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One of the restaurants in the highly-successful Matchbox Food Group that is responsible for some of Washington DC’s best breakfast spots, Matchbox Chinatown sits along the very popular H Street Northwest corridor, one where brunchers and lunch goers crowd every day for some of the most interesting restaurants in town. The spot is especially known for its breakfast foods and its interesting takes on classic American cuisine, but it’s also known for burgers, pizzas and a ton of other great food. The menu is strong with a ton of great food, and it’s hard not to want to go back.
The menu is expansive, but breakfast rules the roost here. Some of the great menu items:
- Cinnamon rolls: Six cinnamon rolls served up in a deep dish. It’s only an appetizer, but this dish is one of the most popular and DC dwellers claim it’s one of the best rolls in the city. What makes them great is the bountiful cinnamon and a ton of icing. Great!
- Steak and eggs: In an iron skillet, you get eggs any way you like them, atop an 8-ounce ribeye steak, home fries and toasted ciabatta bread. The steak is automatically cooked well done, which I wish was more rare, but at the same time it’s still tasty. The potatoes are slightly spicy thanks to some paprika, but still great. Suggest the eggs come scrambled. There are a huge amount of them relative to the rest of the food. You’ll have leftovers!
- Memosas and bloody marys: There’s a decent menu of these drinks, which you can get plain or you can get with different fruits or other toppings to add a new dimension to them.
Matchbox is a very popular spot, so be prepared for a decent wait if you come. Still, there’s a bar with some great drinks if you come in during the evenings. The price points are a bit above market average — the spot aspires to be a little above that, so I found the value proposition is there.
The service in this spot is especially accommodating. For example, it’s well-known in DC that most restaurants will only put one card on a bill, and not let diners split a check with cards. This spot will allow you to do that if you ask nicely, so be nice to the staff! That practice is something that takes getting used to in this town, and the exception here is meaningful. All told, Matchbox lives up to the profile of its sister restaurants, and it’s a great spot to try!
Recommendations
- Wait times can be longer during peak times, but at the same time, the spot is a little more fast to serve than nearby Ned’s Bulletin. The food is great though!
- Breakfast is the top draw here, and you must get the cinnamon rolls as an appetizer.
- If you don’t like breakfast foods, go for the burgers.
Another Food Critic 