The Best Cheap Eats in the DMV

0:00Today on CityCast DC, I'm sure we've all had that distinctly DC sticker shock of opening up a menu and seeing a $20 or $25 burger, and I know that we are all trying to stretch our dollar a little bit further these days, and the Washingtonians got us covered with this year's cheap eats in the DC area list. Executive food editor Ann Limpert is here to talk about her top picks. Before we get started, today's Theatre Week shout out is Shakespeare Theatre Company. Golden Globe winner Brian Cox of HBO Succession stars in the score, where composer Johann Sebastian Bach pits his creativity against dangerous power, playing until October 25th, ordered tickets for the score today at Shakespeare Theatre dot org. Today's Tuesday September 22nd. I'm Richard Todd and here's what DC is talking about.

1:08Ann welcome back to the show. Always such a pleasure to chat with you. Thank you. It's so good to be here. Okay, so you're talking about one of the things that is very near and near to my heart, and that is cheap eats in DC. I feel like when people talk about cheap eats, oftentimes they're still saying, oh, this is cheap thing you could get, but sometimes what they're actually talking about is something that's quite small, that I would not personally consider to be a full meal. That can sometimes be a little bit tricky, where you can not spend a bunch of money, but also leave feeling meaningfully full. Yes, I'm with you. It's funny. So our cutoff is $25 a person, and it has been that way since 2001. But back then, it was typically a sit-down restaurant with full service, and it could include beer or glass of wine. You can still definitely get those things at some places on this list, but I will say that our definition of what counts as a cheap eats has changed a little bit. A lot of the most interesting food now is it carryouts and food trucks.

2:11I think for me what really drove what made a place stand out was a sense of value, whether that is a full-on dumpling feast at A&J, where you can definitely fall to manifest bread, which you are going to only be able to get a sandwich and some chips, but the chips are house made, and the bacon in your BLT is cured in-house, and the bread is freshly baked that day, and it's peak summer tomatoes. There is a range, but I think the rears hopefully will come away with whatever it is, just like they got a good value. You've already got my mouth watering and my tummy grumbling just what they mentioned of those two things. I'm curious, what was the process of reporting this piece like? How wide of a net did you all cast for this? Very wide. So there are five of us that work on it, and I'll give a special shout out to my colleague

3:14Ike Allen who writes our hidden eats column and has found so many places on this list. Our readership is heavily Maryland and Virginia-based, and so we go pretty wide. I mean, there's a lot of suburbs on this list. There's a big concentration of places in Falls Church and Rockville and Silver Spring, but I think we stop it like Annapolis and Middleburg, I would say, Frederick. All right. Since you're the expert, I have to ask you to weigh in on a little personal... I won't call on our argument, but I got into it. I got into a back and forth with somebody on Threads who was like, the DC area has no hidden gems. It's not the kind of place where hidden gems. There's no hidden gems in the DC area. And my point was exactly what you were saying. I could see the argument for in the district, maybe a lot of places are, you know, but you might think of this sort of lesser known are already on the radar, but if you go out into the burbs, there are so many hidden gems. I will not hear that there are no hidden gems in the DMV area if you include the burbs. Right.

4:15And I think the hidden gems, these days, tend to be the places that have been around for decades, it just get overlooked. And that's what was really fun about reporting this was, you know, there's Ravikabab and Karen and there are lots of places that have been around for decades and decades that have devoted following. So they're not hidden gems to those devoted followings, but like, I don't know, have you been to Ravikabab? I have not. There you go. Fantastic. Could be a hidden gem to me, not not to people who have been enjoying it for a very long time. But yes, I think you're right. Like, the suburbs are astounding when you go, you know, you drive through Rockville and you just see Stripmall after Stripmall packed with restaurants. There are just so many places to explore. So I do, I think that there are definitely still hidden gems out there. You know, you were talking about the wide net that you cast and thinking about like, oh, should food trucks be included on this list? I think that folks have been told that there was a time where food, there was a food truck craze in DC, but I think that these days, some folks might be kind of wary of food trucks,

5:18especially if there's like a distinct lack of prices where you don't know what the price you're going to cost. Are there food trucks or stands or anything in that sort of category that you think are actually worth folks as tight as they're looking for cheap eats? Yes. And I would say they are not on the national mobile. Ejo's Del Maís, which is a Mexican place in Rockville, is wonderful for, you know, home tortillas and tacos. I think that the craze has definitely died down. I mean, it used to be that if you wanted to get started, it was a lot cheaper, obviously, to get started with the food truck than like commit to a full-on restaurant space. The variety has really, really dwindled. And I think, you know, during the pandemic, there were so many ghost kitchens to kind of, you know, fill that niche for people in the food industry who are just starting out.

6:27Yeah, it's interesting how we've seen that evolution from that kind of thing. Food truck stands. I remember the food truck craze that also aligned with me being a young person working in office job in DC. And I felt I used to feel so cool going out with my co-workers to mill around food trucks and decide which one we were going to eat at. And it's really changed, but I'm glad to see that that still a vibe that is out there that people can actually find something good. And again, very much also in the suburbs, in office parks and, you know, but yeah, I remember standing in line for like two hours for a red hook loves to roll. Yep. That was one of the big ones. Certainly. 2007 or something. Oh, you're really taking me back. It was delicious. I know. All right. He kind of in that same vein. I was talking to one of my colleagues, Jackie Pyser, who did some great reporting on how a lot of that downtown storefronts are shuttering. And so these places that, you know, a while ago might have been ubiquitous for where young

7:30folks got their lunch at a certain part of their life in DC. Now it's a lot harder to find, you know, a lunch place in some of those spots that isn't like a salad bowl or something like that. If you are working downtown, is it still possible to find a decent, cheap place to have lunch? Yeah. There's actually, there's a fauna pot in Dupont, which is on our list of Egyptian wonderful like dips and mezzai, kosheri, which is like very comfort foodie. But yeah, I mean, I have very depressively paid $25 for like a desk salad and a spin drift way too many times. Oh, and Greek deli. I want to call it Greek deli, which has been around forever. Talk about value. You will get like, pessice, you, they're being it for days. It's so big. I am so happy. So I've been downtown in a minute. I'm happy Greek deli is still there. My old office was right across the street and I would look out the window to judge how long the line was because there were days where it would be out, out the block down the

8:33side. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And actually like right by their new sheet is still going strong. I don't know if you ever went there. Oh, yeah. You've taken me back. Okay. What about breakfast? Let's say that you're on your way to work, catching the metroid. You've got a big day ahead of you. Where should you go for cheap eats? I have to say like breakfast was a one category that really surprised me doing this. Like there were so many really good options now. Probably my favorite is Latihana, which is in Mount Pleasant. It's about the size of like a walking closet, total carry out. But their thing is Texas style tacos. They do basically one thing really, really exceptionally well. So tacos on house made flour tortillas with cilantro, crema and any, you know, various combinations of like egg potato chorizo. My favorite actually though is just beans and cheese. It's very simple but very delicious. Yeah, I live in Columbia Heights. So I'm there. It's a quick walk. I'm there a lot.

9:33I do feel like it also for just being a taco place as a buzz that that place got was incredible. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. And I think they started as, um, they were pop up. And so I think they kind of built up a following that way. But that, I mean, people love breakfast tacos so much. And it's such a blind spot here or was for so long. Um, I mean, it's pretty hard not to love them. Okay, how about places where I can take the family or a group of friends altogether without necessarily spending a million dollars? Yes. So, um, one thing that also surprised me about this list is like 10% of it. So I have six places out of 60 or Vietnamese, which are great for big groups, big, you know, like family style platters. But a newer spot that I really love is upstate for the win, which is it's kind of an odd little spot is run outside of sport and social, um, which is a use free sports bar. The kitchen was taken over by Scott Bruno and Danny Lee of Chico and Anju.

10:38And Scott is from Syracuse. And so the menu is just like a love letter to upstate New York. So garbage plates, um, French bread pizza, but I will tell you, you order a French bread pizza there and you get an entire, like an entire bag at six people could take that down. Yeah, I really like when you go someplace and someone's like, just so you know, this, this, if you order one French bread pizza, I could feed the three of you who don't all need to order your own. That's, that's a spot for me. I made the mistake of just taking my husband there for the first time and we got like a crab dip, a French bread pizza, like an Italian sub, like, and we just had leftovers for days. You know, I mean, I'm sure you've seen, it's unavoidable. All the news about DC's economic situation, not great. I know a lot of people myself included are really feeling the squeeze. And I'm curious, do you think that local restaurant owners are changing up their menus and offering deals or cheap eats or things like that to sort of lure people back to restaurants

11:41as opposed to just cooking and getting a bottle of wine at home? I think so. And I think that like, at least this year, I feel like the trend in even like finer dining restaurants is towards value and nostalgia. So like ebies, one of the hottest restaurants to open in the last year. I mean, it feels like you're walking back 25 years or 30 years. So a much simpler time, a much more anilong time and you're getting like a club sandwich and a $13 martini. So I think even like conceptualize that you're seeing that like ri bunny, which is the follow up to tail up goat, which was a wonderful, but quite expensive restaurant and adm's Morgan, the owners have flipped that into ri bunny, which is more affordable, not not cheap eats affordable, but it's definitely more affordable in its counter service. So I think even like in a bigger way, yeah. You were the one who put me on ebies, by the way. I tried to go there once and there was like a line. And I'm the kind of person who was instantly put off by a line. My first thing is who do they think they are a line?

12:43What are we in New York City? I was all ready to think this is overrated. Who would wait in line for this? Yada yada yada. That actually went and I got the burger, the Caesar salad and the turkey club and a martini. And it was just delightful. It's delightful. And it's also kind of like you were saying it's a cozy vibe where you know, it's not the fanciest food, but it's really good food done well. It's simple and like, yeah, I talked to the owner about that club sandwich and it took her six months to fine tune it. Everything there is very thoughtful. But yeah, I almost feel like I'm walking into a movie from like 1997, you know, with like playbills on the wall. But here's my hat of about ebies. If there's like a super long line or weight, go to the royal, which is like two blocks away, which is excellent and just get drinks there and wait it out because they text you. And the royal also makes an excellent dirty martini. Have a martini at the royal, our martini at ebies. Yeah. Be drunk by seven. Definitely get that club sandwich.

13:44Yeah, that's my hot tip is that everybody talks about the burger, which is very good. The club sandwich I feel like is the real star and it's absolutely enough food for two people. So there with your partner, order one club sandwich, you could absolutely both be full by just sublitting it. Yeah, even the mozzarella sticks will like fill two people up. So on that note, what about date night if you're trying to go out in DC, but you don't want to be getting one of those $25 cocktails? What's a good cheap eats date spot in DC? One of my favorites is now it's known as melange food. So it's a restaurant in Shaw that was started by Elias to desi who has a background as like a sign dining chef in New York. He came here, he opened a burger spot during the pandemic called melange, which was really popular. Then he opened like a soul food spot in Shaw called Doros soul food, also popular. He basically closed those locations and put those two concepts under one roof at melange

14:46foods, along with a taco place. The through line is he weaves like Ethiopian ingredients and flavors into all of it. So like Doros what fried chicken, I'm telling it's like the best mac and cheese in the city talked with like in Jerro crumbles, but it's a block from the 930 club. It's a really cute space. They've like an indoor outdoor bar. It's cute. And the food is like, I mean, I I've ordered widely across all of those three menus and I'm always wary about like somebody who's trying to shove in like three different menu concepts under one roof, but he really pulls it off. It's not an easy thing to pull off. Not everybody pulls it off. Sometimes when you put a place where it's like, it's like this meets that cross with this is like a little too much. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Down, yeah. And I always love places that just do one thing super well. Like Marv's dogs, for example, is a place that opened within the last year and it's intently and it's just as hot dogs and softwares basically. And that's another place that feels very like 90s coded. They've got like arcade games in the basement and but they just do hot dogs and they're

15:52excellent. Oh, I'm this the side note. I'm already imagining you coming back to do an episode about if you're trying to have a 90 style fall. Oh my god. Where are you sending me to touch 90 style fall class of 1999 right here. Okay, you're going to come back for that episode. I'm making that happen. What about date nights spots outside of DC in the burbs? Yeah. I think the Eden Center, which is like the hub for Vietnamese restaurants in Falls Church is a great place to start. You can wander. You can like kind of do a progressive meal with dessert at one place and coffee at another place and like an actual dinner somewhere. There's just a wide range of really excellent stuff. There's great fah.

16:52There's great bun me. One of my other favorite newcomers is called Bon Mi Oy, which is in the Eden Center and it's like a really pretty cafe type. But they their thing is bun me. They bake all the bread. They make the AOLI. They pickle the veggies. Everything is handmade and it's just like another very thoughtfully executed place. And they actually have a Nashville hot chicken bun me that's wonderful. So depending on your like spice tolerance for a date night, I don't know. I'm just eating my husband who's like sweats profusely whenever he eats anything spicy. So yeah, plan ahead so that you're not sweaty and maybe getting a heartburn. Yeah. Fair, fair. I do love the cross cultural like a Nashville hot chicken bun me. That is an interesting connection there. Totally. And it works. It really works. But they're traditional bun me with like cold cuts or like the you know, let them grass steak. They're also great.

17:52Are there other spots that are doing something like truly new or creative like a new take? What place it's interesting is Balbe, which is in Rockville. And it was actually started by like a former financial analyst during the pandemic. It was in this ghost kitchen, which was really hard to find. Like it was in the back of this like warehouse building in Rockville. But he opened his own space, his own restaurant space, I think about a year ago. And his thing is Taiwanese style, Balbe. And so he makes the Bal buns himself. And my favorite is like the pork belly, which is like a wonderful soy braised pork belly, pickled mustard greens. And then he finishes it all with like peanut sugar. So it's this kind of riot of like tangy and sweet and rich and it's great. It's sort of a riff on tradition, but definitely has like roots in what you'll find in Taiwan.

18:55That also I've not had this, but that's definitely going on my list. Yeah, yeah. So another category that I feel like can be a little controversial in DC is late night eats. You know, DC has a late night scene where a town or people like to go out, but sometimes it can be a little hard to find the late night eats when you're coming back from the club or just got back into town or whatever it is. Are there late night eats that won't break the bank? Yeah, I mean, RIP Amsterdam fell off. Oh, too. That was my, that was always my go too. Only a shameful night ended. Yeah. Amphelophil. Oh my God. Well, there's always bends chilly bowl. But Tempo Shark, which is a, it is a Nepheli's dumpling stand on each street. I think they're open pretty late and that's a good, that's a good thing to close out your night with like some spicy dumplings. Yeah, I feel like that's really what you want after a big night out is something spicy,

19:57warm, easy to eat. So and we're going to put a link to the full list in the show notes. If folks can check it out, but is there a place that we have not mentioned that you want to make sure it gets highlighted before we wrap? One of my favorite, I think it's might be the cheapest place on this list. One of my favorite Cheapy dinners is a slice of pizza or two or three from Vace. They're 250 each. What a, I mean, now you can't really get a lot for 250 these days. No. Excellent. It's like the cheese is on the bottom and the sauce is on top so it gets all caramelized and delicious. And it's a great car slice. Oh, I, there's something about eating kind of a messy food in your car that I really appreciate. Yeah, I, I feel like it's always, I'm always really, you know, like I've pushed it too far and I'm just starting when I go there and then it's just, it's like this away. So it's a pizza. Not I've pushed it too far. You're, you're making yourself like you're going to turn into a werewolf or something. Like I'm approaching the line to hangry.

20:57I, I get, I get where we'll like what I'm angry. Okay. Well, let's, let's stop because we're approaching lunchtime. Yes. Let's make sure neither of us gets, gets too angry. And thank you so much for being here. It is always such a pleasure. You're such a delight. Oh, it's so good to see you. Thank you so much for having me. That's all for today here on CityCast DC. If you enjoyed this show, want to tell a friend, rate the show, leave us a review and subscribe to our morning newsletter. We'll be back tomorrow morning with even more news from around the city. Talk to you soon.