Bad Saint
3226 11th St NW
Washington, DC 20010
Hours: Sun, M, W, Th 5:30-10; F & Sat 5:30-11; Closed Tuesdays
I’m going to take a quick pause from Denver stuff to let you in on a well-known D.C. secret at this point. Bad Saint is excellent. I’ve passed by it numerous times on my way to soccer and have been meaning to try it out for a while. Tonight, I finally made it.
They don’t take reservations and the restaurant seats only about 15 people, so expect to wait (1.5 hours for 2 seats tonight), but there are plenty of places to grab a drink in the area and they’ll call you when your seats are ready.
The atmosphere was what you’d expect from a hipster, Filipino restaurant. I really felt like it belonged in Brooklyn, NY more than D.C. That being said, there was nothing pretentious about it and it felt pretty homey. You could feel the love from the staff for the food that they serve there. Our waitress talked about the changing menu being like an art where the flavors will always be complimentary regardless of the fact that the options are different every night (depending on what’s in season, what they have, etc.). And to be honest, you do feel the care that’s put into the dishes.
It’s weird to review this place because the food I had probably won’t be on the menu when you go. Regardless, if some variation of what I had is available, I’d highly recommend it. I had the Tocino, which consisted of slow-cooked pork, fried egg, and garlic rice (and fresh greens which wasn’t noted on the menu). It’s a pretty incredible feat to be able to create different, well-liked dishes enough to constantly get rave reviews. I loved my first experience; the true test of this place will be if I feel the same way with the new dishes I try the next time I go back.
Here and There 