"Not many decade-old restaurants are still booked up weeks in advance, which tells you something about how beloved The Red Hen is for Washingtonians. The red brick interior of this Italian-American restaurant with a wood-burning oven just exudes coziness—and that's before plates of pappardelle arrive at your table. If you don't have a res, there's still hope, because a good chunk of seats are saved for walk-ins. The rigatoni with sausage and fennel has been on the menu since the place opened, and its cult status bumped up another level when both President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden ordered it while out to dinner. That's a must, as is an order of crostini topped with lavish swirls of ricotta or labneh. It's hard to go wrong with this tight menu, featuring a handful of pastas (including colorful options like spaghetti verde and squid ink linguine) and entrees like caramelized scallops with parsnip crema or beef short ribs served over creamy polenta." - Adele Chapin
