100 Very Best Restaurants 2015: No. 30 DGS Delicatessen

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House Cured Pastrami. Photograph by Scott Suchman

About DGS Delicatessen

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Maybe it’s time to stop thinking of this deli as just a deli and start thinking of it as one of the best in a crop of ambitious, midlevel restaurants to hit Washington in recent years. It would be hard to name more than a handful of places where you can eat or drink so well, and at such decent-for-DC prices. (If only there were a little more juice in the too-quiet dining room.)

Which isn’t to say don’t go for the luscious pastrami (sliced in the manner of Montreal’s smoked meat, as opposed to the thinner cut favored by New York delis) or the finest chopped chicken liver around—just that you can settle in and make a night of it (manager Brian Zipin mixes a great cocktail). If you want, you can skip the canonical dishes entirely and tuck into a strapping plate of chicken schnitzel with whipped potatoes and braised red cabbage.

Save room for the finish: doughnuts drizzled with honey and showered with toasted almonds.

Don’t miss:

  • Matzo-ball soup
  • Tongue gyro
  • Benedictberg, a smoked-salmon twist on eggs Benedict (brunch only)
  • Chocolate-babka bread pudding

Try DGS Delicatessen’s Chef Recipes

Sweet Potato Latkes With Cranberry Mostarda

Mazel Tov Cocktail


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.