food carts near Smithsonian and food at eastern market?

[bythebayov]

Looking for food carts or goog cheap eats near the museums and where to eat at the Eastern Market. Thanks soo much for your help!

[lawhound]

Taqueria Nacional, at 400 North Capitol Street, right next to Union Station. Great food, inexpensive. A little farther than Jaleo from the museums. You could also Metro bw TN and the museums.

[bythebayov]

Thanks so much for all the suggestions. We ended up eating at Nando's peri peri (loved it), potbelly (per husbands request and also loved it) and at matchbox for dinner. The crab and avocado app at matchbox was amazing and the pizza was good but nothing special. we ordered the fire and smoke?, pesto ham and arugula and the sorpresatta and mushroom. Also went to Fado and Asian spice for drinks. Thanks again for all the help and can't wait to try more places on our next visit :-)

[woodleyparkhound]

I love the hot half smokes in natural casing at Eastern Market ($2.00). You add condiments and eat them standing there. When you walk through the market it's easy to spot where these are sold.

[hill food]

if you MUST go to a cart, the rule is the more they offer, the worse the food is - meaning if you have a choice of pizza, eggrolls or hotdogs - keep walking even the hot dog will suck although there are plenty of perfectly fine hotdog carts around. also to give you an idea of museum cafeteria prices, the McD's in the Air n Space is twice as expensive as a regular one.

when making your plans, consider this: lots of neighborhood choices North of the Mall, much fewer South.

[bythebayov]

will def check out south of the mall, if I can find south! Looking for something local and yummy, a taste of DC so to speak love food carts, ethnic food, eat almost anything as long as it tastes good and is clean, but have a hep shot just in case lol, thanks for the recs :-)

[WestIndianArchie]

Smithsonian - best bet is the Nat. American Museum cafeteria. Surprisingly good food, none of which is on everyone's menu.

The food carts are all pretzels and "dirty water" hotdogs.
You might see an "On the fly", which gets mixed reviews depending on the cart you get.

EM
- Montmarte and it also has pizza place next to it
- Matchbox pizza and Belga (belgian) are on 8th St.
- further down PE is Good Stuff Eatery (burgers from some famous chef guy)

[Jacey]

Cava Mezze in EM.

[bythebayov]

awesome, thanks a mil westinian and Jacey :-)

[ClevelandDave]

I think you mean the Museum of the American Indian, on the same side as the Air and Space Museum, towards the Capitol. It is fun and different, with Native American foods you won't find anywhere else in DC. Cafeteria style and not cheap as cafeterias go, but not that expensive compared to sit down places- probably $20 per person for a nice lunch.

[Steve]

There's nothing real cheap and great very close to the museums. However, if you want to take a great food break and are willing to walk a few blocks, then I would go to Jaleo on the corner of 7th and E Sts, NW. Judging from your blog (which is great reading, BTW, congrats) I think you would really appreciate the kind of rustic European cooking at this Spanish tapas place. The baby wrinkled ppotatoes, spinach with raisins, asparagus with romescu sauce, and the cod fritters are all winners. Their house olive mix (no longer free but worth paying for) is very special.

[helenahimm]

You write so nice about Jaleo, I will have to give it another try.

Cheers.

[bythebayov]

love the rec and glad you like the badly negelcted blog :-) will def have to check out and thanks~