You can throw a stone any direction on campus and hit a restaurant selling lamb. It’s bizarre and unexplainable (guesses include D.C.’s diversity, the number of hungover students, divine intervention) but evident: Foggy Bottom has an unholy devotion to lamb. The Blog Team has taken the plunge and done the hard work for you, trying six lamb dishes and giving them all our patented journalistic scrutiny.
Below you’ll find an objective and expert chronicle of all the lamb dishes on campus we felt like trying. Listed in no particular order with no particular scoring system, you’ll learn all you need to know.
Look no further, your guide to Lamb on Campus is here!
Tatte Lamb Hash – $15.25 pre tax
Appearance never fooled me as much as this thing did. For starters, the lamb flavor overcame every other ingredient on the plate. The sweet potatoes tasted like lamb, the potatoes tasted like lamb, the carrots, even the damn bread tasted like lamb. The poached egg made everything a slimy mess, and the garlic labneh, that big dollop of yogurt below the decorative leaves, gave everything that already tasted like lamb, a yogurty taste that my lactose intolerance did not appreciate very much. On a more positive note, the star of the show was the small metal cup with fresh tomato, red onion, and cilantro that came as an extra. It was a great palate cleanser. Overall, I wouldn’t order it again; maybe the six other lamb dishes on Tatte’s menu are better.
– Álvaro Ramal
GW Deli Gyro – $9.85 after tax
It looks like the “and” on the sign for the deli gyro was originally an “or” that got written over so it could say “BEEF and LAMB.” Which makes sense, the meat is a brown mystery blend that doesn’t super taste like either. But at least they don’t skimp on it! For under ten bucks it’s a pretty tall pile of thin crispy meat slices. And the fixings are legit, especially the stringy caramelized onions. The pita’s a little chewy, the tzatziki’s kind of runny and I did find one very clean looking hair in the wrap. But for a rarely picked sammy on the huge deli menu it’s a solid guilty pleasure order. I will get this again.
– Max Cohen
Alitiko Western Market Lamb Gyro – $16.68 after tax
A $15 roasted lamb gyro with everything on it on a Sunday afternoon—music to my hungover ears. Tomatoes, red onions, cilantro, tzatziki, and fries with no extras and no water since I’m running thin on dining dollars. In total, it rounded up to $16.68. As I opened the box, I was greeted by this huge foil bouquet of hot pita bread acting as a bed for all the overflowing ingredients. The onions and tomatoes gave the gyro a subtle crunch and freshness. The sauce had a garlicky tang making the fries, and the whole ordeal, perfectly seasoned and evidently homemade. As for the lamb pieces, I wish they would’ve been more flavorful, but their tenderness made up for that lack. Overall, because of the freshness of the ingredients, how fulfilling it was, and considering it saved me from my dying state, it is, surprisingly, worth the almost $17.
– Álvaro Ramal
Marshall’s Bar & Grille Lamb Chop – $28 pre tax
I bravely walked up to Marshall’s at an unfathomably early hour, 5:30 p.m. I don’t think I’ve been that early to any dinner ever. For a completely empty bar, save for me and my editor, our food took a whooping 30 minutes to come out of their basement kitchen, housed in the now-permanently closed Flavors of India.
The advertised rosemary glaze on the lamb chops was sweet and tangy and it complimented the taste of the meat well. I’m not the biggest fan of a sweet glaze but I was into this one, which saved the rest of the plate since it was the only flavorful thing on there. Next to my three chops was a pile of alright mashed potatoes (which I can never eat fast enough before they get cold. UGH!) and steamed, perhaps microwaved, unseasoned broccoli. The barbeque-esque glaze served triple duty as the accompaniment for the chops, as a gravy, and as a dipping sauce for the veggies.
My meal left me satisfied and would be a stellar order for a proper date night dinner at Marshall’s. Just be ready to shell out more than you think you should spend at the worst bar in downtown D.C.
– Carolina Carmo
Tasty Kabob (the green food truck behind Gelman) Lamb Bowl – $15 pre tax
Approaching Tasty Kabob behind Gelman, I decided on a half rice, half salad bowl, dutifully paying my $15. In the middle of making my bowl, the Chef/Waitress/Hostess asked me if I had asked for mild or medium lamb. I had asked for spicy lamb, but I replied “uhm, uh…medium,” because I am a coward. Upon opening the fragile aluminum container, I noticed that it was definitely NOT half-rice-half-salad as advertised, but closer to 3/4ths rice, 1/4ths salad. The lamb was crispy, juicy, and plentiful. The medium sauce was just mild enough that I didn’t have to take a sip of my water to cool down at any point during my meal. Overall, I recommend “that one green food truck behind Gelman,” but I’d recommend just getting the salad bowl if you want that extra crunch.
– Caroline Morrelli
George’s King of Falafel Lamb Gyro Wrap – $15.00 pre tax
Being one of the classics of late-night post-bar meals, I was hesitant on how the lamb gyro wrap at Georgetown’s George’s King of Falafel would hold up on a sober palette. However, this was a very satisfying meal. Texturally, it was very soft and saucy thanks to the tender pieces of lamb and the garlicky tzatziki sauce. The crunch of the onions and lettuce gave a freshness that complemented the toasted hot pita wrap perfectly. The star of the show though was the hummus dip that came as part of the wrap+fry combo. Dunking the wrap into the hummus is a must. The spiced fries are also a winner, but the wrap in itself is delicious anyways if you’d prefer not to pay the extra bucks for the combo. It later served its duty of post-concert midnight leftovers. Will keep getting.
– Álvaro Ramal
