Food & drink

Food & drink

Never heard of "the Bridge District"? The newly christened neighborhood is a development in Anacostia near the eastern foot of the Frederick Douglass Bridge, and this new taproom from Atlas Brew Works, where you can sip microbrews and snack on pizza and wings, is among its first occupants. The facility also doubles brewing capacity for the DC-born producer, which makes craft beers such as Ponzi IPA and Bullpen Pilsner.

Seneca Garden II (did I mention the other Seneca Garden is an under-15-minute walk away?) is locally beloved for its pierogi, and the boiled meat and cheese ones are the best. The spices are subtle, and the dough is thick but never rigid, achieving that covetable bounce and bend that I want with my dumplings. The side dishes steal the show: Opt for one of the many sauerkraut sides, or the simmered tomato butter beans.

With the holidays in the rearview mirror, restaurants assume that customers' free-spending days are over for a while and might be ready to save a few bucks when they're dining out. To that end several fast food chains are touting their value menus, offering to fill you up for as little as $5 or $6. Here are some deals that caught our attention this week.

"A Bradford food business was recently the subject of a complaint from an individual with a nut allergy who was hospitalised after ordering a dessert dish. "Despite making the business aware of her allergy the complainant was served a 'Nutella' style topping instead of Belgian chocolate." It said undercover officers then visited the premises and replicated the customer's experience "The food product was submitted to the public analyst, where the presence of hazelnuts was confirmed."

Pull on the biang biang noodles at Xi'an Gourmet House, and you'll find they extend as long as you are tall. This all-day restaurant tucked in Midtown serves hot bowls of soup, dumplings, and noodles with a core focus on the Xi'an region in China. It's the place to hide out for a cozy lunch with a friend or a warm dinner well into the evening. With most dishes under $15, this no-fuss spot delivers on precise regional flavors and chill vibes.

Sweet and spicy together is going to be a big food trend.

It had been trailed for a few months ahead, and I'd sworn off it; the living nightmare that was Brexit was only a few months old and Wetherspoon's Tim Martin was one of its most gracelessly triumphant fuglemen. He could keep his (incredibly cheap) pints and his (superhumanly fast) nuggets. I didn't cave piecemeal as soon as I set eyes on the Royal Victoria Pavilion, renovated, now the world's largest Wetherspoon's, I was overswept by its charm.

In the fall of 2025, Yasso frozen Greek yogurt rolled out a pint-sized version of its frozen treats in five different flavors - Mint Chocolate Chip, Fudge Brownie, Cookies 'N Cream, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, and Coffee Chocolate Chip. Each pint has 18 to 19 grams of protein, and not one of them is over 410 calories.

When you can't go to the steakhouse, why not bring the steakhouse to you? Sure, you might not be able to mimic the dimly-lit, knotted-wood, rustic ambience of your local beef haunt, but there is one simple tip that will lend such a smoky signature robustness to your homemade steak sides that friends might just skip that trip to Ruth's Chris in favor of your house. The hack - just add smoked cheese.

In August 2025, Google rolled out the Preferred Sources feature, which lets users see their favorite news sources up front. As you may know, searching Google for any topical news story yields a "Top Stories" overview - and now, users can fully customize their news experience and cut through the noise. Whether it's sports, hard news, or the culinary world (that's why you're here, right?), no more sifting through a sea of overwhelming news sources!

They operate when students can actually work. Evening shifts end after dinner rush, not at some arbitrary closing time. Weekend mornings pay well because most people want those hours off. Tips during Friday night service can match what other jobs pay for an entire day. Working in food service teaches you things textbooks can't. When five tables need attention at once, you learn to prioritize fast.

I'm Micah. A busy mom of a very active toddler, a business owner, wife, marathoner, dog mom, and a just trying-to-keep-it-together mom. Each week looks different, with both my husband and me traveling multiple times a month for work while navigating busy schedules and some kind of social life. Even though I work from home, I still struggle to get meals on the table. We rely a lot on leftovers, meal prep, and frozen dishes I made months ago.

If you aren't familiar, a ham hock is a cut of pork that comes from the pig's leg, where the shank meets the foot. It's not a very meaty cut, but that's not the point. Ham hocks are heavy on skin, bone, and fatty connective tissue, which are all rich in collagen, which is basically an all-purpose soup enhancer. It affects both texture and the taste of soups, thickening them and adding body,

Instead of spending the time and effort to prepare your own crispy-edged smashed potatoes, firing up this easy-to-prepare side leaves you more time to work on entrees, desserts, and more. The minimal list of ingredients includes potatoes, olive oil, sea salt, and "Liquid Gold," a garlic Parmesan seasoning that contains real butter, buttermilk, garlic, bell red peppers, Parmesan cheese, and a mix of savory spices.

Sweet potatoes are the roots of their vine-like plant, and they're members of the morning glory family. Yams are root vegetables from another plant family and grow differently, with tougher skin. Sweet potatoes are indeed sweeter, which is why you can also use them in desserts like sweet potato pie. Yams are starchier in flavor and work well as a side with other vegetables.

When two culinary powerhouses join forces, the food and beverage industry takes notice. Chef Olivia Ostrow, the creative visionary behind Miami's acclaimed Maison Ostrow, and globally renowned restaurateur Todd English have officially partnered to launch French English: a first-of-its-kind international kosher brand that's poised to reshape modern hospitality as we know it. This isn't just another restaurant collaboration. It's a chef-driven platform designed to take kosher cuisine from niche to mainstream luxury.

We already heard about Shaq's Fun House, the roving, carnival-esque event tied to Super Bowl Weekends of the last few years that will kick things off with T-Pain headlining on Friday, February 6. Then on Saturday there's The Party from Sports Illustrated, sponsored by Draft Kings, featuring performances by Ludacris and The Chainsmokers, for which tickets start at $450 and VIP tickets are upwards of $1,000.

Since 2013, Nancy Silverton's meat-oriented restaurant - the name translates "she (or he) who cleaves" - has caught up to its much-venerated older siblings, Pizzeria Mozza and Osteria Mozza, in terms of critical acclaim and popularity. Instead of pizza or pasta, the focus here is house-cured charcuterie; savory pies; and a series of flame-grilled mains, the preparation of which diners can watch via the open kitchen.

Desperately seeking cemita breade Cemitas Mane Mane opened a month ago at 2193 Mission St. near 18th Street, in the space formerly occupied by KO, a popular all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant that closed late last year. The restaurant, as its name suggests, specializes in "Cemitas," a torta-like dish from the state of Puebla, just south of Mexico City. The business also serves atol (a corn drink), avena (oatmeal), Mexican cocoa, tacos and tortas. Cemitas Mane Mane is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m, and will soon be open for breakfast as well

Portland's celebrated rooftop dining destination is entering a bold new era. Departure, the acclaimed Pan-Asian restaurant perched atop The Nines Hotel in downtown Portland, has announced the appointment of Chef U'ilaniku'ulei Vele as Executive Chef: a homecoming that promises to reshape the culinary landscape of the Pacific Northwest's food and beverage scene. For hospitality professionals and food enthusiasts tracking menu innovation and restaurant leadership trends, this appointment signals an exciting fusion of heritage, community values, and contemporary Pacific Northwest cuisine.

Nearly half of the Top 100 taco spots are based in California. Texas, Arizona, and Hawaii also make impressive showings, with nine, eight, and seven spots, respectively. Hawaii's presence on the list underscores just how deeply tacos have permeated food cultures from coast to coast. Together, the list showcases everything from Tex-Mex and Sonoran-style favorites to seafood-forward Baja tacos and inventive fusion creations.

Now 51 years old, the pint-size Beverly Hills Juice still draws generations of fans and offers punchy, sweet and herbal concoctions made from local persimmons, blood oranges, greens and ginger, the custom hydraulic press cranking through the best of the season at nearly the same prices for half a century. It's credited with proliferating pressed juice in L.A., but the shop's founding family says it was built on the shoulders of health-minded giants.

Rachel Swanson, a registered dietitian at LifeSpan Medicine and author of "Trying!: A Science-Backed Plan to Optimize Your Fertility," splits her time between New York City and Miami, spending about half the year in each. She also takes small-group workout classes three times a week, focusing on strength training. She says eating enough nutrients, especially protein for muscle-building, is crucial for her. She generally aims for around 0.7 grams of protein per pound of body weight, the protein intake usually recommended for physically active people.

Filipino food is the kind of thing everyone should try at least once, but it's such a varied cuisine that it bears coming back often. Often bold, bright, and playful, Filipino food is full of life. And, unless you know a very ambitious home cook, there's nowhere better to have your first Filipino food experience than at your local Filipino restaurant.

I'm buying sashimi-grade fish from Japan and they're questioning, Well, we don't know the water, so how do we know it's sashimi grade?' Well, it is sashimi grade, this stuff's eaten raw all over the world and, just because our rules don't fit their rules, they're questioning it I've got a salt chamber for ageing fish but they obviously don't like the idea of ageing stuff.

If you're looking for an easy weeknight dinner option that makes you feel like you've ducked into a proper English pub, Costco's frozen seafood section has a sneaky good option. It's the wild caught Neptune Pub Style Lightly Battered Halibut. This crispy, partially cooked halibut is sold in two-pound boxes and can be oven-baked in 20 minutes or deep-fried in 5 minutes.