D.C Restaurant Rankings
Members of the Pacer Times staff took a trip to Washington D.C from Oct. 26 to the 30th. While there, we ate at the various restaurants that D.C. had to offer. Here are our rankings from favorite to least favorite:
Noodles on 11 is located at 1100 New York Ave NW Washington, D.C. Noodles specializes in Asian cuisine.
We started with spring rolls, edamame and fried gyoza dumplings. All three of these were very enjoyable!
We all ordered the combo pho, which includes broth, rice noodles, meatballs, flank steak and brisket. This was the trip favorite! The pho was warm, sweet, salty and extremely flavorful.
The waitress also gave wonderful service.
Gong Cha is located at 1399 New York Ave NW Washington, D.C. Gong Cha is a milk tea establishment that is found throughout the U.S.
We came here two different days of the trip and absolutely loved the boba milk tea. There were tons of flavors, toppings and add-ins for each drink.
The Cheesecake Factory is located at 1426 H St NW Washington, D.C. This is a massive chain, so most of us had decent expectations.
The menus are massive, which is overwhelming but allows options for everyone. Our server was wonderful and took great care of the table.
The cheeseburger egg rolls and the loaded tater tots were both amazing appetizers to start the night with.
The entrees were good, but nothing mind blowing.
The real star of the show was the cheesecake. Everyone enjoyed the flavors that they got: coconut cream pie, tiramisu and the pineapple upside down cake.
The Capital Burger is located at 1005 Seventh St NW Washington, D.C. The Capital Burger was a thumbs up across the board minus one entree.
We started with calamari and clam chowder soup. The calamari were nice and crispy on the outside but tender on the inside, which is refreshing because many places tend to have chewy calamari. The chowder was warm, thick and flavorful.
The burgers were seasoned very well and juicy. The fries and kale salad were great side options to accompany the meals.
The only downside was the southern fried chicken sandwich. The sauce and pickles were delicious, but the chicken itself was extremely dry and hard.
Overall, the service was great and so was most of the food.
Elephant and Castle is an English Pub located at 1201 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, D.C. This Pub does have a lot of traditional English cuisine, but also incorporates Irish and Indian cuisine. Our service at this establishment was great and our server ended the night with a Halloween joke!
Our reviews on this establishment were mixed.
We started with pretzel bites dipped in beer cheese and fried pickles. These were both great across the board.
Entrees are where things get dicey. The shepherd's pie and slum dog were both amazing and flavorful. The slum dog is a creative and unique dish; a hot dog, fried in panko, wrapped in naan bread, topped with caramelized onions, cashew butter tomato sauce and spiced yogurt.
The fish and chips as well as the fish sandwich were extremely disappointing. Both lacked flavor and tasted like nothing. French fries were bland and cold, but the sweet potato fries were a hit.
Overall, this establishment is very good but stay away from the fish.
Carmines is an Italian chain restaurant that is located at 425 Seventh St NW Washington, D.C. They serve all of their dishes “Family Style”, which means that the portions are massive. The prices are very high, but most dishes can serve three to five people.
The reviews for this restaurant are great, so we all had very high expectations. Unfortunately, we were met with massive disappointment.
We arrived for our 8:00 reservation and waited until 8:25 to be seated. From there our waitress waited a very long time to greet us and take our appetizer order. After receiving our appetizers, we waited even longer for her to come check on us and take entree orders.
Our party eventually flagged her down so we could order and she rolled her eyes. We did not receive our entrees until almost 9:30, due to our waitress waiting forever to take our order. The food came out relatively fast, which was nice since we waited so long.
She was extremely short with us, but was being kind and talkative to the other two tables in her section. The service at this establishment was horrible.
The food was decent. Slightly higher than Olive Garden but much lower than expected. The bread was stale and the lasagna lacked flavor.
The ambiance of this establishment was very nice. The low lighting and tablecloths give it a fine dining look.
Unfortunately, they had loud karaoke playing in the back. The lady singing was drunk, horrible and sung for most of our time there. This took away from the “fine dining” experience.
