If you’ve been craving a culinary adventure, don’t miss Restaurant Week in D.C. Running from Jan. 15 through 28, the biannual celebration allows diners to take advantage of specially priced meals at over 100 restaurants and bars.
“There’s a different price point for every consumer, for every diner, whether it’s lunch or dinner. We just expanded it to allow for more participation,” RAMW President and CEO Shawn Townsend told WTOP.
The Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington’s (RAMW) website has the full list of participating restaurants, but if you’re looking for a quick guide on some of the best bites and the biggest deals offered this year, WTOP has you covered.
If you’re searching for a new experience from a burgeoning, relatively recently opened restaurant, don’t miss Filipino restaurant Hiraya on H Street (three-course dinner for $55), Dabney chef Jeremiah Langhorne’s French bistro Petite Cerise (three separate menus with brunch and lunch at $35 and dinner at $55) and chef and restaurateur Tim Ma’s Any Day Now in Navy Yard (three-course dinner for $40, add dessert for an additional $5).
Chef Kevin Tien’s reopened Vietnamese restaurant, Moon Rabbit, in Penn Quarter will also be doing a limited preview to reservations only during Restaurant Week (dinner for $65).
A few new participants this year are Ethiopic Restaurant in H Street (four-course lunch for $25 and four-course dinner for $40), The Bazaar by José Andrés in Penn Quarter ($35 lunch-only menu) and Malaysian restaurant Makan in Columbia Heights (dinner for $40).
For the best deals, don’t shy away from the $25 lunch specials, found at CHIKO in Capitol Hill and Dupont Circle, Kaliwa at The Wharf, Sticky Fingers Diner in H Street and Pupatella in Dupont Circle.
Other notable eats during the week include Unconventional Diner‘s decadent mushroom mac and cheese, comforting minestrone soup and bright lemon parfait. The menu at Dauphine’s is also chock full of goodies, including gumbo ya ya, blackened fish and beignets. At Gogi Yogi, those who love Korean steakhouses will have a lot to choose from with three all-you-can-eat options that include pork belly, beef brisket and sides like mandu and japchae.
“We’ve seen a number of higher-end restaurants participate in Restaurant Week for the first time because when we priced out restaurant week we thought about, how do we encourage others who don’t participate, to join,” Townsend said. “But we still want to keep restaurant week affordable because we do understand and value that it is for the consumer.”
If you’re in the outskirts of the D.C. area, there are other restaurant weeks happening at the same time, in Falls Church, Virginia, and Alexandria, Virginia, both running from Jan. 19 through 28.
WTOP’s Sandra Jones contributed to this article.
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