Washington DC and Arlington: budget food options?

[kellia]

We are going to D.C. next month. We are staying in Arlington and will be taking the metro to the usual tourist spots around the Mall during the day and will have our van for dinner after we get back to the hotel. Are there any good "budget" places to eat in the area? Everything always seems so expensive!

 

[SplashMo]

The natural history museum had meals in the 10-11 dollar range. Not budget but they were tasty and decent portions. Trader Joes is a likely place to get some food but out of the way a bit. Sometimes they have a food fair going on near the museums.

 

[SplashMo]

There is a subway near the white house...

 

[mikehn]

LEnfant Plaza is a few blocks from the Smithsonian mall area. There is a food court in the plaza that has the usual offerings, Moes, five guys, McDs, etc

 

[jen73]

when we were there last year for spring break, food was a huge budget buster for us, too. For dinner we usually picked up sub sandwiches from Subway, and even those were higher priced than what we are used to paying here in Texas! I thought I heard the cashier wrong the first time...

Like another said, during the day, we'd usually eat at what we could find nearby whatever touristy thing we were visiting. We ate at the cafe at the History Museum at the Smithsonian and after we visited the White House, we stopped at Georgetown Cupcakes (or whatever it's called). We also ate at food courts. I don't think we ate at a real restaurant once that whole week (other than the hotel restaurant)

 

[KennesawNemo]

When we visited DC last September, I too think food was very expensive, even the food at some of the food court.

The cafe at the National Geographic Museum is decent, but the museum itself is not worth the money at all IMHO.

Also, I had the impression downtown restaurants are very hard to get into. After we visited the National Museum of Art, we decided to go for a sit down meal but almost all the restaurants were full on that day.

 

[GrnMtnMan]

We are going to D.C. next month. We are staying in Arlington and will be taking the metro to the usual tourist spots around the Mall during the day and will have our van for dinner after we get back to the hotel. Are there any good "budget" places to eat in the area? Everything always seems so expensive!

There are lots of cheap restaurants in the greater Washington DC area. There are a lot of locals on The Dis Boards, so if you can be more specific as to where you'll be and what you want to eat, we can make specific suggestions.

 

[Eureka]

There's not much more than food carts right on the Mall itself and the choices in the museums are not always great. Exception to this is the American Indian museum, their food is very good and not the usual fast food. When we go in to museums, we usually park near the Chinatown metro station (near DH's office) where the Verizon center is. Lots of restaurants of all price ranges on 7th street there. California Tortilla, McD's, Fuddruckers to name a few "cheap" places. Then you can either walk or hop on the metro to the Smithsonian stop.

 

[Airship Ariadne]

The cafe at the National Geographic Museum is decent, but the museum itself is not worth the money at all IMHO.

I suppose it depend on the exhibits they have...when we were there in June 2012 they had two fantastic exhibits...one on the Titanic with a mix of movie props and salvaged artifacts, and then another exhibit on the Samurai...we really enjoyed them both.

 

[clori]

Some of the fast food places we ate at on our trip that were much cheaper than the Smithonian food places

1. Pentagon City Mall connected to the subway station - food court
2. Ronald Reagan Building Food Court
3. Capital Visitor Center (I recall decent kids meals at reasonable prices)
4. we bought some food at Whole foods that we cooked in our microwave for an evening of swimming at our hotel
5. café at Holocaust Museum

 

[chrissy92972]

We went for a week in June a few years ago. As a family of 6, food was a huge budget buster, but some things we did were.......

1- ate a large breakfast at the free hotel breakfast and grabbed some extra fruit and yogurt to pack with us to snack on

2-packed packs of crackers, poptarts, etc to also take as snacks during touring

3-ate dinner in the evenings at surrounding restaurants near hotel.....purchased some restaurant.com certificates for restaurants near hotel. We also ate at places like Red Robin, 5 Guys, etc.

Hotel was in Falls Church, so we had to take metro daily into the city, but we used our minivan to drive around the Falls Church Area.

 

[danygirl]

During the day there are awesome food trucks at Farragut Square (short walk to White House). The thing is DC is not a vacation resort area. It is a working town.
There are a number of places near the White House including McDs
For a DC experience eat the bean soup n the cafeteria at the Capital.
Union station has a food court.
I would suggest taking sandwiches and fruit with you during the day
Lots of places near the zoo on Connecticut ave
U street corridor is home to the famous bens chili bowl
Panera, subway, green turtle McDs near verizon center

 

[sheetz]

In Arlington there's Ben's Chili Bowl, Pho 75, and Ray's to the Third. In DC go to the food courts at Union Station and the Reagan Building. There's a good salad place called Chop't across from the National Archives.

 

[Ali]

I ate at District Taco multiple times this summer! It was so good and cheap for the area.
RESTAURANTS | $
District Taco
1309 F Street NW, Washington, DC


Shake Shack is also really good.

The Distirct of Pi pizza is yummy too
The 910 F St NW
Washington, DC 20004
b/t N 10th St & N 9th St in Penn Quarter

We also ate at Union Station food court a few times because it was "normal" food. There is a food court off of F street that has normal cheapish food across the street from District taco sort of. There is also a McDonalds near there. We stayed right next to the White House and found all of those places within walking distance.

 

[soccerchick]

Lots of good suggestions so far. What is your idea of budget?

Like most large cities, things are more here.

Where are you staying in Arlington? DH works there, so I'll ask him for budget ideas to pass along. There lots of burger and pizza places, iHop (near Ballston), etc. There are some chain places also near Pentagon Row and near 66 and Glebe (Buffalo Wing Factory, PF Changs). Also consider ethnic food places as those tend to be good $ value here. There's a Jerry's Subs and Pizza and a Wendy's near Courthouse.

If you want to splurge (a little or a lot) for a unique and yummy meal, these are our Arlington regulars: Metro 29 Diner (ate there last night), Liberty Tavern, Ray's the Steaks, The Front Page. Check out their webpages.

When we eat out in Arlington or DC, we are usually going to a show or sporting event and eat near those venues. We are also eating at places we can't eat at in our home town (about 30-40 minutes west). Pizza and Greene Turtle are budget for us in DC.

In DC, there are Potbellies and Burrito Bros. all over the place. Lots of places to eat near the theaters and Verizon Center. I can't remember all of the names, but the last one we ate at before going to a show was Elephant and Castle, which was $10-$15/entree (no alcohol) for a nice sit down meal.

If you don't already have it, I'd suggest getting the "Around Me" app for your phone.

 

[novatwinmom]

Again, what part of Arlington?

Pentagon City has the giant shopping mall with food court that someone already mentioned; across the street (though not immediately visible, you might have to ask someone walking by how to get there) is a Costco. You could do the hot dog/soda combo for $1.50, or even get a whole takeout pizza back to your hotel. Bonus? Breakfast could be leftover pizza

Pentagon Row ("behind" the Pentagon City mall, so to speak, again you might have to ask how to get there but definitely can be walked) has a Lime (mexican) and a Noodles and Company, both lower-priced options; there's also a Harris Teeter grocery store there that sells subs at lunchtime and has a salad bar.

California Tortilla is a good (inexpensive) chain, Five Guys makes really good burgers and is very reasonable, both of these are in DC and there is at least one Five Guys in Arlington but maybe not where you are. The food courts in the museums are good but tend to be expensive. As in Disney prices. But sometimes you're looking for convenience and not price, and sometimes, strangely, food can be hard to find right by the museums.

If you're not near the Costco, Dominos will likely deliver to your hotel to accomplish the same idea.

 

[pjlla]

Several years ago we stayed at a Hampton Inn in Arlington for a family D.C. vacation. Hampton offers a decent free breakfast, so that was one meal a day. SInce we were driving, we also brought along a full cooler and tote of food for the room.... bagels, cream cheese, hard-boiled eggs, cheese stick, fruit, pretzels, juice boxes, peanut butter, popcorn, beer, etc (plus plates and paper towels, and some plastic flatware).

We ate Subway and the like during the day while we were out touring (we took the Metro from our hotel). It was pricier than the same would be at home, but bearable (although the lines were long occasionally.... probably because it was a school vacation week).

Most evenings we ate dinner in our room from the cooler. The kids were relatively young and thought this was fun.... especially since we would let them watch tv while eating! One night we had a pizza delivered to the room (we live in a very rural area without any pizza delivery or fast food in town, so this was a novelty!). Then just once or twice during the week we went out to a chain restaurant. It was expensive for what it was, but a nice change, since we rarely eat out.

It wasn't a fancy vacation, but what I like best is that we remember the museums and monuments.... NOT the food! ...................P

 

[danygirl]

Forgot to mention - a DC institution- old ebbit grill. Near the White House. Good food goid atmosphere but pricy

 

[soccerchick]

ok - so DH gave me a couple of budget places in Arlington: District Taco. Pollo Rico, and Cowboy Café.