Mehran Restaurant, 2138 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 202-342-0056 (Metro Trip Planner - opens in new window) [zabihah | City Paper | Yelp]
Very mom and pop, pretty spicy, very yummy. Nothing more than the usual Pakistani selections, but I can be pretty happy with that. A good alternative in a part of town that doesn’t have much hard-core ethnic food.
Agua Ardiente, web site, 1250 24th Street NW, Washington, DC, 202-833-8500 (Metro Trip Planner - opens in new window) [The Daily Colonial | Washingtonian | WaPo | City Paper | openlist | Yelp]
Tapas and nouvelle Latin dishes, mostly of an Andean nature, and run by an Ecuadorean. It’s not quite a fancy place, but well above an ethnic place, a “tweener,” you might say. So maybe it won’t quite make anyone fully happy, but it is still one of the best Andean places around. And unlike the other Andean places, it draws from the entire region. And not all that expensive either, especially given the neighborhood it is in. Strange red décor. On weekends, they have active Latin night life. Recommended.
Aroma, web site, 1919 Eye Street NW, Washington,DC, 202-833-4700 (Metro Trip Planner - opens in new window) [WaPo | City Paper | openlist | Yelp]
Foggy Bottom Indian stand-by. Reliable.
La Chaumiere, web site, 2813 M Street NW, Washington, DC, 202-338-1784 (Metro Trip Planner - opens in new window) [Washingtonian | WaPo | City Paper | openlist | Yelp | Gayot]
Barkley Rosser loves this place. He recommends it as a “solid, mid-price restaurant that specializes in Lyonnaise cuisine, and is favored by the older Georgetown crowd…”
Marcel's, web site, 2401 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 202-296-1166, dinner only (Metro Trip Planner - opens in new window) [Economist | Washingtonian | WaPo | City Paper | food-plan | Don Rockwell | flyertalk | openlist | Yelp | Gayot]
Belgian, mostly, more classic than nouvelle. All the reviews are good, but hard to see it beating a trip to Europe.