"At Thip Khao, not only will you see other people, you'll practically be sharing your meal with them. The cozy wooden tables at this lively Lao restaurant in Columbia Heights are packed close together—which works well if the only person you've eaten with this week is your boss over the last-minute Zoom that should've been an email. The restaurant is something of a cult classic, a haunt for just about any occasions and that's because the food here is obsessively good, like the mee kathi, a noodle soup we can’t stop dreaming about made with a rich red coconut curry, peanuts, cabbage, bean sprout, mint and cilantro. Get access to exclusive reservations at this spot with Chase Sapphire Reserve. New cardmembers get $300 in annual dining statement credits." - tristiana hinton, omnia saed