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What's In Your Rotation?


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In no particular order:

Gaileo (Lunch Grill)

Eve (Lunch--Bar)

Hawk and Dove (Lunch with Boss)

Sonoma (inching into my lunch rotation)

Palena

Dino

City Lights (delivery)

Colorado Kitchen (if only it was open better hours)

Ray's

Place my husband wishes was in the rotation:

2 Amy's (but he hates crowds and we've been having car issues so we haven't been lately...)

Out of the rotation of late but might go back:

Firefly

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If I lived in DC-proper, my rotation would be seriously different. But I live in Maryland (Laurel) and I work in Owings Mills, MD (my wife works in DC though). So getting out to the places I like and would like to try is often just a weekend thing for me and my wife.

The only place where I think I could be considered a 'regular' would be Palena, and that is stretching things most likely.

Blacksalt is a new fave based on this past weekend's experience there, so that will go in to the 'rotation' if I even have one.

We really like Corduroy, so mark me down for that, too.

I need to get my wife to Dino, as she has yet to dine there even though I have twice with the DC Crü

But I think that is really it. Maybe you could throw Mendocino in there, too.

She used to work in Dupont, so she has quite a few haunts there. And we have hit quite a few places over the years, but not with great consistency.

Here in the MD burbs, I'd say we are serious regulars of Pasta Plus in Laurel, and Joe's Noodle House in Rockville. I frequent Que Rico, El Paraiso, and Vito's in Owings Mills, MD for lunch.

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I like the term cheap-and-cheerful.

Where are:

El Pollo Sabroso

Pepito's Tacos

El Pollo Sabroso is on Mt. Pleasant Street at Kenyon. It was the first restaurant I visited after moving to Mt. Pleasant, and I keep returning both for sentimental reasons and the green sauce that they serve with their good (but not great) Peruvian/Salvadoran roast chicken.

Tacos Pepitos Bakery II is on Columbia Rd. in A-M across from the Safeway. My friends call it Pepito's Tacos due to a a relatively absurd conversation that began with a fantastically obscure Simpsons reference. I like the roast pork or lengua tacos the best. I occasionally get over to Taqueria Distrito Federal as well, which has been discussed before.

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My list closely mirrors Lackadaisi's (since we eat most dinners together), so I suppose I will only list the few places that I hit a little more often than she does and abrreviate my overall dinner list. I work in Georgetown, so I have a distinct geographic focus:

Lunch:

Moby Dick's (G-town) (love the chicken kebab and rice)

Chipotle (it's better than eating cup-o-soup)

Chadwick's (the standard "let's all go to lunch" spot for my office - just get the chicken sandwich)

Cafe Le Ruche (great onion soup - more of a Fall/Winter spot)

Dinner:

Pizzeria Paradiso (G-town)

Bar at Citronelle (bring me the tuna burger!!!)

Teaism (casual - usually eat at the nearby Navy Memorial)

Corduroy (what can I say - I'm addicted!!!)

I agree with Lackadaisi that we need to add Etete to our list!

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Red meat nights: Palena, Corduroy

Pre/Post theater*: Legal Seafood, DC Chophouse, 1409 Playbill, Stoney's

Brunch/Breakfast: Teaism, Open City

Cheap comfort food: Thunder Grill (Union Station), Alero (Cleveland Park)

In need of serious comfort: Bistrot du Coin, fried chicken wings (delivery or Yum's)

Recently added: Dino. Had a really nice experience there recently. When I want someone to take care of me... one of those: I don't want to think nights... this is the place to go.

*Theater season kicks off next week. Any suggestions for the Gallery Place area? Especially someplace open late.

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Aside from the obvious one that I eat at 5-6-7 or more times a week...

WoooMi Gardens in Wheaton (probably not as earthy and intense as Gom Ba Woo but way the heck closer!)

Sergio's Place in Wheaton

Joe's Noodle House

Green Field BBQ

China Town Express (on the way to the KC or Signature theater)

Kotobuki

Tako Grill

Vace (take out Pizza by the slice)

Full Key (WHeaton)

Hollywood East on the Boulevard

and the nimber one place I eat at....

Bybylos in Cleveland Park!

A year + later...

With approximate similar frequency

Byblos

Yet Gol

Ye Chon

Bob's Shabu Shabu

Joes Noodle House

Less Often:

Da Rae Won

Max's Koser Cafe

Sergio's Place

Kotobuki

Still less often

Hollywood East

Full Key

Only for lunch buffet when I'm hungry and too tired to think:

Woo Mi

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Good idea to update....

Lunch:

La Bamba

Mandalay

Woomi Garden buffet

Samantha's

Woodlands

Pho 75

La Limena

Chick-fil-A--I'm addicted to the basic sandwich!

Dinner:

Dino

Mia's Pizza

Passage to India

Samantha's

Would like to have in regular rotation but too far away:

American Flatbread

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In no particular order

Constants:

Corduroy

Joe's Noodle House

Gamasot

Rabieng (especially for dim sum lunch on weekends)

Kotobuki (for sushi, and I need to get there more than once every two months!)

Recent fads:

Guajillo

Hong Kong Palace

Shameful secrets:

The pan-Asian place on the second floor at union station for lunch. Lots of ways to order badly there, but get the spicy basil chicken, spicy basil fried rice, tom yum soup, and some of the noodle dishes. They're adequate, and close to my office.

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Despite my desire to try as many places as possible, there are certain places that I constantly go back to for a variety of reasons (price, location, quality, etc.). They are:

Eleventh Street Lounge

Wasabisito (underrated, inexpensive sushi and interesting Japanese dishes with a Peruvian influence)

Ray's the Steaks

Central

El Pollo Rico

2Amys (lately)

Ravi Kabob

If I were less health and wallet-conscious, Corduroy, Poste, Willow, and Palena would probably be regular destinations, but I do my best to keep those visits to around once-a-month.

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Living near Annapolis, my regular dinner spots are Jalapenos, Lemongrass, Metropolitan, Tsunami, Lewnes' Steakhouse, Carrol's Creek, and the only two places to get a decent dinner that are actually in Crownsville - Sputnik Cafe (more than just decent - I go here a lot) and the Ram's Head Roadhouse (great beer & big screen TV, OK sandwiches). After my first visit to Cynthia's in Severna Park, that will likely go on the list too...

Lunch spots - usually Bethesda/Rockville/Silver Spring area - Addie's, Black Market Bistro, Amici Miei, Ray's the Classics (when it's open), Mandalay, Crisp & Juicy. Sandwiches at My Butcher & More in Gambrills.

And for a blowout dinner, Vidalia, Maestro, and the Inn & Easton have been my favorites.

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The pre-wedding savings plan skews me toward the cheap-but-good end of the dining continuum these days.

Elevation Burger

Mexicalli Blues

Lost Dog Cafe

Los Tios

Del Ray Dreamery

The Italian Store

Eve, although not nearly often enough (see note above)

Ray's the Steaks, ditto

Why the hell do half the posts in this thread contain apologies for eating in Virginia? Sheesh. :-)

Another year-later update.

Old favorites:

Lost Dog Cafe (tomato, feta, pinenut and rosemary pizza with cold pear cider, delivered to our door)

Restaurant Eve (more often!)

The Majestic (for Sunday drinks and dinner)

Eamonn's a Dublin Chipper (my fried-food indulgence, doesn't Guinness lower cholesterol anyway?)

Ray's the Steaks (if you think the staff is surly, you should just @#$! off)

Elevation Burger

Some new additions (yes, it was about time, and yes, I do eat in D.C.):

Dino

Proof

Rasika

I'm glad we got a chance to visit Maestro earlier this month, too.

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I like the term cheap-and-cheerful.

Currently ISO of bar-dining options to add to the Dino-Corduroy-Palena rotation. It's one thing for the bartender to know you; it's quite another when he remembers that you like your beef medium-rare. The criteria: it has a lot more to do with the bartender's personality (cheerful) than the food (cheap); but good food is never a bad thing.

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Glad to see Im not the only one. How about meeting you at the corner of 19th and 19th and 19th, right down the street from 19th and 19th?!?!? :blink:

All right, haters, don't make me get started on Adams Morgan - the roads, the parking, the people [did I say that out loud?]. Seriously, Virginia is not the backwater of the world, and there's lotsa tasty things to eat here.

I'm more of a bargain eater out since I bought my big fat house, but here's some good stuff:

Arlington

Liberty Tavern

El Churrito Caminate [only order when there is a middle aged lady at the grill, not the young girls. Do not order in Spanish to be cute, lest you get scorned by the counter guy]

Pollo Rico

Thai 54 [i've heard about slumming, but so far, delivery is still golden]

Ravi Kabob [kicks the saffron riced behind of Moby Dick]

Ray's [when I can get there in time]

Old Town

Hank's [oh thank you thank you for not being only in Dupont]

La Bastille

A la Lucia

Del Merei

Whole Foods [not technically a restaurant, but dear God]

DC

Poste

Zola [the new chef has made it good]

Amsterdam Falafel [only on weeknights. damn kids!]

Dino

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I lunch in the Columbia, MD area and my regulars are:

Pho An Loi - everything here is good

House of India - get the buffet

Some taco truck on Rt. 1 just south of Rt. 175. - really good carnitas and tongue tacos

Beto, is the taco truck just there for lunch or during the dinner hour, too?

I work in Owings Mills and my rotation there is basically --

El Paraiso

Que Rico

Sushi Ya

Vito's Express

I live in Laurel and my only place in a regular rotation is Pasta Plus, but I am hoping the Megachicken place opens soon. Lately we have added the Bombay Indian Restaurant in White Oak and Udupi Palace in to the rotation for a slightly longer drive.

In Washington, I sound like a broken record but Palena is my only true place in a rotation, but Dino and Komi make honorable mentions.

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Beto, is the taco truck just there for lunch or during the dinner hour, too?

I've only been for lunch, but I doubt that they're there in the evening.

Here's the address:

8167 Washington Blvd

Jessup, MD 20794

It's set up in the parking lot of a liquor store (no loiters, thankfully).

If you're looking for something similar, try El Nayar. They have similar fare, but are open at night. I learned about sopes there.

El Nayar

6790 Business Pkwy

Elkridge, MD 21075

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Bourbon in Adams Morgan where we spend a good deal of our disposible dining income (I guess I am one of those "people" that you are talking about, Beezy)

California Tortilla

Spices

Sushi-Ko

Dino

I somehow doubt it if you

a) have disposible income

:blink: can afford to spend it there.

<crankypants filter>

I would be talking about all those kids in tank tops, wedgies and clutch bags with their fratty boyfriends who come to drink at those trendy bars. The ones who aren't old enough to be there.

</crankypants>

Beezy, who remembers when Adams Morgan was dangerous, cheap, and not be visited after dark.

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Walking distance (or how I get my husband to agree to eat out more)

Fireflies

Evening Star

Hanks (ok, just once so far, but we're going back)

Hard Times (Wednesday night wing club)

Overwood

Not walking distance:

Bombay Curry house

A la Lucia

Thailand Royal St.

As you can tell, we rarely venture into the District. I need to pick a place near the Gallery Place/Chinatown area for a pre-theater dinner. Any ideas? We're not big on multi-course dinners. Thanks!

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Another year-later update.

Old favorites:

Lost Dog Cafe (tomato, feta, pinenut and rosemary pizza with cold pear cider, delivered to our door)

Restaurant Eve (more often!)

The Majestic (for Sunday drinks and dinner)

Eamonn's a Dublin Chipper (my fried-food indulgence, doesn't Guinness lower cholesterol anyway?)

Ray's the Steaks (if you think the staff is surly, you should just @#$! off)

Elevation Burger

Some new additions (yes, it was about time, and yes, I do eat in D.C.):

Dino

Proof

Rasika

I'm glad we got a chance to visit Maestro earlier this month, too.

More new adds:

Liberty Tavern (& Liberty to Go)

Restaurant 3 (service and dishes have a polished quality surprising for such a new establishment)

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Rocks' unfortunate news aside, I hadn't noticed this topic before and think it cool.

Also makes me a bit wistful. Palena Cafe, from its earliest days, was part of our rotation. I'm as thrilled as anyone that Chef Ruta is helming a kitchen again but will be tough to hit that as often given the location, pricing, etc.

We've always liked Joe's, Nava and some of the other Asian spots up in Rockville, Wheaton and out in and around Annandale.

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What a great blast from the past! My rotation has changed almost completely from my pre-kid days.

Currently, it includes:

Le Columbe

Chaplin

Rinconcito

Thally

Baby Wale

Dino Grotto

Lost and Found

DC City Smokehouse

Sweatgreen

Chop't

Matchbox

Eat the Rich/Mockingbird Hill

Cher Cher

Fishnet

City Tap House

Bon Chon

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What a great blast from the past! My rotation has changed almost completely from my pre-kid days.

Currently, it includes:

Le Columbe

Chaplin

Rinconcito

Thally

Baby Wale

Dino Grotto

Lost and Found

DC City Smokehouse

Sweatgreen

Chop't

Matchbox

Eat the Rich/Mockingbird Hill

Cher Cher

Fishnet

City Tap House

Bon Chon

Cool. We do ETR/MH semi-regularly and should/will increase Fishnet frequency.

Only Don can make it so but one bite note for requiring red carnations or name tags to be worn by all members whenever dining out! j/k

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Here's what pops into my head right away as our "rotation." We typically dine with our 2 year old, so I only included the places we easily frequent with him.  Strong NE DC showing here.

Boundary Road

Union Market (District Fishwife, Maketto, Ris, among others)

Bullfrog Bagels

Menomale

Indigo

Shawafel (although we may be shifting allegiance to Micho's)

Panda Gourmet

Dino's Grotto

Bangkok Golden

Izakaya Seki

Taqueria Habanero

Seoulia

Sichuan Jin River

China Bistro

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Interesting - 9 years later, and my list is a lot the same (of course, I'm still in the same house, so that drives a lot).

Pho 75, A&J, China Bistro, Bob's (now Shanghai), Yekta still all on the list.

I've added Riverside Hot Pot, Iron Age, Pizza CS, East Pearl, Spice Xing, and BGR.

My rotation is all places in Rockville, which have the virtue of being 5-10 minutes from my house (and kid-friendly). Now that I'll be working downtown, I hope to have a new rotation.

Amici Miei
Pho 75
China Bistro
Tony Lin's
Joe's Noodle
Bob's Noodle
Yekta Kabobi
Tower Oaks Lodge
A&J
Popeye's blink.gif

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Trying to think of my normal rotation, I try to avoid normal rotations, we used to have a more defined one than now, somewhat I think this is it:

Italian Store

Lebanese Taverna Market

Green Pig Bistro

Taqueria Poblano

Earl's Sandwiches

Zoe's Kitchen

Hunan Gate

Momo Sushi

This is all stuff we get frequently due to the very close proximity to our house or my work and our weeknight schedules. We have favorite fine dining restaurants, but that has really been in flux recently due to just so many changes, so we haven't really settled into any routines.

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2006

Capitol Lounge (Footie, beer and bar food)
Sizzler Express (Turkey club sandwich on Fridays for lunch)
Galileo Grill
Pacific Cafe (vietnamese take out on the weekends)
Montemartre
Komi
Corduroy
Zaytinya

2015

Spices

Siam House

Ripple

Vace

Fresh Med

Italian Pizza Kitchen

Zoo Bar

West Wing Cafe

Fasika Food Truck

Guess you can call it a tale of two neighborhoods (and work moving from Dupont to Metro Center)

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When we were living in NoMa, our rotation was mostly The Big Board and Impala.

Now that we are in Hill East, we still hit up Impala pretty regularly (it's easier to get to the eastern side of H street from where we live now), but instead of The Big Board, we hit up either Matchbox or Molly Malone's, both of which have excellent beer selections (our primary criterium).  We also go to Beauchert's fairly frequently (in fact, I had a crazy dream about the restaurant and our favorite bartender last night).

When the weather warms up and walking isn't so gosh darned unpleasant, I suspect we will hit up Copycat Co. on H and also some of the places closer to the Capitol more often.  We definitely need to add some variety to the list - I need to take hubby to Sushi Capitol to see if he can find enough that he likes to add it to the rotation.

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In no particular order

Constants:

Corduroy

Joe's Noodle House

Gamasot

Rabieng (especially for dim sum lunch on weekends)

Kotobuki (for sushi, and I need to get there more than once every two months!)

Recent fads:

Guajillo

Hong Kong Palace

Shameful secrets:

The pan-Asian place on the second floor at union station for lunch. Lots of ways to order badly there, but get the spicy basil chicken, spicy basil fried rice, tom yum soup, and some of the noodle dishes. They're adequate, and close to my office.

Ours have changed in response to having our disposable income change, and also having an elderly dog.  Joe's Noodle House, Kotobuki, and Corduroy have dropped off.  It's become an all-Virginia list.

These days our rotation includes:

Frequent-

  • Lighthouse Tofu
  • A&J
  • Dogfish Head Alehouse - Falls Church
  • Pica Taco - Kingstowne

Occasional-

  • Rustico Alexandria
  • Thaibox carryout
  • Namaste

Need to get there more often-

  • Rabieng
  • Hong Kong Palace
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