Bon Appétit highlighted College Park favorite Northwest Chinese Food in its January issue.

The magazine, which has a circulation of 1.5 million, named the restaurant at 7313 Baltimore Ave. in a feature on eight places that food-minded visitors should stop at in the greater D.C. area:

Specializing in dishes from Shanxi province—a cuisine that can be hard to find even in big city Chinatowns—this phenomenal sliver of a restaurant is just steps from the University of Maryland’s College Park campus. Handmade noodles are the order of the day, whether stir-fried with chile oil or suspended in lamb and wood ear mushroom soup. Be sure to grab a couple of rou jia mo—stuffed flat buns—for the road.

The article notes that D.C. suburbs are a great place to “sample the flavors of the world” using just “one tank of gas” including “cheesy, crisp-edged pupusas, lamb-fragrant hand-cut noodle soups, fiery Korean-fried chicken wings, and aromatic jollof rice.”

It’s not just D.C. All of these dishes can be found along Route 1 at places like Comedor y Pupuseria San Alejo and Bonchon Chicken in Hyattsville, Queensway Restaurant in Riverdale Park and Spice Kitchen West African Grill in Brentwood’s miXt Food Hall.

Northwest Chinese is a critic’s darling, regularly named as a top D.C. area Chinese restaurant by The Washington Post and has landed on several of Washingtonian’s top “casual eats” and “100 very best restaurants” lists year after year. In 2018, it won Best Asian Restaurant in the Hyattsville Wire’s annual reader poll.

In a sidebar to the restaurant picks, Bon Appétit also highlighted the Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens, saying the “peaceful refuge on the eastern edge of D.C. is beautiful year-round but especially so in July when the lotuses are in bloom.”

Don’t forget to tell us your favorite places and people on the Route 1 corridor! Vote in the “Best of Route 1” fifth annual reader poll by Jan. 31 for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to an area business. 

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