So Foodmomiac, whose writing, recipes and self I hold in high regard, asks for five top restaurants in one’s hometown. I have to do 10 — 5 PRE-kosher life and 5 SINCE Kosher life.
Since Kosher is easiest since there are only around 10 in DC anyway
JCC Cafe – more nicely appointed than the others and nice, regular food.
Pita Plus – Shwarma and lots of other Middle Eastern meat stuff
Max’s – Great matzo ball soup, schwarma, so-so fried chicken, good fries (according to my husband) etc.
Eli’s – a NY coffee shop type menu – salads with sliced steak, burgers (zillions of types) plus some real "entrees."
Ben Yehuda Pizza – Great pizza w/spinach and tomato and lots more.
NOW – before we began our Kosher life – there were several we loved. Here are 5 of them:
Bistro Bis – cool, beautiful and delicious — American/French cuisine – light.
Neyla – Spectacular Middle Eastern food in an elegant setting (expensive)
Cafe Milano – The Clintons eat here and so do a lot of other "cool folks" on the patio and inside… but celebrity haven or not it’s great Italian food (expensive)
Bombay Club – A fabulous Indian restaurant with a great outdoor area for dinner near the White House at dusk.