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I've never had any difficulty with ethnic food in Washington DC and surrounding environs and I've found all of my spots for them too. The quality of the food has been pretty good as well.
In the Washington DC metropolitan area there is good Korean food near Beltsville, DuPont Circle has a few, and the bulk of it is in Fairfax County near Annandale. The Indian restaurants in the city are more spread out but congregate on K Street and there's large amounts of them in Alexandria and Fairfax County. The Chinese restaurants are concentrated in Chinatown in Washington proper with a large cluster of them in Arlington as well. There's a massive showing for Ethiopian restaurants near 6th Street and Rhode Island Avenue and then again near Florida Avenue and Georgia Avenue, with a good amount also north of Howard University. A strong congregation of Nigerian restaurants along U Street in Washington and another cluster near Landover Hills in Maryland. Lots of Thai restaurants in DuPont Circle and an even larger amount in Northern Virginia along Clarendon. There's a gigantic area for Salvadoran cuisine along 14th Street in Washington and smaller clusters in Arlington.
There are actually a number of Chinese-Indian fusion places and a few Chinese-Korean fusion but those aren't out of the ordinary, any large scale metropolitan area with those demographics has plenty of that on its own. I've lived in 5 of the Top 8 largest metropolitan areas in the United States and in 4 of those 5 I've ate at a solid number of Chinese-Indian and Chinese-Korean fusion places. Chinese-Indian fusion, to me, after Thai food is my next favorite thing because they complement each other wonderfully. I've also lived in a medium sized metropolitan area before and have been able to find Chinese-Indian and Chinese-Korean fusion places with relative ease. Though that medium sized metropolitan area was a huge tech market, thus the demographics.
On localized cuisine or regional cuisine, I think Baltimore with its seafood is pretty solid. In terms of culinary offerings, I've always viewed Washington and Baltimore as a pair, each complementing the other and making up for what the other didn't have nearly as much of.
I think Washington could do more to cultivate a type of food that's exclusive only to the city and its suburbs. Mumbo Sauce isn't enough. That's the last frontier for Washington to explore in the food world. Even though it isn't directly on the Chesapeake Bay, it is close enough to where it is influenced by the Chesapeake Bay to an extent, Washington actually has plenty of the regional seafood restaurants. The Chesapeake Bay is one of the largest sources for fish and seafood in the United States. Baltimore is at the forefront but isn't the only area capitalizing on that. I think Washington can further innovative more food styles using that to create something that's distinctly all its own. It also has plenty of ethnic varieties to experiment with. There could be lots of unique fusion combinations that form from that. In the United States, Washington has some of the most unique demographical composition in the country. They have some immigrant groups that aren't common in many other places. Lots of different foodie selections to experiment with for local chefs.
Toronto is a pretty stout international city and has the demographical composition to mix and match and experiment with various fusion styles or just outright invent some of its own. The impressive feature to Toronto is in its depth and diversity even with different ethnic groups. It has a strong foundation for that sort of thing. For example, there are only a handful of North American cities where you can get Sichuan, Hunan, Fujian, and the cuisines for Jiangsu and Guangdong all in the same place. Toronto is one of them. There are only a handful of places in North America where you can get North Indian, South Indian, and Kashmiri cuisine all in one place and Toronto is one of them.
I look at both Toronto and Washington as untapped reservoirs, still in their infancy as foodie cities, with massive potential on what they can do to further their food scenes. Not every city has the type of resources these two have. That's why despite paying my due respect and complimenting them on their food scenes, I am also very critical of them too. They can definitely do more. They can do more to stand out and do more to create an exclusive cuisine that is all their own. If they are bold and proactive enough to experiment and innovate.
Last edited by Trafalgar Law; 03-02-2020 at 01:19 AM..
Visited both cities recently in the past 3 months. I stayed in DC around Dupont Circle so my view may be a bit skewed towards that area, whereas in Toronto I stayed in different neighborhoods.
I am partial to Asian/Chinese food so Toronto easily takes this one. Not only does Toronto have a huge historic Chinatown with a lot of "hole in the wall" type Chinese eateries at affordable prices, there's also tons of Asian/Chinese options out in the various suburbs like Richmond Hill and Markham. In Richmond Hill, you even have specific areas dedicated to cuisine "Sichuan", "Hunan", "Beijing", "Mongolian" - cuisine from different provinces and cities in China. There's such a huge Chinese immigrant population that you even have major restaurant chains like Quanjude (100+ year old peking duck chain from Beijing) or Liuyishou (upscale hotpot chain from Chongqing China) from mainland China operating in Toronto, and taking payment directly from Alipay/Wechat (2 electronic payment systems only recognized in mainland China). That's taking ethnic cuisine on a whole new level and really impressive for a non-Chinese city.
I guess Toronto because I'm partial to Chinese food. Toronto would certainly beat D.C. for Indian food, too. I'm sure D.C. has the better Mexican food just for being in the U.S. Don't know too much about African food, and it's a shame; I bet D.C. might score higher on that because of its larger black population. Then again, while Toronto has fewer blacks, among its blacks, most are African/Caribbean immigrants.
I wouldn't be so confident that DC has the better Mexican food scene. Apart from NYC which is an outlier, the Northeastern U.S. is just not very strong on the Mexican cuisine front and that includes DC. It's getting better, but generalizing by saying DC might be better "just for being in the U.S." sort of implies the U.S. is consistently good across the board. It isn't. And the Northeastern cities tend to be bringing up the rear in terms of quality Mexican cuisine. Anecdotally, I've had better Mexican in Toronto than I ever have had in DC. That said, I'd never put either city on a "Best Mexican food" list.
I definitely think Toronto is a much better food city for every day eating. At the higher end, it's probably closer. But Toronto not only wins on the diversity of cuisine, it wins on the wide availability of it. There are definitely ethnic neighborhoods and nodes in Toronto, but the sheer variety of cuisine spread relatively evenly across the city is pretty staggering. I don't know too many American cities that are comparable. And while Asian cuisine (specifically the Chinese varieties) has been highlighted, I think Toronto stands out very much on the Portuguese front, the Caribbean front, The Middle Eastern front, and the SE Asian (Vietnam and Cambodian specifically) fronts.
What's more is that it seems like there's much more cross-cultural blending of cuisine in Toronto and it really expands the variety even more. I've eaten at Korean-Ukrainian and Haitian-Chinese restaurants in Toronto, among other strange fusions. We have some of that in the states (Tex-Mex is ubiquitous, but Chinese-Mexican and Korean-Mexican is growing in popularity), but not nearly to the same extent. I think it speaks to Toronto's status as a true multicultural dining hub. No knock on DC which is very good too, but I think Toronto may be the best in North America outside of New York.
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Originally Posted by Turnerbro
D.C really isn't known for its food scene. It's not bad but not on Toronto's level.
I'd disagree with DC not being known for its food scene. It has a very good one. It's one of four U.S. cities to have restaurants with Michelin stars, and it has a diverse blend of cuisines. But no, it's not on Toronto's level.
Mumbo sauce is literally just Chicago “mild sauce”.
Nah...I've heard this and what I have gathered is the name is the same but the sauce in DC was created in DC...at any rate I am a DMV guy but I expect Toronto to win this...somebody brought up ethnic food for DC...I expect Toronto to be able to more than compete on that scale...no big deal to lose to TO IMO
Nah...I've heard this and what I have gathered is the name is the same but the sauce in DC was created in DC...at any rate I am a DMV guy but I expect Toronto to win this...somebody brought up ethnic food for DC...I expect Toronto to be able to more than compete on that scale...no big deal to lose to TO IMO
I have lived in Chicago for almost 10 years and never heard of "mild sauce" in Chicago, but I have heard of "Mumbo sauce" in DC (and I grew up in Maryland). Mumbo sauce is definitely more a staple and identifiable with DC than mild sauce is with Chicago.
I googled it, and it looks like mild sauce is a staple to the South Side. It looks good and it definitely does look like Mumbo sauce (I'm guessing they're the same thing). But I still think Mumbo sauce is a more recognizable DC staple.
That said...I will be looking to try some Chicago mild sauce wings soon!
I have lived in Chicago for almost 10 years and never heard of "mild sauce" in Chicago, but I have heard of "Mumbo sauce" in DC (and I grew up in Maryland). Mumbo sauce is definitely more a staple and identifiable with DC than mild sauce is with Chicago.
I googled it, and it looks like mild sauce is a staple to the South Side. It looks good and it definitely does look like Mumbo sauce (I'm guessing they're the same thing). But I still think Mumbo sauce is a more recognizable DC staple.
That said...I will be looking to try some Chicago mild sauce wings soon!
Mild sauce is a southside/westside and south suburb thing (I've had it in Northwest Indiana too). I live in Minneapolis now and all the "Chicago style" restaurants here that serve fried chicken serve mild sauce as well.
Can't comment on the food scene in DC, specifically, but I was in Alexandria last summer and ate at what is considered one of the best Italian restaurants in Old Alexandria.
I was very surprised that it turned out to be pretty mediocre. Whereas high quality, authentic Italian food can be easily found at any local, Italian-owned restaurant not just in Toronto, but throughout Southern Ontario.
Can't comment on the food scene in DC, specifically, but I was in Alexandria last summer and ate at what is considered one of the best Italian restaurants in Old Alexandria.
I was very surprised that it turned out to be pretty mediocre. Whereas high quality, authentic Italian food can be easily found at any local, Italian-owned restaurant not just in Toronto, but throughout Southern Ontario.
DC is not a city with an Italian history like NYC, Philly, Chicago, or Boston, other NE cities, so you likely won’t find many authentic Italian restaurants.
Toronto by a mile. DC is good with high-end, but everything else tends to be mediocre quality relative to price.
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