Late Night Eats in DC

These guys don't screw around. French fries are fried twice -- that's the way the Dutch do it -- and falafel-filled pitas are topped with a slew of ingredients including … beets, baba ghanoush, chutney, pickled cabbage, and hummus. (photo) [link]

Bed, Bath and Beyond, Ann Taylor Loft, and Urban Outfitters infested Chinatown a few years back, and the restaurants that have followed are equally as generic and … American. But even though Chinatown is seriously lacking in Chinese food, Full Kee is worth the trip if only to sample the shrimp dumpling soup. (photo) [link]

During the Clinton administration, this café and bookstore sparked a minor scandal when it refused to disclose what books Monica Lewinsky had bought there. Scandal or no … scandal, Kramerbooks is an institution in Washington. Their late-night menu consists of a combination of dinner and breakfast items, but most nocturnal eaters go for the "sharezies," mix-and-match small plates of pate, mini crab cakes, catfish fingers, or nachos meant, of course, to be shared. What not to share? A slice of their cobbler encrusted apple pie. [link]

Though you may have to climb over a mountain of passed-out Georgetown students to get through the door, the Georgetown Café serves up nearly anything your fuzzy drunken … mind can imagine. The pancakes, chicken fingers, and milkshakes are popular orders, but the Mediterranean options stand out as well. (photo) [link]

Double patties. That's what you get when your order a simple cheeseburger, and Five Guys arguably serves up the best in town. Equally as decadent is the grilled cheese, … which is best eaten with fried mushrooms, onions, and a dollop of A-1 sauce. (photo) [link]

Ben's, opened in 1958, has fed the likes of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, stuck out the riots that ensued after Dr. Martin Luther King was shot, and has so far … survived the gentrification of the U Street corridor. While the chili fries, chili dogs and chili burgers attract a long line of carnivores on Friday and Saturday nights, Ben -- a vegetarian -- has perfected a vegetarian chili that non-meat eaters swear by. [link]

Two branches of Julia's -- one on 18th Street and the other on Connecticut below Dupont Circle -- serve these meat and veggie stuffed pastries until two or three in the … morning. The saltena empanada, filled with hard boiled egg, peas, chicken, olives, and potatoes, sounds like mom's leftovers but somehow works magic. (photo) [link]

The raven-haired Ms. Haydee oversees her Salvadorian operation from the bar, which is decorated with years-old Christmas garlands and a portrait of the owner herself, … naturally. Best bets on the menu are the papusas -- essentially thick cornflour pancakes filled with cheese, beans, and meat and served with a side of slaw -- or the fajitas. You can also get your meal to go and bring it across the street to the gritty Raven Bar and Grill. (photo) [link]

Eighteenth Street's latest edition boasts everything from red hots and corn dogs, to the bacon-wrapped "Glove" and the $20 Kobe beef dog for those who live by the phrase … "go big or go home." But really, M'Dawg is all about the massive toppings bar where even an average kosher is transformed by wasabi mayo, sweet pickle relish, or apricot chutney. (photo) [link]

Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, this gourmet-greasy spoon serves breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner and everything in between. End a late night with a bubbling … pot of fresh-baked mac & cheese, or start the day early with something from the 24 hour breakfast menu. The Croque and Dagger -- two eggs and bacon on French bread topped béchamel sauce and melted gruyere -- always does the job. (photo) [link]