"Who serves Bulgarian food?" goes one of the many questions I field each day. "Where can I get a nice dinner with a view on the cheap?" someone else needs to know, right now, because he's in love -- and broke -- and she likes scenery and tomorrow is her birthday.
They come in by e-mail, by phone, from friends and colleagues and on my weekly online chat -- more questions than I'll ever have time to respond to. Having logged more than 600 restaurant meals in the past 12 months, I've tasted a lot of what the Washington area has to offer, and I'm glad to share my research as widely as I can.
Keep in mind, this is not a list of Washington's best restaurants, although each restaurant included here is one I'm happy to spread the word about. There are dozens of familiar names that you won't find in these pages. Some of them simply aren't very good this season. Others lost out to competitors that are setting a higher standard. And some just didn't happen to answer any of the particular questions I set out to address. To all those restaurants left out and their admirers, I say: Perhaps another time.
And to those of you who wish to eat well -- grandly, cheaply, adventurously, quickly, before a show or in the wee hours of the morning -- I say, dig in. -- Tom Sietsema
