spanning choices. Starters include crab-and-corn chowder, spicy salmon maki, ceviche, and the very good crab-and-shrimp spring rolls. Among the bigger plates are huevos rancheros, shrimp with red curry, and fried chicken and waffles. For dessert, there’s the long-running Key-lime tart, plus white-chocolate bread pudding, chocolate mousse, and tres leches creme brûlée.

 

Petite Cerise

Jeremiah Langhorne’s casually elegant all-day French place in Shaw is one of our favorite breakfast stops. The $35 three-course menu centers around either a quiche Lorraine or bananas-foster waffle. The first course is a housemade croissant or kouign amann or a yogurt parfait, and the mid-course is either a radicchio salad with feta and Sherry vinaigrette or a buckwheat crepe with burnt honey and caramelized apples.

 

The Point

You get an entree and drink—mimosa, Old Bay bloody, or coffee—for $25 at this sprawling Buzzard Point seafood restaurant from the folks behind Ivy City Smokehouse. Go for smoked-salmon Benedict, shrimp and grits, or chicken and waffles.