Few of us are immune to the soaring cost of just about everything these days. One life pleasure I refuse to give up is dining out.
To make it work, I look less for inexpensive restaurants, period, and more for places where the experience exceeds what you’re paying. The following five D.C. restaurants, easy on the budget, spark joy in different ways. Each also offers a gently priced main course or more that makes it easy for you to become a regular.
Caruso’s Grocery
I can’t recall the last time I booked a table here. Reservations for prime times are in such demand, I simply show up when the doors open and grab one of eight stools at the softly lit bar of one of the coziest restaurants I know.
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Just about everything you order in this Italian American charmer from chef Matt Adler is a model of what it should be. Calamari gets sprinkled with semolina and fried so parts are crisp and parts are soft. A salad of bitter radicchio, endive, juicy citrus and saline green olives makes a perfect segue to one of the hearty main courses, like chicken parm or veal francaise. Be sure to check out the seasonal specials, which recently scattered tender shrimp and crisp corn on a bed of fusilli, everything draped with carbonara sauce. Each bite seemed to include a silky bit of smoked pancetta.
The steal, though, is spaghetti and meatballs for just under $25. The pasta is made in house and shows nice resistance; the meatballs seem to be shaped primarily from pork and heat. A server asks if you want cheese, and you nod. Onto the surface go snowy filings of Parmesan. Caruso’s Grocery offers gratis bread to start. Crusty slices from Uptown Bakery make a great sop for any remaining tomato sauce.
The restaurant, in the Hill East neighborhood, is dressed to look the part of an old-time Italian joint while nodding to two of co-founder Michael Babin’s Sicilian great uncles, who opened a market in Baton Rouge in 1920. Diners are shown to marinara-colored banquettes, walls display albums’ worth of black-and-white photographs, and in keeping with the “grocery” theme, bottles of wine and more are stacked on high shelves. With the check come peppermint candies, another sweet touch in a place packed with them.
1401 Pennsylvania Ave. SE
202-661-0148
carusosgrocery.com
(The younger Maryland branch is at 11820 Trade St. in North Bethesda.)
Chercher Ethiopian Restaurant
When I crave a little quiet, you’ll find me on the tiny rear patio, crawling with vines and watched over by the attentive staff of one of the city’s prized sources for Ethiopian. Sometimes, I spring for doro wot, the slow-cooked, chicken-and-egg stew that’s considered Ethiopia’s national treasure. Often, I find space for kitfo, the lush, tongue-tingling minced sirloin that fans know is best eaten raw and leaves a trail of fire, from the spice blend mitmita, in its wake.
Always, I order the vegan deluxe sampler ($23), 10 meatless stews and salads whose colors create a rainbow coalition on a platter lined with injera, the tangy, spongy bread that doubles as a utensil. A trio of lentil stews — some a touch sweet, some a lot spicy— top the edible canvas, along with shimmering diced beets, garlic-laced collard greens, porridge-like orange shiro and turmeric-tinted cabbage and carrots, lightly cooked to retain some bite. (“We don’t kill the cabbage,” owner Alemayehu Abebe likes to say.) Did I forget to mention wizened green beans in a tangle of onions? The spread is a lot to take in, and a lot to enjoy.
There are three Chercher locations. The original in Shaw, my favorite, opened in 2012 and finds 100 seats across three levels. A storefront on 14th Street Northwest claims the largest kitchen and is where the bulk of the stews and injera are made, then transferred via van to the other branches. Hence the consistency from branch to branch, a detail underscored by Abebe, who says he tastes everything so the food is “always the same.”
Call me a cheerleader. When travel gurus Rick Steves and Samantha Brown came to D.C., Chercher is where I broke bread — well, injera — with them.
1334 9th St. NW
202-299-9703
chercherrestaurant.com
(The other branches are at 3608 14th St. NW and 4921 Bethesda Ave., Bethesda.)
The Hitching Post
Al and Adrienne Carter introduced the soul food purveyor in Petworth in 1967. Barry Dindyal, a native of Guyana, bought The Hitching Post from the couple 45 years later. Wisely, while adding a few dishes of his own, Dindyal kept the bulk of the Carters’ recipes.
I drop by frequently, not just for the consistent cooking (the peerless fried whiting is seasoned like always with dried garlic and paprika), but for the sense of community. I never go that I don’t run into public radio star Kojo Nnamdi, who is such a regular that he has a drink named for him.
More often than not these days, I gravitate to Dindyal’s fried chicken ($25), which is bought fresh, cut up in the kitchen, dipped in an egg wash and dredged in flour seasoned with garlic, paprika, black pepper and dried thyme. The entree is cooked to order, so be patient, because 20 minutes of waiting rewards diners with fabulous, finger-licking-good, Sunday supper eating. The crisp-golden skin barely clings to four moist pieces of chicken, and the price includes a choice of two homey side dishes. The creamy potato salad, punctuated with sweet pickle relish and boosted with dry mustard and celery seeds, is usually part of my plate, as are collard greens, which are pleasing (and vegan) with oregano, allspice and garlic.
Fun fact: The Carters live above the restaurant, and Adrienne sometimes comes down for whole fish. More frequently, says Dindyal, he walks upstairs for a visit with “a beer or two” in hand.
200 Upshur St. NW
202-726-1511
thehpostrestaurant.com
Donsak Thai Restaurant
This slip of a Thai eatery in Woodley Park gives us so many reasons to make it a habit. The vast list, 75 dishes long, flags items that are vegan or gluten- and peanut-free, and devotes a section to the distinct heat and funk of Essan, the cuisine of Thailand’s northeastern region. If you live within 1.5 miles, delivery is free with a $25 minimum. It’s named for Don Sak, a district in southern Thailand known for its seafood — and the birthplace of co-owner Supisa “Boom” Teawbut — and the dining room reinforces the water theme with navy blue banquettes.
Best of all for bargain hunters, one of the least-expensive selections is also one of the kitchen’s best: green curry ($17), its velvety coconut milk base sparked and stained with green chiles and cilantro and chock-full of vegetables (eggplant, bell pepper, bamboo) that are lightly steamed before being introduced to the bowl. The seductive aroma comes from the inclusion of dried lime leaf peel, which Teawbut brings back from Thailand when she visits. Optional toppings include beef, pork, more vegetables, tofu and my go-to steamed chicken, served in generous ivory folds. A small bowl of warm rice rounds out the pleasure.
Donsak, illuminated by a front window and a skylight over the rear bar, gained a sibling when a larger branch with the same name rolled out in Georgetown in July. While the menus are similar, having tasted both, my affection remains with the original.
2608 Connecticut Ave. NW
202-507-8207
donsakthai.com
(The Georgetown branch is at 3251 Prospect St. NW.)
Her Diner
Watching our server navigate our cocktail order from bar to booth involves an impressive balancing act. The drinks are big and served to the brim, yet not a drop of margarita or Manhattan is lost. Better yet, both libations taste as if they were shaken and stirred in a far fancier establishment.
Her Diner is the chapter following Duplex Diner, the longtime Adams Morgan hangout popular with the LGBTQ community, whose general manager, Kelly Laczko, took over and refreshed the space a couple of years ago. Customers stroll into the bi-level space — a bar and a sunken dining room with concrete floors and Crayola colors here and there — and peruse plastic menus that tap into nostalgia. Salisbury steak? Chicken pot pie? This son of the Midwest laughed at the sight of “totchos,” a sharable appetizer pairing tater tots with spicy ground beef, queso, jalapeños and ranch sour cream dressing. Sure sounds like a Mexican-themed hot dish to me!
Comparisons to the long-lived, gay-friendly Annie’s Paramount Steak House in Dupont Circle are inevitable. I’d say the service is better at Annie’s — entrees and appetizers came together at Her Diner — and the food is a few notches higher at Her Diner. I’m a sucker for meatloaf ($20). Her Diner serves a crusty slab of meat that a server tells us uses Salisbury steak. The entree gets topped with a chunky tomato sauce and flanked with homey mashed potatoes and bright green beans, for a dish that tastes like a mom might be in the kitchen. (Not to worry if you don’t eat meat. For two bucks more, there’s meatloaf made with Impossible burger.)
A runner-up to my No. 1 pick is the packed-with-chicken pot pie ($22), filled with bright carrots and soft mushrooms in a light sauce to bind everything. The puff pastry dome is a nice touch, but it always needs to be baked longer.
2004 18th St. NW
202-204-1761
herdiner.com
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