Road Trip to DC

[Gooch]

Hello all,

Our (young adult) soccer team is driving the ten hours from Ottawa to DC for a tournament on Labour Day weekend.

I'd like to get some restaurant recommendations. Here are some criteria:

1. Good, simple food, for the very few gourmets on the team.

2. Smallest potential for mass food poisoning!!

3. Must accommodate large groups (about 15).

4. Price <=$15 without drinks.

I know DC a bit, and last time we went to the Cactus Cantina, which they liked, and a couple of Ethiopian restaurants, which were very hit and miss.

We'll go to the Cactus again, but I would like to get some other choices, particularly a buffet (cleanliness paramount) and a breakfast place (are IHOPs okay?).

Oh, and we'll be staying just north of the Cleveland Park area.

Thanks!

Edited August 31, 2006 by Gooch (log)

[Busboy]

No IHOPS downtown that I know of, but the American City Diner isn't too far off. I've never actually eaten there, though.

You've got a pretty tall order to fill, especially given the price point. I could kill myself for suggesting this, but Bucco de Beppo, a mediocre chain Italian place on Connecticut Avenue near the Hilton (south of Cleveland Park) does busloads of tourists, generally early in the evening, you might be able to work a deal with them.

How are you travelling? Some very good ethnic just across the District Line in Silver Spring, check this thread.

Also check out Washingtonian's list. Looking it over I'm thinking that Zorba's would be a fun place for out-of-towners -- you line up and order your own stuff, but you get to eat it outside in a great downtown setting. Wine -- how young are they? -- is dirt cheap and the people watching is great.

Have you considered food court options? Yes, I know, but if you're seeing any of the sites you can just pop in and everyone can find SOMEthing they can choke down. There's one in Union Station near the Capitol, one in The Old Post Office and Press Club building near the White House.

[Anonymouze]

Hello all,

Our (young adult) soccer team is driving the ten hours from Ottawa to DC for a tournament on Labour Day weekend.

I'd like to get some restaurant recommendations. Here are some criteria:

1. Good, simple food, for the very few gourmets on the team.

2. Smallest potential for mass food poisoning!!

3. Must accommodate large groups (about 15).

4. Price <=$15 without drinks.

I know DC a bit, and last time we went to the Cactus Cantina, which they liked, and a couple of Ethiopian restaurants, which were very hit and miss.

We'll go to the Cactus again, but I would like to get some other choices, particularly a buffet (cleanliness paramount) and a breakfast place (are IHOPs okay?).

Oh, and we'll be staying just north of the Cleveland Park area.

Thanks!

←

There's an all you can eat salad, pizza & dessert place on Rockville pike in Rockville MD about 2 or 3 blocks west of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission building and it's around 6.00 per person that should fit all your requirements and they all can experience the metro (red line) from DC to get there and walk the 2 or 3 blocks to it! or it's bus/car friendly in a small strip plaza.... I wish I remembered the name of it but maybe busboy or someone can tell you on here!

[Gooch]

Thanks for your suggestions, Charles.

We're travelling by car, so yes, we don't have to stick close to our hotel, but at the same time, we'd like to stay within half an hour's drive or so. So Silver Spring, Bethesda, etc. are all fine.

But, and I forgot to mention this, there's got to be parking, so this might restrict some of our closer to downtown options.

To clarify the price point, I meant <=$15 for the main course only, without taxes and all. Cactus Cantina bracket, in other words, or maybe even Cheesecake Factory.

Buffet suggestions?

[davecap]

Hello all,

Our (young adult) soccer team is driving the ten hours from Ottawa to DC for a tournament on Labour Day weekend.

I'd like to get some restaurant recommendations. Here are some criteria:

1. Good, simple food, for the very few gourmets on the team.

2. Smallest potential for mass food poisoning!!

3. Must accommodate large groups (about 15).

4. Price <=$15 without drinks.

I know DC a bit, and last time we went to the Cactus Cantina, which they liked, and a couple of Ethiopian restaurants, which were very hit and miss.

We'll go to the Cactus again, but I would like to get some other choices, particularly a buffet (cleanliness paramount) and a breakfast place (are IHOPs okay?).

If you all are just north of Cleveland Park, there is a ton of dining in Cleveland Park itself. I haven't lived in the area for a while I do not know what is still there or not. Just walk around.

If you went to Cactus Cantina, just north on Wisconsin Avenue is Guapos, a more mexican restaurant than Tex-Mex, which is Cactus Cantina. Guapos is really good and they serve a brunch. Right near Cactus Cantina is Cafe Deluxe, which is very good but may be a little more pricey than you want. Even a little further north on Wisconsin Avenue, maybe a mile, is Maggianos Italian, decent family style italian; Cheesecake Factory, tons of food but usually a long wait on weekends, Clydes - a good place with good burgers, steaks,etc - may be good, takes reservations, good bar scene on weekends.

Or you could venture into Bethesda, a couple miles further north on Wisconsin Avenue, pretty much any kind of dining you want. For family dinners we always go to the Pines of Rome, great price point, very very reasonable with simple southern Italian dishes, and most every entree comes with a side of pasta. We love the white pizza, with or without cheese, roasted peppers, roast veal, roast chicken, fish specials are usually very good, lasagne is not bad. And house wine in carafes - not a fancy restaurant by any means, but a good Italian dinner for the price. For the rest of Bethesda, there are good Mexican restaurants, japanese, afghan- check this out - http://www.bethesda.org/dining/diningdatabase.asp

lots of fun bars- check out flanagans for drinks.

have a great visit and good luck in your matches!

[JennyUptown]

I can't say that I agree with the suggestion to go all the way to Rockville. Yikes.

If a salad bar type place is what you want (with some cooked items), there's a place at Veazey and Connecticut, across from CVS. If you are staying at the Days Inn nearby, it might be a decent option.

If you order very carefully, you can get by at Alero in Cleveland Park. It's Mexican so if you're already going to Cactus Cantina you may want to skip it. Not my favorite spot, but not bad either.

I have thought of other places I think are reasonable (e.g., Matchbox downtown, metro-accessible), however when you factor in "hungry young adults," that could be a budget-buster.

[carpetbagger, esq.]

another chain option would be bertucci's brick oven. they have locations in dupont circle and foggy bottom.

[hjshorter]

There's an all you can eat salad, pizza & dessert place on Rockville pike in Rockville MD about 2 or 3 blocks west of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission building .... I wish I remembered the name of it but maybe busboy or someone can tell you on here!

←

The name is CiCi's. Never been, but I have heard it's mediocre. I would guess it's not worth the drive from NW.

What about Mongolian BBQ? There's a place in Bethsada not too far away from you. I don't know the pricing, but it's an all you can eat, assemble your own meal sort of thing. If your interested I'd be happy to look up the name and contact info.

[divalasvegas]

Here's a link to Washingtonian Online's 70 Delicious Meals for Under $15.00. After a quick scan, there are 24 restaurants located in DC. The top of the list is alphabetical, next the restaurants are organized by neighborhood, and finally there are a few recommendations from local chefs for places they like to eat. With the exception of the chef's recommendations, phone numbers are provided so you can call and see if they meet your other requirements for parking, etc.

70 Cheap Eats

[jm chen]

I haven't checked the prices lately, but Spices, on Connecticut Ave in Cleveland Park, may be able to handle your group. It's Pan-Asian stuff, lots of noodles.

If you're in the Van Ness area, just north of Cleveland Park, I really love the sandwiches at Schlotzsky's. I don't think you mentioned whether you were also looking for lunch options.

Pizza might be a practical way to feed all those hungry teens. There's an Armand's branch in Tenleytown on Wisconsin, maybe 3/4-mile north of Cactus? They're good with groups.

[Gooch]

Okay, I know this is a very belated report, but the computer gods need not be this harsh - this is my third go at this!

We went and came and here are a few chosen reflections.

1. The plate-by-weight buffet on Conn near Veazey (sorry, forgot the name):

This was near our hotel, so the players went there a few times - I, once. Seemed okay, looked clean, and the food was not bad, for what it is, a non-pretentious buffet. But it seemed odd that around 1pm on a Friday, which is when I was there, there were only a couple of other customers. I am always wary of sparsely populated restaurants.

As it turned out, I was right to be wary. Appearances can be deceiving. For egullet legal reasons, I can't be more precise, but let's just say that it will be a cold day in hell before any of us go back there again!

2. Tony Cheng's:

I know it was after 9:00pm on a Saturday night, and the crowd was petering out, and the staff must have been tired, but that's just no excuse. Cheng's was absolutely awful.

As the two of us entered, we were asked to choose from the Mongolian 'buffet' on the main floor, or the Chinese order by menu restaurant upstairs. We were cordially asked to take a look at the Mongolian first so that we could decide.

Well, the food bar where the ingredients for the 'build your own stir-fry' were kept was absolutely a pigsty. There was food spilt everywhere - on the counters, floor, ... The scene looked and smelled stale. Half the cooking staff were leaning up against a back wall, exhausted looking, daring us to extend their misery. We declined, and opted for the upstairs Chinese.

Standard menu, standard ordering. What was remarkable about the glop we were served was not that the stuff was made badly or anything, but that the ingredients were so stale. Even drowned in the usual strong seasonings and sugar, everything from the broccoli to the chicken was old.

We ate enough to satisfy our hunger, I prayed enough for my sensitive stomach to withstand the assault, and we took our enormous leftovers back to a friend with a lead stomach.

I suppose it's customary to give restaurants a second shot, but I certainly won't be going to Tony Cheng's again.

3. Addis Ababa Restaurant (8233 Fenton St, Silver Spring)

I am intimately familiar with Ethiopian cuisine, and what I would say about Addis Ababa is that if offers, by DC standards, decent Ethiopian fare.

About twelve of us arrived without a reservation towards the end of the lunch buffet. It's always a bit of a pain waiting on twelve, especially without time to prepare, but the waitresses did well.

Half of us partook of the buffet, and the rest ordered off the menu. It's remarkable that there aren't more lunch buffets at Ethiopian restaurants as Ethiopian cuisine is very conducive to buffets. Out of the two dozen or so typical items on a menu, only a handful can be described as made-to-order. So kudos to Addis Ababa for their buffet, and the food was not bad at all.

I would say that if you're going to go to an Ethiopian restaurant in DC, Addis Ababa is not a bad choice. Just don't park in the adjacent parking lot with hard-to-notice signs about no parking allowed as you'll get your car towed to a lot somewhere out near Gaithersburg or something.

4. Saving the best for last, Whole Foods.

I've been a fan of Whole Foods for nearly a decade now. What American cities would be like without Whole Foods I don't know. Absolutely top class.

I went with a friend (from DC) to the Sunday morning breakfast buffet. I'd never been to the breakfast buffet before, and, how good was it? Well, suffice it to say that they even managed to get buffet scrambled eggs to taste remarkable! There's some serious planning and quality control going on back there, I think.

What I like about Whole Foods is that there is plenty of choice and quality. Hungry, not-so-hungry, on a diet, vegan, want a complete meal, something to take back to your kitchenette, whatever, there's something for you there.

Anyway, for any visitors to DC or a similarly equipped US city or Toronto, I would say that you can't go wrong in eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner at a Whole Foods!

Edited October 27, 2006 by Gooch (log)

[JennyUptown]

Such a shame! Sounds like some really awful food overall. You were so close to Matchbox when you went to Tony Cheng's.