Unconventional Diner
1207 9th Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
Given the amount of walking we'd be doing in Washington and Katie's love for sleep, I knew it would be ambitious to have five breakfast spots on my restaurant wishlist for this trip. Not to ruin it for you, but we only had breakfast out one other time on our five-day visit to our nation's Capital. Luckily, we hit the one restaurant I most wanted to try for the first meal of the day, Unconventional Diner.
Unconventional Diner, or UD as I will refer to it for the remainder of this review, opened its doors in the winter of 2017 in the Shaw/Downtown neighborhood of DC, directly adjacent to the Convention Center. This all-day diner came highly recommended for their brunch, and in true diner fashion, they also receive rave reviews for their lunch and dinner. They boast a mighty impressive 4.4-star rating on Yelp, with over 3,100 reviews and counting.
UD is helmed by Chef Partner David Deshaies and was inspired by a restaurant close to where I live, one that I have unfortunately not had the pleasure of eating at yet: Republique in Los Angeles. Republique is an all-day diner concept developed by Michel Richard, Deshaies' former boss. Before he died in 2016, Richard gave his blessing for Deshaies to emulate what he had done at his iconic Hancock Park restaurant.
We arrived here at 11am on a Saturday morning. Predictably, the 8,000-square-foot restaurant was packed with people. I couldn't make reservations because of the uncertainty of how long Katie would be sleeping in, given our cross-country flight from the previous day. We were quoted a two-hour wait time for a table, but we were told we were welcome to wait for a seat at their bar, which accommodates 25 guests. Our luck proved pretty good, as we walked by just as they were clearing the plates of two seats that would soon become free. I'm not usually too excited to sit at a counter, but I pushed through my trepidation and grabbed the two coveted seats.
The everyday brunch menu at UD is served until 3:45pm. The menu features approximately 20 brunch items, accompanied by a selection of sides, beverages, and a rotating assortment of desserts. There's also another whole page of cocktails, beer, wine, and other boozy drinks for those who imbibe. Entree prices for brunch range between $15 and $26, and desserts hover around the $14 price point. We made our selections with the very peppy staff, and here's how everything came out for us.
Katie loves a good breakfast sandwich, and that's why she zeroed in on the S"eggs"Y Sandwich ($16) almost immediately after getting the menu in her hand. This sandwich featured scrambled eggs, thick-cut bacon, scallions, cheese, and Sexy sauce, all on a black sesame-seed bun, and was served with a generous amount of fries. Katie felt that this was one of the better breakfast sandwiches she had ever eaten. She loved the lightness of the scrambled egg and the crispy bacon. The sexy sauce was on point. She wished she had substituted the fries for something else, not because they were bad, but because she was having breakfast and would have preferred breakfast potatoes or hash browns.
Katie also selected the Buttermilk Biscuit and Jam ($6), which is listed under the "sides" section of the menu. The biscuit was rectangular instead of round, but it tasted just as good as others, and the buttermilk flavor was very present. I liked the way the butter came out spread across half the plate. There was plenty of it, and it was very spreadable. Way better than those foil-wrapped packets that are almost always served ice cold and don't spread nicely on any bread. I might be wrong, but I believe the strawberry jam was house-made. Even if it wasn't, it was delicious.
I had a lot tougher time narrowing down my order than Katie did. The Shrimp and Grits, Chicken and Waffles, and the Loaded Breakfast Biscuits all appealed to me, but I finally settled on the French Dip Poutine ($23). This hearty bowl featured Angus beef, cheese curds, caramelized onions, a sunny-side-up egg, and fries. To be honest, this is the closest I have ever come to having an authentic poutine. All that was missing was the gravy, which I suppose the runny yolk of the egg served as a substitute for. My first bites of this were magical. Very comforting, and the cheese curds did squeak a little when bitten into. I also enjoyed the sunny-side-up egg, but another one would have balanced this out more. With later bites, the saltiness was a little overwhelming. Still good, and a good base for the walking that we had planned around DC.
No section of the UD menu gets rotated as much as the desserts do. I could have picked three or four that sounded great when we visited in January, but this Banana Cream Cake ($14) caught my attention because I have been on a banana kick since last year. This roll cake begins with a vanilla cake base and banana icing, creating the spiral, and is finished with a nicely done butterscotch and toasted marshmallow topping. I enjoyed the texture of the cake and all the other elements, but I wished it were a little heavier on the banana flavor. Near the end, when I was done with the butterscotch, it became plain tasting.
Even with a few minor complaints from me, I found the Unconventional Diner to be a great breakfast spot. It's difficult to judge a restaurant by only visiting once, but even though I had some issues with what I ordered, I get the sense that if I visited another time, I'd find something here that I'd genuinely love. It's challenging for restaurants to make breakfast/brunch an event, but UD has succeeded in doing so. What they have also done is put together a team of servers, bussers, and hosts whose number one priority is to make sure every guest has the best possible visit here. We were blown away by the service we received, and it was evident with everyone who sat with us at the counter. I'm thrilled that everything fell into place for us during our visit to UD, but I'm disappointed we didn't get the chance to try them for dinner.
Here's a quick shot of the Washington Monument on day two of our visit to Washington, DC. At 555 feet tall, it's the tallest stone structure in the world. That might be why Katie was hesitant to go to the top, so we just saw it from ground level, which is almost as impressive.
Out of five elevators (because when the Washington Monument opened to the public in 1886, the elevator ride to the top took 8-10 minutes. Luckily, the trip has been shortened to 70 seconds nowadays), with five being best to zero being worst, Conventional Diner gets 4 elevators.
For more information on Unconventional Diner, head to their website by clicking here: https://www.unconventionaldiner.com/
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