By Stefanie Gans and Rina Rapuano
Royal Nepal
Alexandria | Indian & Nepalese | $$
Just beyond Del Ray and its concentration of restaurants (and babies and dogs) is Royal Nepal, a pint-sized restaurant with a devoted following. The menu is a mix of Nepalese and Indian dishes, the former must-gets are the country’s signature dish of momos, and here, filled with chicken, wild boar or yak, but why order anything else when there’s a chance to try tender yak enveloped in a seared package ready for dipping into a tomato-y sauce? It’s best to go in with a sharing mentality to snag tastes of lamb curry or goat curry or, who are we kidding, chicken tikka masala. Dinner ends with a doughnut hole-like treat, gulab jamun, saturated in a sweet syrup. // 3807 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria
This post originally appeared in our November 2019 issue’s 50 Best Restaurants cover story. For more food reviews, subscribe to our weekly newsletter.