City: Washington, DC

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (202) 872-1180

Address: 2029 P Street NW

Description: Now for something completely different. You won’t find a wide range of choices here; in fact, this restaurant offers a fixed price menu from which you choose one of three items for each course. How can they get away with such restraint? This tiny town house dining room is always full, so it must be the cooking. You sense that the people who put this together take artistic pride in their creation, and so they should, from the decor of elegant rusticity to the food. Let’s start with the bread: It’s crusty and aromatic, accompanied by top-shelf olive oil. It’s also, of course, made in-house. It’s hard to recommend any one dish because the menu changes all the time, and if you’re looking for flashy, extravagant cooking, you won’t find it here. For subtle, genuine quality, Obelisk is a sure bet. The restaurant serves dinner Tuesday through Saturday and is closed on Sunday and Monday.