Eli's Restaurant

I think they put curry powder on their shawarma. Like sort of quite a bit of it. Enough to make the pita turn sorta yellow. WACKY.

It's actually quite good, the tahini sauce is a bit too thick, if I were them I'd get some yogurt to balance it out. I'll be back.

Coming from LA, I knew that DC didnt exactly have a plethora of Kosher establishments, especially not in DC itself. So I didnt have very high expectations.

But Eli's was a decent spot, went there several times during a week long stay, and their menu is big and diversified that I didnt get too tired of their food. Is it outstanding food? No. But is it a totally acceptable Kosher option? Absolutely. I did go to a few other options, further outside of DC proper, but none were as good as Eli's.

ELI's has CLOSED and opened a new place nearby called CharBar, also kosher.
ADDRESS: 2142 L Street NW (at Winston House Building), Washington, DC 20037
HOURS: Sunday-Thursday 11:00 AM-9:00 PM; Friday 11:00 AM - 2:30 PM
PHONE: 202-785-4314 * WWW.DCCHARBAR.COM

I liked the food at Eli's and look forward to trying the new place.

Absolutely the WORST kosher restaurant you can go to.
The food tastes, smells and looks like garbage. It disappoints me that I ate here because there really isnt a choice for kosher.
Try Distrikt Bistro by the JCC. it is so much better you cant compare, and if you want something REALLY good try modis but its a bit of a schlep.
I am giving this bad review so hopefully they up their game so there could be a decent choice in kosher food.
Their food is overpriced slop but they have so much potential. Seriously, ordered food for delivery and just threw out a $30 "steak" that was inedible after two bites.
If you HAVE to eat here try their potato with brisket, its the only thing that borders on actually being good.

My coworkers and I really like Loeb's, but it's a bit of a hike for us to get there. So someone in my office remembered walking past Eli's one day and thought we should check it out.

For being some of the only people in the restaurant at 11:40, it took us a while to be seated, and even longer for our waitress to take our orders. I'm not dinging them for that (since I wasn't in a hurry), but if you're in a rush, you might want to get your order to-go.

I ended up getting The Capitol, which is a triple decker corned beef, pastrami, and tongue sandwich on marble rye with mustard and cole slaw. One of my coworkers got a pastrami sandwich and a hot dog, and the other had corned beef. All seemed to be equally dry and flavorless. Kinda like having a steak with a stuffed-up nose. I mean, it's steak!... but you just can't taste it.

In fact, after only taking a few bites, we pretty much all concluded at the same time that Loeb's is better. And we still had about 90 percent of our food left.

The best part of the meal? Dr. Brown's cherry soda!

The verdict: I'm not quite as sanguine as one of my coworkers who said, upon leaving, "man, it's so close to work. If only it didn't suck so much!" I'd probably offer the advice of my other coworker who said he could see going again if we worked right by Eli's, but it's not worth a special trip otherwise.

My sister will only eat kosher meat. Eli's is the only place in DC that serves it. Hence it was our go-to place whenever she was craving a non-home-cooked, non-vegetarian meal.

However, after our most recent experience at Eli's, I think we are just plain out of kosher meat options. We have tolerated mediocre service, zero ambiance, and just ok food for rather high prices. But I do believe we have reached our limit.

What was so wrong, you ask?

1. The service. It was horrendous this time. We sat at our table for a good 20 minutes with only water, our menus closed, while eyeing the servers hanging around the bar area. Eventually someone deigned to come by and inquire what we wanted (um, for you to take our order? I know, shocking.) The restaurant was nearly empty at that point.

2. They were doing some sort of remodeling in the main dining room. While we ate dinner. Drilling noise, hammer banging, dust, and all. Really, you guys had to do this during the dinner rush, as your dining room continued to fill?

3. The cold appetizer platter used to be an assortment of cold cuts (beef salami, pastrami, turkey), chopped liver, hummus, and pita bread. The menu has changed and there is now potato salad instead of the hummus, and they no longer give you pita unless you pay for it. Really, you're charging $16 for a plate of cold cuts, which is ridiculous even for kosher food. You can't afford to throw in a few slices of pita?

4. We both ordered the 50 Ways sandwich - hot pastrami and chopper liver on rye with lettuce, tomato, onions, and mustard. Simple and tasty. Except whoever put the chopped liver on the sandwiches didn't even bother to smash it down. As a result, half the sandwich had a decent helping of the chopped liver, and the other half had pretty much none. I know it's just a sandwich, but come on. It's an $11 sandwich! Please at least pretend to care about the presentation of your food!

We will not give this place repeat business. At this point they are just taking advantage of the fact that there are no other kosher options for people in DC - they know they have no competition and people have nowhere else to go as a result, so they have absolutely no incentive to make an actual effort.

So before heading to RFK stadium last night, my dad and I stopped in here for a quick bite to take to the game. Ive been to Eli's main restaurant, and while the food there is great, its very overpriced. Yea, I get it, kosher meat costs more, and therefore they have to charge more. But that is besides the point...I saw a sign out front of the take out location next door for 3.99 falafel and 5.99 shwarma.

I decided to go with the Shwarma, which i thought was chicken, but after reading Michael H.'s review, see it's turkey -- slight bummer. However, I didn't find it too dry. I had it packed with the works in the pita. It was very large and filling. My dad ordered the falafel platter which comes with a piece of pita, fries and a drink. The two dishes combined for $15. The falafel was the best in DC. Yes, BETTER than Amsterdam Falafel. Yes, I went there... The only downside is not putting the toppings on your self. I prefer that. Only problem really, was the fries. They were horrid. Soggy, undercooked and mediocre.

I think that if i still worked a block away, id get the falafel sandwich for 3.99 every day. This place is a nice addition to the area, as falafels are cheap, delicious and easy to eat.

Any time I have to begin a review with the phrase, "I went with one of my interns here..", I am sure it would seem to be an incredibly raunchy review. The fact that Eli's is wrought with religious meaning only underscores that belief. But thankfully for me (for this particular intern is male), this is not a raunchy story. This is just a simple journey to a place that I used to pass all the time on my way to GWU.

I mentioned the religious underpinning of this restaurant. Eli's is one of the few places in Washington DC that serves only kosher food. To the typical person, this means incredibly insipid food whose price has been jacked up to borderline preposterous levels. To a number of my Jewish friends, it apparently means, "a place I can eat that isn't my own home."

Sadly, given that my religious education is strictly 1) Hindu and 2) Episcopalian, I do not understand the exact standards of how kosher food is prepared. I do know that it apparently is incredibly expensive because Eli's doesn't serve lamb shawarma. It doesn't even serve chicken shawarma. That meat you found in your sandwich? Turkey.

It's good though. As another reviewer mentioned, there is a kick of curry spices added to the turkey that gives the meat a remarkable flavor. Like Amsterdam Falafel, you can add a number of different items to your sandwich. I went with the cauliflower, beets, dolmas, tahini, tabouli, and onions. Good times.

The prices here are a bit steep, but I actually like the food. I would definitely go back.

My "god"... All I'm sayin is if this is *good* Kosher food, I feel so bad for people who keep Kosher. Haven't the Jews suffered enough?

I came here because my girlfriend's Kosher/Ortho parentals were down from Baltimore for dinner and this was our best-reviewed option. Let's run it down:

CONS

Long wait
We waited about a half hour, largely because the place is so poorly run that tables were waiting 20 minutes to get their checks.

Terrible service
The waitresses were sure harried, but my goodness every step took forever and she screwed up our order about a half-dozen ways.

Awful food
I ordered matzoh ball soup followed by a corned beef sandwich on rye with potato salad - a safe bet I thought; the soup was passable, if I grade on a curve, but the corned beef tasted like bland boiled tongues - I only mustered two bites - and the potato salad was...let's just leave it at terrible; my three dinnermates were likewise disappointed, and two of them are used to Kosher food.

Lame atmosphere
Cramped, with officespace ceiling tiles, utter lack of interestingness or charm, lots of waitpeople-butt-bumping into your arms, etc..

No reservations
I'm guessing that'd be too much infrastructure.

No booze
At all. No wine, no beer, no cocktails. That might've helped.

PROS

Lack of options
I guess there aren't any other Kosher restaurants to put this one out of business, or at least force them to figure out how to run a restaurant?

I must be missing something.

Believe all of the one star reviews below. Decor is drab; service iffy. And most importantly, the food - not so good. I had a brisket sandwich - the meat was dry, flavorless, and perhaps a positive note - not very plentiful. Had some of my daugter's fries and they were tasteless and limp.

Other than the TWO tourbuses of very load and what looked like 8th grade DC trippers who came in, we were about the only people in the restaurant.

Really, I was expecting a good kosher deli, and it was more like a kosher middle school cafeteria.