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Start a Top 5 for SouthernEditor’s picks
Press picks, until locals rank their own Top 5s. Sourced from the local food press. As seen in Washingtonian. Updated August 2026.
Hitching Post Restaurant · Petworth
A laid-back Southern-food institution open since 1967, still turning out crackly, well-seasoned fried chicken alongside potato salad, slaw, and cornbread. The neighborhood-bar energy of strangers chatting across tables has outlasted a 2012 ownership change and a menu that now includes the odd non-Southern add-on like palak chaat.
Saints Paradise Cafeteria · Mount Vernon Square
A cafeteria attached to the United House of Prayer for All People, serving a rotating Blue Plate Special alongside turkey wings, neck bones, liver and onions, candied yams, and greens. Cash only, tray-service, and built around a love-is-our-main-ingredient ethos that has kept it a neighborhood fixture for decades.