Bon Appétit Names DC's Bad Saint the 2nd Best New Restaurant in the USA

WASHINGTON, DC — Bon Appétit Magazine has named D.C. restaurant Bad Saint the second best new restaurant in the country in its new "The Hot 10" list, placing it just behind an Atlanta restaurant for the top spot.

Fresh off of naming Washington, D.C. the Restaurant City of the Year earlier this month, Bon Appétit is singing the praises of Bad Saint, a new Filipino restaurant located at 3226 11th Street NW in Columbia Heights.

"Every year, we scour the country and eat ourselves silly searching for the best new restaurants in America," the magazine stated, adding that this list was "the most eclectic, geographically diverse, and delicious Hot 10 we’ve ever compiled."

Andrew Knowlton, one of the writers, said that he was fascinated with the restaurant.

"I was flying solo, but everything about this 24-seat, no-reservation spot made me feel like family," he wrote. "Credit Filipino-American chef Tom Cunanan and co-owners Genevieve Villamora (the most gracious host I met all year) and Nick Pimentel, who’ve made this place their passion project. Their food is personal, but it’s so much more than just dishes they ate as kids. Bad Saint is the kind of place I spend all year searching for."

Knowlton further wrote that he loved his meal so much that he canceled his second dinner that night to go back for more at Bad Saint.

"Contented, I sipped on lambanog, a subtly sweet coconut spirit, and thought about how lucky I was to be part of the growing Bad Saint family," he added.

Photo Credit Farrah Skeiky