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Last week, Rina Rapauno, who co-wrote this year’s 50 Best Restaurant list, shared her favorite moments—steak, dosa, a shiny red toilet—from her many meals in Northern Virginia. This week, I compile everything from my most luxurious dish to where I wish I could be a regular.
Most luxurious dish: Cacio e pepe with Japanese A5 Wagyu ribeye at 2941 (pictured above)
I love indulgent foods, things with heavy cream and explosions of molten chocolate, and I’m game to try anything. But this dish, it tested me. On one plate: a long, bundle of noodles in an unusually creamy version of cacio e pepe on top of thin slices of wagyu. I’m not sure which part of the dish was richer, but after one bite I was satiated.
Favorite dining moment: Nasime
Being a restaurant critic is a fairly glamorous job, as jobs go. And when I could dine without children and 7 p.m. bedtime curfews, eating out was a lot easier.
This summer, when my parents were in town, my husband and I had an Old Town date night. We started with a quick round of delicious cocktails at The People’s Drug and then walked to Nasime for dinner at the counter. (Nasime doesn’t even allow children under 12, citing safety concerns because of giant hot pots.) We ordered the sake tasting, chatted with our neighbor on the stool next door and the chef, who will pop a word or two into the conversation, as he pushes bowls from his side of the kitchen to the other side of the service window. We tucked into the finest raw fish and cooked fish and generally felt delighted. The service is a light touch, sometimes hurried because there’s only one person running front of house. The food is always interesting, if not always perfect. But it’s always a good time. Especially without a child in sight.
When anonymity matters: Blind item
I’ve been at this job for seven years now, and before that, I wrote about food, too. I can’t pretend I’m 100 percent anonymous, but I do know that unless I’m really getting trolled, I can still sit, eat and pay at a restaurant like anyone else. Once this year I had a chef who made the list last year show 2017’s magazine to a patron right next to me, and me too. Another time, the host handed me a photocopied review from Arlington Magazine, as if I’d never heard of the restaurant, instead of how I research restaurants before I go and read what critic David Hagedorn has to say. Of course, there are times where I feel made, where I’m accidentally sent an extra dessert or a chef introduces himself and I give my credit card name instead, and we both know we’re just playing the game.
Favorite new restaurant on the list: Malakhi Lounge & Jamaican Restaurant
Not every restaurant on this list is fancy, fussy or budget-busting. Malakhi is a casual restaurant with big cushy booths and a menu flush with homey, soul-satisfying food. Get three orders of festival.
I wish I could be a regular at: Maple Ave Restaurant, B Side and La Fromagerie
I’m a fan of small, cozy, casual spots with interesting food. I’d love to order just a few things here and there and drink some funky wines and even weirder beers. I wish I could do that at Maple Ave for the new-wave European ideas from chef Juste Zidelyte (and eat barsotto everyday for breakfast), hit happy hour and dig into something meaty and fried with too many pints at B Side and linger on cheeses, meats, artful salads and all the wine at La Fromagerie.
