DCGuide
7 Great All-Inclusive Brunches So Your Bama Friends Can Just Split The Check
photo credit: C3 Creative
Every other day, there’s somebody on the socials trying to force their friends into splitting an unbalanced check after a meal (a generally wack thing to do.) There are many brunch options in DC, but you can make it easy on your brains, your bank accounts, and your servers by going with a spot that charges a flat fee for everything being consumed. Because pulling out your phone to take your new Instagram profile pic is much better than pulling it out to use the calculator.
THE SPOTS
photo credit: Nina Palazzolo
The Deal: Bottomless mimosas or sangrias and one brunch entree for $40.
Halfsmoke in Shaw has the best all-inclusive brunch for two reasons: it’s all day, every day, and it has our favorite french toast in the city. There are about a dozen American brunch menu items in total, but we always go with the Cash App Me, the cinnamon-toast-crunch-covered french toast. It’s soft, sweet, and crispy. Relax on the futon couch and down (cranberry, orange, peach, pineapple, or watermelon) mimosas for 90 minutes while you play board games and listen to R&B from the last 30 years.
The Deal: Bottomless small plates, mimosas, sangria, and bloody marys for $48 with a two-hour limit.
The food at Ambar is fantastic, but the real reason to drop into the Balkan spot in Capitol Hill is for the relaxing atmosphere. Our anxiety drops two notches within minutes of sitting down here, even with the wait staff zipping up and down the stairs making more deliveries than Amazon Prime. As the bottomless small plates make their way from the downstairs kitchen, three flavors of endless mimosas are free-flowing from pitchers circling the dining room. Don't leave without trying the cheese pie and the grilled steak.
The Deal: Bottomless food and drink for $60 with a two hour limit.
Unlike most places doing bottomless plates, Dleña has food you’ll look forward to. The Mexican spot is covered and cacti and firewood (that they use to cook the food). The bar takes up about half of the room, but there’s still plenty of space for large groups at tables in little alcoves. You can easily make a whole meal out of standout dishes like carnitas tacos and chicken and waffles, but everything on the menu is pretty tasty. And if your group adds the bottomless beverages, the assortment of drinks includes three flavors of mimosas, a couple bloody styles, and, of course, margaritas.
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The Deal: Bottomless food and drinks for $45.
This adorable Mediterranean restaurant in Mt. Vernon Triangle is a good place to bring a large group of folks for great small plates. Grab a seat in the sunshine near the floor-to-ceiling windows and order mimosas for the table—our favorites, because they’re light on the juice and heavy on the sparkling wine. The bottomless drinks here also include bloody marys and tea, which is a great touch for anyone not drinking alcohol. Get the patates köfte and tavuk köfte, a spicy chicken patty. They say there’s a two-hour time limit, but they usually don’t press you about it.
photo credit: Kimberly Kong
The Deal: One brunch entree and bottomless drinks for $45-50.
El Techo’s rooftop situation is exactly where you want to be on a weekend afternoon when your bottomless booze bender in Shaw needs a little something extra. The Latin-inspired restaurant does that in two ways: by transporting you to an indoor rainforest (think Rainforest Cafe, except less tacky) and offering bottomless margaritas, frozen cocktails, and Tecates in addition to mimosas and bloody marys. Make no mistake, you’re coming here to drink, (and you can try all the different drinks you want). The food is kind of bland and boring, but your entree will at least help soak up the alcohol.
The Deal: An appetizer, an entree, and bottomless mimosas for $65 with one and a half hour limit.
Creole on 14th feels like two separate restaurants with one goal: to be a more grown-up version of The Park on 14th. Out front, the Columbia Heights spot is all greenery and neon lights. But the back half feels a bit more like you’ve got a U-shaped table at the club. Brunch is a spectacle, complete with a DJ, disco ball, and blue strobe lights that might make you think it’s almost time to head over to jumbo slice. To be clear, you’re coming here to listen to '90s and 2000s club music and pretend you're still partying at Dream, not to eat the alright charbroiled oysters and meh chicken and waffles. The fruit punch mimosas don’t taste great but are hella fun, which is in line with the overall experience here.
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The Deal: One entree and bottomless mimosas, sangrias, and bloody marys for $34 with a two hour limit.
Whether you’re actually young (or just thought you were last night) a weekend morning hangover is bound to catch up with you at one point or another. Enter Johnny Pistolas, a Mexican restaurant in Adams Morgan where you won’t find a bunch of people yammering and causing a scene. Instead, you’ll find a fairly empty spot playing a curated MySpace playlist. It’s perfect if your crew has a collective pounding headache or just needs a last-minute spot that can fit you all. The food isn’t special and the drinks are mediocre, but it’s the least pricey of the all-inclusive spots and it’s perfect if you care more about the company than the consumption.
