The Bad Saint Restaurant: Outstanding Filipino Food

By: Boy Boyer

 

Put The Bad Saint on your list of Best Restaurants. It’s one more reason to be planning a trip to Washington, D.C. My wife and I ate there recently (March 11) and enjoyed it immensely.

I first heard about the restaurant right here (“VIA Times Newsmagazine”) in the “From the Readers” section. A line near the top of the letter by Grace A. Villamora caught my attention. “Bad Saint opened in D.C. on September 3, 2015 and consistently has long, long lines of hopeful diners.” My wife and I already had our tickets to D.C. to visit our son, daughter-in-law, and two granddaughters. It was going to be a busy and relatively short visit, but Grace, who signed her letter as “Proud mother of Bibi Villamora, co-owner of Bad Saint,” had enticed us.

“Do you think we can find it?” This was my first question to my wife when we were considering our chances of actually getting to the Bad Saint. One of my complaints about restaurant reviews, especially when they whet your appetite, is that they aren’t very helpful about such mundane matters as “how do I get there?” Our son and family live in the District itself, so we are familiar with the convenient mass-transit system. Still I had to read several reviews and then google the restaurant before I found the information I needed: Bad Saint—3226 11th St. NW, between North Lamont St. and North Kenyon St. in Columbia Heights.

That information got us on our way. Our son’s house is about five city blocks from the Shaw-Howard Metro Station. It turns out that Columbia Heights Station is just two stops away, on the Yellow or Green lines going to either Fort Totten or Greenbelt. “What now?” said my wife, dubiously, when we emerged from the Metro. Luckily, as we learned from a Metro employee, we were in easy walking distance, or we could take the H Bus. We walked, and after a brief start in the wrong direction, made it in ten minutes.

I was pleased to note that there were no ‘long, long lines” outside the restaurant. We already knew that they take “walk-ins-only.” Still, when we squeezed through the front door we were told politely that there was an hour-long wait to be seated. The restaurant seats only 24, and the occupants looked decidedly parked in place. I hesitated for all of three seconds while my wife looked at me questioningly, since I don’t like long waits. “Sure,” I said to the young hostess, who told us to be back in 50 minutes. She said she would text us.

Fortunately we had passed by a couple of reputable-looking pubs with outdoor seating, and the weather was pleasantly in the mid-70s. We walked back to one called Wonderland that was just at the other end of the block, three minutes away. We had a drink, ate a tasty side-dish of fried eggplant bits, and people watched. We headed back to the Bad Saint and were seated a few minutes ahead of time. We had a choice of seats at the main counter but chose the somewhat more quiet area (there is a bit of noise) at a counter facing the wall.

Our server, Stephanie, was prompt, friendly, and efficient. We soon had water and our drinks. An impressive list offers reasonably priced wines, cocktails, and beers. My wife had red wine (we had already decided on the Pancit Bihon Guisado). I had my nostalgic San Miguel. Stephanie helped us make our final order after we told her our food philosophy (taste tops quantity). To follow the Pancit, we selected a white fish (Piniritong Isda). The tastes were amazing: a lemony oil with the pancit, and maggi vinaigrette with the fish. Stephanie unobtrusively checked with us. She genuinely wanted to know what we thought of the food.

Another happy customer, a young Filipino sitting to our left, politely answered my inquiry about the food. He smiled a bit sheepishly when admitting that he always gets the chicken (Adobong Dilaw) because of the sauce (turmeric and burnt coconut).

Our charming young hostess came over to us as we were leaving. As we had guessed, she was Grace’s daughter (Genevieve ‘Bibi’ Villamora). She was surprised when I told her of her mother’s letter. “She didn’t tell me that.” She then spent a seemingly unhurried ten or fifteen minutes chatting with us just outside the door of her bustling creation.

Thank you, Grace, for the news about the Bad Saint. A final word for folks who like to eat out with groups (as do many Filipinos), they can manage groups of only four or fewer.

Contact Bob Boyer at Robert.boyer@snc.edu or his blog, <anamericaninmanila.com>.