Best Casual Restaurants in Van Ness

Heading to a concert at the Kennedy Center (it's a very easy approach to Foggy Bottom), we tried Claudio's Table out for the first time. We ate early and got to watch the restaurant fill up with a broad range of families and couples from the neighborhood and elsewhere, bringing a real nice ambience. The food was fabulous: fried artichoke with a green salad started things off beautifully, like being in Rome. The linguini with lobster tail, on a light red lobster infused sauce (a special) is among the best dishes in Washington (et Voila's Norwegian sole is another). Our other dish was the linguini with clams. My wife and I shifted our platters back and forth, with help from staff when they saw us treeing to balance the dishes. Wine was lovely and the lemon cake dessert was a brilliant combination of layers. The portions were also perfect (not too big, nor too little) and we stayed awake through our concert.

I was dining with friends and our kids. The staff was amazing, especially given they had to contend with our energetic kids running around. The food was excellent and the ambiance just what we were looking for.

Fantastic! This is one of our favorite places for brunch and it never disappoints!

Service was great, ambiance was VERY nice, and food was stellar! :)

Andreas was friendly and helpful! Service was outstanding and food tasted great.