Photos: Signature Dishes From DC's 2019 Michelin Bib Gourmand Restaurants
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Michelin's Bib Gourmand DC list features excellent places to eat that offer good-value meals. Here are some of the most iconic dishes from this year's list of honorees.
30 photos
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Bad Saint via Ruth Sandoval/Sababa/Ambar
The Michilen Guide's Bib Gourmand features restaurants that have amazing food at a good value. Bad Saint (left), Sababa and Ambar all made the 2019 list.
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Courtesy: Ambar Capitol Hill
A traditional dish, stuffed sour cabbage reminds diners from the Balkans of family celebrations and grandma's cooking. Ambar Capitol Hill's chefs take a sour cabbage leaf and stuff it with rice, minced root veggies and pork belly ($10). The restaurant is known for its brunch and Balkan Experience dinners, where you can get a slew of small plates for $49.
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Ruth Sandoval
Radishes, burnt coconut and honey come together to create a crown-like salad fit for a king — and actual royalty may be the only way to get into Bad Saint without waiting outside the Columbia Heights restaurant for an hour or two.
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JSO
Chercher offers a special gluten-free injera — which is the spongy bread at the heart of a typical Ethiopian meal. The vegan or meaty dishes you get with your bread are anything but typical.
5/30
Monte Poole
Ceviche Nikkei encompasses the Peruvian-Asian blend that Penn Quarter's China Chilcano is known for. Big-eye tuna makes the base for ceviche while Japanese ponzu, a sauce, and furikake, a seasoning, incorporate Asian flavors ($19).
6/30
Scott Suchman
Chloe takes a classic roast chicken and spices it up with Vietnamese flavors and a chili-lime dipping sauce ($27). The cripsy skin is achieved through a cooking process that takes 20 hours: The chicken is first brined in a pho-like broth, then air dried overnight. The Navy Yard restaurant, which serves in-season Mid Atlantic ingredients with culinary inspiration from Lebanon, Western Europe and Southeast Asia, is new to the Bib Gourmand this year.
7/30
NBC News
Two of Das' most popular menu items allow you to sample many of the Georgetown restaurant's Ethiopian specialties. The vegetarian sampler lets you taste split pea puree, spiced lentils, cabbage with carrots and shiro wat, a seasoned chickpea flour cooked in a sauce ($19.95). Meat-lovers can feast on favorites including chicken doro wat, served in a red pepper sauce and with a hard-boiled egg and beef alicha, with rich flavors of purified butter, curry and tamarind ($20.95).
8/30
Rose Collins
Bring a date or friend to share this feast served on a lazy susan at Hazel in the Shaw neighborhood. The sides change seasonally (currently, you'll find wings, kimchi fried rice and pickles) but the roasted duck is the real star ($89).
9/30
Leading DC
Ivy City Smokehouse stands out because of its in-house smoked fish. Their signature catch is the salmon candy: a honey hot-smoked delight. You can sample it on the fish board, which also features two more salmon varieties, a North Carolina trout and a whitefish salad. You'll find them in, of course, Ivy City. ($25)
10/30
Associated Press
Small plates star at Jose Andres' Jaleo, which has locations in D.C., Bethesda and Crystal City. Two must-try selections are the croquetas de pollo, a traditional chicken fritter ($10), and gazpacho, the classic chilled tomato soup ($10).
11/30
Beth Kennedy
Tuna crudo is paired with avocado mousse, pineapple-ginger sorbet, almonds and cilantro in this dish, which you can grab as a tapas plate ($10), a medium portion ($19) or a family-style dish ($39). Proprietor Javier Candón wants guests to linger, chat and eat leisurely at his Eastern Market restaurant.
12/30
Courtesy The Eat Good Food Group
You can get mouthwatering street-style and elevated eats from the Philippines, Korea and Thailand right on The Wharf at Kaliwa. The Filipino skewers bring together fatty pork belly with a house-made banana ketchup ($15).
13/30
Foreign National
Maketto is only one of chef Erik Bruner-Yang's Bib Gourmand-honored restaurants (He's also tied to Toki Underground and Spoken English). What draws diners into the H Street Corridor spot? A dinner of fried chicken seasoned with five spice caramel that's served with housemade bread ($28).
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Courtesy Crave Creative
Diners will feel cozy in Mola's dining room, where wooden decor, a brick wall and bright wallpapers create a homey feel. Choose one of their Catalan coca Spanish-style flatbreads: either an exotic combination of spinach, anchovy, pine nuts, chili and raisins or go pizza-style with zucchini, peppers, cheese and Serrano ham (each $14).
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Courtesy Antonio Ferraro
Wide-shaped Neapolitan Paccheri noodles are slow cooked for six hours in Nonna's sauce of savory beef with San Marzano tomatoes ($19). It's only one of the southern Italian specialties served up in the bright Napoli pasta bar space near Howard University.
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Courtesy Ottoman Taverna
Içli Köfte — or kibbeh — comes in many forms. Ottoman Taverna in Mount Vernon's signature version blends lamb, beef, walnuts and is served with a parsley sauce ($12). It's a staple of their meze menu, but the restaurant also serves up main courses if you haven't had your fill of lamb.
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Courtesy Rey Lopez
However you like your tacos — with wild mushrooms and poblano peppers, pig confit, marinated chicken thigh or even sautéed grasshoppers — you have choices at Oyamel in Penn Quarter. Most tacos cost $4.50, but three varieties only cost $2 during happy hour.
18/30
Black Restaurant Group
Come to Pearl Dive Oyster Palace hungry for seafood. The gumbo is packed with oysters, shrimp, local crab and ham ($24). The Oyster Po'boy is elevated with house-made pickles and cayenne aioli ($16). The wooden floors and tables and wide front window will give you sea-side vibes even in landlocked Logan Circle.
19/30
The Royal
Beef, avocado, cheese and lime come together for a delicious — and eye-catching — arepa ($15) in Shaw at The Royal. You can visit pretty much any time of day: The restaurant opens in the morning for coffee service, has $7 cocktails and $5 happy hour plates and stays open for the late night crowd.
20/30
Courtesy Sababa
Cleveland Park's Sababa just opened this year, but it already is making an impression. The Israeli restaurant's most popular dish is the lamb shank, which is served on a bed of red cabbage with dates, citrus and ginger ($26). Chef Ryan Moore feels a personal connection with this dish in particular: His mother had her own special lamb shank recipe.
21/30
Sfoglina
All of Sfoglina's pastas ($23 to $26) are made right in the kitchen of the floral-themed Van Ness restaurant — which also boasts a sweet patio.
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Brian Scott, NBC 5
Sweet and spicy, crispy and soft come together in Succotash's signature dish, chicken and waffles ($16 at brunch; $22 at supper). The succulent combination fits right in with the Penn Quarter restaurant's two-story, sunny space that's built inside a former bank.
23/30
Andrew Propp
If you're looking for something cheesy near the Convention Center, pop into Supra and pick out one of their six khachapuris. The Georgian dish features a cheese-filled bread that can carry so much goodness: the most famous — and cheesy — is the ajaruli, which features a baked egg ($14). Your server (or you!) mixes the barely-cooked egg into the cheese at your table, giving you exceptionally rich and creamy bites. The lobiani is filled with white bean ($10) and the kubdari is stuffed with spicy pork and beef ($15).
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WRAL
True to Southeast Asia's tradition of balancing flavors, this salad incorporates crispy coconut rice, sour pork, peanut, banana blossom, lime, ginger, scallion and cilantro ($16). The addition of pig ear gives you something new to try in a blend of familiar Asain flavors — this dish is featured on the Columbia Heights restaurant's adventurous Jungle Menu.
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WRAL
Slurp up a flavorful bowl of ramen with flavorful kimchi and pickled ginger with rich, soft egg and braised pork ($15). The H Street spot is a longtime favorite for ramen in the District, ranging from a greens-heavy vegan option to a Teipei curry.
26/30
Amy Ruddell/@ryeordiechick
Sample roasted chicken,cripsy fish, pork belly and more on Tiger Fork's barbecue plates, but don't sleep on the street-style dishes, either. The Cheung fun from Tiger Fork is a crowd favorite. These steamed rice noodles stuffed with shrimp and chives are topped with sesame seeds and serve as perfect appetizers. You'll find it in Blagden Alley.
27/30
Maya Oren
Pesto lovers can feast on the Green Monster pizza topped with two kinds of cheese, zucchini and kale ($15) while the biggest cheese fans can enjoy five varieties on The Lulu ($15). Move over, red sauce (although the menu boasts several alluring pizzas with tomato sauce). This Petworth pizzeria is quickly becoming one of the city's favorites.
28/30
Hannah Berl
The sweet and rich blueberry pancakes at Unconventional Diner in Mount Vernon Triangle feature a healthy helping of vanilla mascarpone and sprinkles of candied lemons.
29/30
CSNPhilly.com
Whaley's family-style seafood risotto is a savory blend of shellfish laid on a creamy coconut curry bed of rice. Split it with a friend while sipping rose at this Navy Yard spot.
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NBC 7 San Diego
Chef Jose Andres' Mediterranean-inspired small plates restaurant in Chinatown features this sirloin misir. The dish is served with a fresh corn porridge and features Pastirma, feta cheese and Sercarz Ararat spice.
