Where to Avoid Summer Restaurant Week Insanity

Summer Restaurant Week returned on Monday, August 12, with a huge list of restaurants across the area offering special prix fixe menus ($22 for lunch/brunch; $35 for dinner) for at least the next seven days (extensions have become the norm). Estuary and Punjab Grill (for lunch only) and W Hotel’s Cherry are among the newcomers participating.

But what about diners who wish to skip the pre-set meals because they prefer to escape crowds or chart their own course selections?

Here’s a diverse list of new, interesting, or reliable restaurants that are not participating. Some venues, however, are running competing specials.

Adams Morgan

• Jack Rose Dining Saloon
• Lapis
• Lucky Buns
• Tail Up Goat

H Street NE

• Copycat
• DC Harvest
• Ethiopic
• Thamee
• Fancy Radish
• Sticky Rice
• Toki Underground

Bloomingdale

• Boundary Stone
• Tyber Creek
• Red Hen

Capitol Hill

• Barrel, The Eastern
• Rose’s Luxury
• Bombay Street Food

Chevy Chase

• I’m Eddie Cano
• Little Beast
• Macon Bistro & Larder

Downtown/Foggy Bottom

• BLT Steak
• Boqueria
• Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab
• Plume

Dupont Circle

• Duke’s Grocery
• Hank’s Oyster Bar
• Little Serow
• Pembroke
• Pizzeria Paradiso

Georgetown

• Bourbon Steak
• Chaia
• Chez Billy Sud
• Fiola Mare
• High Street Cafe
• Reverie

Logan Circle/14th Street Corridor

• Compass Rose/Maydan
• Etto
• Hawthorne
• Izakaya Seki
• Le Diplomate
• Lupo Verde
• Pearl Dive Oyster Bar
• Seven Reasons

Navy Yard

• Chloe
• Salt Line

NoMa/Northeast

• Indigo
• Laos In Town
• Masseria
• O-Ku
• St. Anselm
• Stellina Pizzeria

Chinatown/Penn Quarter

• Boqueria
• Hill Country Barbecue
• Minibar
• Poca Madre/Taco Bamba
• Present Company

Petworth/Columbia Heights

• Bad Saint
• Himitsu
• Thip Khao
• Timber Pizza Co.

Shaw/LeDroit Park

• The Dabney
• Kinship
• Royal
• San Lorenzo

The Wharf

• Del Mar
• Lupo Marino

Woodley Park/Cleveland Park

• Duke’s Counter

Maryland

• Modern Market
• Q by Peter Chang
• Succotash (National Harbor)

Virginia

• Ahso
• Bayou Bakery
• Brine
• Clarity
• Detour Coffee
• Gyu-Kaku
• Oak Steakhouse
• Peter Chang Arlington
• Takumi
• Texas Jack’s
• True Food Kitchen
• Tupelo Honey Cafe