For the last several years, when I eat at, or carry out from, restaurants, I try to keep track of them and give them a rating of A through C. C is my version of F.

Last year, I recorded 67 dinner, and 133 lunches. Here are the A+, A, A- and B+ restaurants of 2024 in both categories.

Let me start with two restaurants that I have been to more than once, and that earned consistently high ratings. The first is Cafe of India, on Wisconsin Avenue, just a block south of Fessenden, five minutes from our house. It is where we carry out our Indian food from, and it never (well, hardly ever, disappoints). The other, a Mexican restaurant near daughter Michelle’s house is Villa Maya, located in Rockville in the shopping center at the corner of Norbeck and Bauer. It’s good for food, drink and atmosphere.

I should also say that I keep track of those relatively few times I go out for a real breakfast and that I have been to First Watch in several places around the country. There is no location near our house, but I understand there is one in Gaithersburg and a new one on Colesville Road just east of New Hampshire. I give First Watch an A whenever I have gone – whether it’s Bowie MD, where I have an annual lunch with two of my college roommates, or Virginia Beach, where we ate with a one second cousin, and two second cousins, once removed, or Indianapolis, where we had a different cousin lunch some years ago, or St. Louis.

Okay, let’s dig in:

(1) Java Nation. I like the food at the original location in Kensington, although the larger branch on Rockville Pike is good for something light. This is a lunch, not dinner, spot, and I suggest their Greek omelet.

(2) Sushi Toro. Perhaps I should have included this in the opening paragraph and made it three to start. This is a small restaurant located in what is still called the White Flint shopping center on Nicholson Lane, a short distance off Rockville Pike in North Bethesda. There are only about a half dozen tables (it does a big carry out business), but it is comfortable and the sushi, whether you get the simple, traditional kind, or the Americanized combinations are all very good, and reasonably priced. Oh, yes, closed on Tuesday – something I have forgotten twice.

(3) Ambar. I know there are two of them, one on Barracks Row on Capitol Hill, and one on 7th Street, north of Massachusetts Avenue. We had a very nice dinner one night, wandering in by chance with granddaughter Joan. Have not been back since, and that has been a mistake. Yelp gives it a 4.8. That’s quite high.

(4) Ada’s. Not Adas, the synagogue, but Ada’s on the River in Alexandria. I had lunch there with a former law partner. Pricey for lunch, to be sure. I think I spent over $30. But excellent food, service and view. (And there were a lot of people there paying that price.)

(5) I’m Eddie Cano. I have to qualify this one a bit. This is our neighborhood Italian restaurant, located on Connecticut Avenue, three blocks from our house. And the food (try to eggplant Parmesan and the swordfish) has been very good for some years now. We both eat in and carry out. My qualification is that our last carry-out did not meet expectations or previous experience. I keep it in the list, but it’s also on my watch list.

(6) Gourmet Asian Bistro. You probably haven’t been to this innocent looking restaurant in a small shopping center in what I think is Derwood MD on Muncaster Mill Road. It’s near my accountant’s office and I have eaten lunch there twice when taking things out to her. Both times were excellent and, again, the Yelp rating confirms it.

(7) Izumi. Izumi is a new Japanese restaurant that opened up this year in Adams Morgan on Columbia Road. We have had dinner there twice, and I had lunch there once. Each time, very, very good. Parking? You have to be lucky. We have been.

(8) Maya, Not to be confused with Mexican Villa Maya, Maya is a Nepali restaurant located on Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, just below Montgomery Avenue. We were there two or three times this year, and have been there before. All good. Try their vegetarian Thali platter. The word “maya” in Nepali means “love”, we were told.

(9) Amparo, on P Street in the Dupont Circle area is a very trendy and expensive Mexican restaurant, opened a year or two ago by the son in law of friends of ours. It has (to my mind) a very unusual menu, and you have to go with the idea that you are going to try something new. And you should, but bring your wallet; this is not Tex-Mex.

(10) Spring Garden is a carry out (with a few tables) restaurant on Wisconsin Avenue across the street from Cafe of India. It is a go-to place for me, and I generally carry out. Have been there many, many times – never a bad meal.

(11) Moko Sushi is another Japanese restaurant and another restaurant in the shopping center that houses Villa Maya. Very comfortable, a little more upscale than Sushi Toro, and just as good.

(12) Jyoti, an Indian restaurant and an old standby, located on 18th Street in Adams Morgan. Had lunch there this year, and found it just as good as it was years ago, when I used to carry out on my way home. A little more expensive, perhaps, than similar Indian restaurants, but….only a little.

(13) Shanghai Lounge. Looking for a small, unpretentious Chinese restaurant on Wisconsin Avenue south of Glover Park and north of Georgetown. This might be what you are looking for. Very friendly. Only about a half dozen tables. A friend and I use this as our regular four or five times a year lunch spot.

(14) Buck’s Camping and Fishing. I did it again. This should have been at the top. We had a number of dinners here this year, and each was excellent. This is our neighborhood almost normal and trendy upscale restaurant, across the street from I’m Eddie Cano.

(15) Mother Earth Cafe. This is an unusual one. It is a very small unmarked place on 9th Street NW, just south of Rhode Island Avenue. I think only open for lunch, and probably breakfast. Owned by a very interesting and friendly man from Ethiopia, who has lived in more parts of the U.S than I have. Very informal. Very. Hardly a restaurant. You would probably never even notice if you walked by. Not even an identifying sign. Very good food.

(16) Ala is a new small plate Turkish restaurant in the building in Bethesda that used to house Portofino. It’s on Fairmount, north of Old Georgetown Road. Pricey. We had dinner here for Michelle’s birthday.

(17) Aventino in Bethesda, or Bethesda Avenue, but not on Bethesda Row. I did it again for the second time. This should have been at the top of this post. We have had two dinners there – about as good as you can get. Again, not cheap. Oh, yes, Italian, or is that obvious?

(18) Burton’s on Rhode Island Avenue in Hyattsville, MD, in the big, new shopping center on the east side of the street. I stopped there for lunch, concerned that it would be too formal and too expensive for just me, and I was pretty much right. But the quality of my food more than made up for it.

(19) Thai Kitchen in Bethesda, one of those many restaurants stretched out on Wisconsin Avenue that you pass, but never even think of going in. Maya, by the way, is the same in that respect. I had lunch here with another ex-law partner (I have many) only because there was a parking place in front and he has trouble walking. Surprisingly good.

(20) Pho Viet, a Vietnamese (duh!) restaurant on U Street NW. Actually, barely a restaurant. In order to get a seat, you almost have to agree to become intimate with anyone sitting in any of the other dozen or so seats in the restaurant. But what good food. I had lunch. Can’t imagine it’s open for dinner, but maybe.

(21) Yu Noodles on Gude Drive in Rockville. Had lunch with my daughter Michelle (a regular place for her). Interesting menu, not the Chinese food I am used to seeing. Highly recommended. We had lunch.

(22) El Golfo on Flower Avenue in Silver Spring. We go there for the food and the music, and are never disappointed with either. It’s just a typical suburban Salvadoran restaurant like hundreds of others in the DC area, except that the food might be a bit better. Big parking lot next door.

(23) Le Chat Noir. In the same building as Cafe of India on Wisconsin Avenue. We hadn’t been there for a long time. Went for my birthday. Excellent dinner. Quite French. Which means really good bread.

What am I leaving out? Most importantly, I am leaving out the many very good restaurants we have eaten at while on vacations. I might do a post with them another day – I didn’t want this one to be too long.

I will end with just one more place, because I think it may have been a quirk. A few weeks ago, I had no time for lunch and wanted to get a sandwich I could eat in the car. I had stopped at Strosniders in Bethesda (that’s a hardware store) to pick something up, and I just stepped into Edith’s Pizza (no relationship to Edith Hessel) and asked for a chicken salad sandwich on whole wheat to go. The sandwich was perfect. Perfect. The only word to describe it. Oh, on Arlington Boulevard on Bethesda – owned by the Edith who owns Breads Unlimited.

Now, it’s 2025 and I have to start all over. Don’t worry about me. Why, just yesterday I had an A level lunch at &Shwarma Crave (yes, that is correct) in the shopping center on Shady Grove Road that houses Wonder Books. I just picked it for no reason, ordered a chicken shwarma basket for $12, with rice and chicken and tahini and tomatoes and onions and red cabbage and corn and a garlic dressing. Wow, I said (to myself). Then I looked at Yelp. 4.7.

And one other question. Why, next door, is there an elephant mural (and a good one) on the outer wall of a 7-11?