clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile
Grazie Nonna unleashed lunch for the first time this week.
Rey Lopez for Grazie Nonna

These D.C.-Area Restaurants Now Do Lunch

Break up the work day with a new midday meal

View as Map
Grazie Nonna unleashed lunch for the first time this week.
| Rey Lopez for Grazie Nonna

With more 9-to-5 workers continuing to return to the office, a crop of D.C. restaurants just unleashed or rebooted lunchtime menus to cater to comeback crowds. Leave the boring brown-bagged lunch at home — or escape the remote grind — to feast on one of these brand new or few-months-old midday meals.

Read More
Eater maps are curated by editors and aim to reflect a diversity of neighborhoods, cuisines, and prices. Learn more about our editorial process. If you buy something or book a reservation from an Eater link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics policy.

Charley Prime Foods

Copy Link

The lakefront American bistro debuts a three-course lunch menu with a choice of an entree or sandwich, and any two items from the raw bar, appetizers, wine, beer, cocktails, or dessert ($29.95). Lunch highlights include tuna tartare with avocado and fried green tomatoes and mains like steak frites and rigatoni alla vodka. Cocktails include an Anna’s Gibson with dry gin, dry vermouth, and charred citrus-thyme pearl onions and boozy Quack-Quack-Erac with duck fat-washed St. Germain.

Charley Prime Foods now does prix fixe lunch.
Charley Prime Foods

Brookland's Finest Bar and Kitchen

Copy Link

The neighborhood restaurant just expanded lunchtime hours with end-of-week service on Thursdays and Fridays beginning at 11 a.m. New seasonal dishes include burrata and peaches, fried Maryland catfish, grilled octopus risotto, and fried green tomato BLTs.

Pupatella

Copy Link

Pupatella Dupont’s new daily lunch service kicked off in May with pizzas, salads, and panini served indoors and out starting at 11:30 a.m.

Tysons’ hot new restaurant from Persian cookbook author and chef Najmieh Batmanglij and D.C. chef Christopher Morgan recently added lunch. Sharable dishes offer a snapshot of the dinner menu, and the midday meal also brings soups, salads, kabobs, rice dishes, and sandwiches to the table from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. (closed Mondays).

Joon’s chic dining room.
Marvin Torres

Le Clou

Copy Link

Lunch service entered the fold this spring at chef Nick Stefanelli’s months-old French eatery inside Noma’s Morrow Hotel. The fine-dining affair includes seafood towers stacked with lobster, oysters, shrimp; French onion soup; pates built with pork and bacon terrine, port-braised prunes, watercress, and brioche toast; and steak frites. Reservations are available through OpenTable.

Le Clou’s beef bourguignon (12-hour braised short rib, chubby Thumbelina carrots, Hakurei turnips, button mushrooms). 
Le Clou

BOURBON STEAK

Copy Link

Bourbon Steak launched a three-course lunch menu ($60) in May that includes a choice of apps, entrees, and desserts. Options include shrimp cocktail, tuna tartare, a prime burger, Ora king salmon, and chef Michael Mina’s cookies. View full menu here and reserve here

Bourbon Steak’s patio recently reopened for the season.
Bourbon Steak

Grazie Nonna

Copy Link

The Italian-American restaurant debuted weekday lunch service on Wednesday, August 16 starring unlimited soup, salad, and focaccia breadsticks. Standout sandwiches include an Italian Speciale (mortadella, calabrese salami, sharp provolone, Calabrian aioli, lettuce, tomato, red onion, banana peppers, evoo and vinegar) or Nonna’s house-roasted turkey, honey mustard, bacon, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and pickled peppers. Salads can be jazzed up with herb roasted chicken, steak, shrimp, or antipasti. Sharable pastas include a shrimp scampi and Sunday Sauce (lumache, short rib, hot sausage, fennel, carrot, pecorino romano), and two of its popular nighttime pizzas join the midday meal too. Lunch runs 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Grazie Nonna packs seeded homemade focaccia with imported prosciutto cotto, burrata, cracked pepper, and olive oil.
Rey Lopez for Grazie Nonna

Estuary

Copy Link

Lunch at Conrad hotel’s essential seafood restaurant isn’t new, but its weekday “rush hour” tasting menu is. From 11:30 a.m. all the way to 3:30 p.m., choose from a Caesar salad, braised short rib, carrot cake, and more from chef Ria Montes (three courses for $50). And stick around for a new happy hour at its glitzy bar (4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.) for discounts on beer, wine, cider, and light bites like roasted oysters, hush puppies, and crispy pig ears.

Dirty Habit at Kimpton Hotel Monaco Washington DC

Copy Link

The stylish Penn Quarter restaurant just revamped summer lunch service within its zen “Glass House”—a 1,400-square-foot pavilion with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the interior courtyard. The new “Healthy Habits” three-course power lunch includes a homemade juice, salad, and entree ($30). One menu option includes a Green Dragon (cucumber, green apples, kale, celery, Spirulina), citrus salad (baby kale, fennel curls, grapefruit, crunchy salsa vinaigrette), and wild mushroom ragu, poached egg, charred spinach on sourdough. Reservations can be made via OpenTable.  

A Caesar salad at Dirty Habit.
NOM Digital

MI VIDA

Copy Link

The Mexican eatery at the Wharf, Chinatown, and 14th Street NW, debuts a “Locals Who Lunch” to get remote workers out and about during the day. Choose any entree for $14.99 or make it a three-course meal for $24.99 (appetizer, entree, dessert or side).

All-Purpose Riverfront

Copy Link

Swing by All-Purpose Riverfront for lunch on Fridays. Chef Mike Friedman’s recent menu revamp near Nationals Park extends to its midday menu with a new sandwich packed with Italian meats and another chicken Caesar variety with a buttermilk-marinated fried chicken thigh, plus a seasonal deck-oven pizza with basil pesto, mozz, asparagus, smoked bacon, spring peas, lemon, arugula, and more.

All-Purpose Riverfront brings midday sandwiches to Southeast on Fridays.
All-Purpose Riverfront

Charley Prime Foods

The lakefront American bistro debuts a three-course lunch menu with a choice of an entree or sandwich, and any two items from the raw bar, appetizers, wine, beer, cocktails, or dessert ($29.95). Lunch highlights include tuna tartare with avocado and fried green tomatoes and mains like steak frites and rigatoni alla vodka. Cocktails include an Anna’s Gibson with dry gin, dry vermouth, and charred citrus-thyme pearl onions and boozy Quack-Quack-Erac with duck fat-washed St. Germain.

Charley Prime Foods now does prix fixe lunch.
Charley Prime Foods

Brookland's Finest Bar and Kitchen

The neighborhood restaurant just expanded lunchtime hours with end-of-week service on Thursdays and Fridays beginning at 11 a.m. New seasonal dishes include burrata and peaches, fried Maryland catfish, grilled octopus risotto, and fried green tomato BLTs.

Pupatella

Pupatella Dupont’s new daily lunch service kicked off in May with pizzas, salads, and panini served indoors and out starting at 11:30 a.m.

Joon

Tysons’ hot new restaurant from Persian cookbook author and chef Najmieh Batmanglij and D.C. chef Christopher Morgan recently added lunch. Sharable dishes offer a snapshot of the dinner menu, and the midday meal also brings soups, salads, kabobs, rice dishes, and sandwiches to the table from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. (closed Mondays).

Joon’s chic dining room.
Marvin Torres

Le Clou

Lunch service entered the fold this spring at chef Nick Stefanelli’s months-old French eatery inside Noma’s Morrow Hotel. The fine-dining affair includes seafood towers stacked with lobster, oysters, shrimp; French onion soup; pates built with pork and bacon terrine, port-braised prunes, watercress, and brioche toast; and steak frites. Reservations are available through OpenTable.

Le Clou’s beef bourguignon (12-hour braised short rib, chubby Thumbelina carrots, Hakurei turnips, button mushrooms). 
Le Clou

BOURBON STEAK

Bourbon Steak launched a three-course lunch menu ($60) in May that includes a choice of apps, entrees, and desserts. Options include shrimp cocktail, tuna tartare, a prime burger, Ora king salmon, and chef Michael Mina’s cookies. View full menu here and reserve here

Bourbon Steak’s patio recently reopened for the season.
Bourbon Steak

Grazie Nonna

The Italian-American restaurant debuted weekday lunch service on Wednesday, August 16 starring unlimited soup, salad, and focaccia breadsticks. Standout sandwiches include an Italian Speciale (mortadella, calabrese salami, sharp provolone, Calabrian aioli, lettuce, tomato, red onion, banana peppers, evoo and vinegar) or Nonna’s house-roasted turkey, honey mustard, bacon, lettuce, tomato, red onion, and pickled peppers. Salads can be jazzed up with herb roasted chicken, steak, shrimp, or antipasti. Sharable pastas include a shrimp scampi and Sunday Sauce (lumache, short rib, hot sausage, fennel, carrot, pecorino romano), and two of its popular nighttime pizzas join the midday meal too. Lunch runs 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Grazie Nonna packs seeded homemade focaccia with imported prosciutto cotto, burrata, cracked pepper, and olive oil.
Rey Lopez for Grazie Nonna

Estuary

Lunch at Conrad hotel’s essential seafood restaurant isn’t new, but its weekday “rush hour” tasting menu is. From 11:30 a.m. all the way to 3:30 p.m., choose from a Caesar salad, braised short rib, carrot cake, and more from chef Ria Montes (three courses for $50). And stick around for a new happy hour at its glitzy bar (4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.) for discounts on beer, wine, cider, and light bites like roasted oysters, hush puppies, and crispy pig ears.

Dirty Habit at Kimpton Hotel Monaco Washington DC

The stylish Penn Quarter restaurant just revamped summer lunch service within its zen “Glass House”—a 1,400-square-foot pavilion with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the interior courtyard. The new “Healthy Habits” three-course power lunch includes a homemade juice, salad, and entree ($30). One menu option includes a Green Dragon (cucumber, green apples, kale, celery, Spirulina), citrus salad (baby kale, fennel curls, grapefruit, crunchy salsa vinaigrette), and wild mushroom ragu, poached egg, charred spinach on sourdough. Reservations can be made via OpenTable.  

A Caesar salad at Dirty Habit.
NOM Digital

MI VIDA

The Mexican eatery at the Wharf, Chinatown, and 14th Street NW, debuts a “Locals Who Lunch” to get remote workers out and about during the day. Choose any entree for $14.99 or make it a three-course meal for $24.99 (appetizer, entree, dessert or side).

All-Purpose Riverfront

Swing by All-Purpose Riverfront for lunch on Fridays. Chef Mike Friedman’s recent menu revamp near Nationals Park extends to its midday menu with a new sandwich packed with Italian meats and another chicken Caesar variety with a buttermilk-marinated fried chicken thigh, plus a seasonal deck-oven pizza with basil pesto, mozz, asparagus, smoked bacon, spring peas, lemon, arugula, and more.

All-Purpose Riverfront brings midday sandwiches to Southeast on Fridays.
All-Purpose Riverfront

Related Maps