As the year wraps up, we are very excited to release our best of, favorites, and most drooling dishes in the Washington DC metro area, Top NOMs 2017! We wish we could write about everything we ate, but there are only so many days in a year. This being a DC metro area tri-state (that’s right, we count DC as a state as it should be), we also include dishes from Maryland and Virginia. We hope you enjoy these dishes as much as we enjoyed them.

Best of Grilled Cheese / Short Rib Grilled Cheese @ GCDC

I like my grilled cheese how I like my man big and gooey all over, just like The Short Rib Grilled Cheese amazingness from GCDC Bar. The theme of dinner is a whole lot of cheese and nothing else because we are about to bite into the most amazing grilled cheese ever. That extra cheesiness and gooey makes this one of the best grill cheese sandwiches out there. Of course, the short rib meat helps make it even better. We can’t wait to go back and try other delicious dishes from there. Read our full review for that extra gooey goodness.

Best of Ice Cream / Smores Galore Stir Fry Thai Roll @ Class 520

There hasn’t been a better way to enjoy smores like this Smores Galore Roll ice cream from Class 520. Stir-fry ice cream is truly amazing, where anything can be turned into it. Here we are enjoying this traditional American campfire snack in a whole new way. No dessert can match the flavor and joy this treat brings to you. Watching it made is just as exciting as the flavor made our taste buds happy. Read our full review to get the sugar rush.

Best of Bar Drink / North Remembers @ Game of Thrones Popup Bar

The drink for a true King of the North! This was by far our most favorite drink at Game of Thrones Popup Bar. It’s a giant wooden mug filled with the sweetness of coconut and pineapple. Careful, this drink is powerful, with a mix of 3 alcohols like scotch, Oloroso (wine), and Cointreau (orange-flavored liqueur). We are big fans of alcohol and sweets, so this combination truly earned it a rightful place as one of the best drinks in the area. Sadly this is no longer available, but the memory sure stayed with us. Read our full review and hail to the King of the North.

Best of Fast Casual / Tofu with Purple Rice Bowl @ Bibibop

Purple rice is like magic, and surprisingly this casual fast food place makes it on par with many other more fancy places. It goes so well with any protein or sauce, and this time we are going vegetarian with Tofu. It doesn’t hurt to go outside the meat box. Their organic Tofu is just as good as all their meaty goodness. We just fell in love with the quality and speed of this new fast-casual chain. Great for those of us on the go who need to grab a quick bite. Read our full review and enjoy some purple rice.

Best of Burger / The Impossible Meatless Burger @ Counter

OMG, we finally got to try the Impossible Burger, a meatless plant-based burger patty that bleeds and tastes like a real thing. This is a creation of science! Smarty Pants foodies at Impossible Foods created a new meat replacement with all-natural ingredients like wheat, coconut oil, and potatoes. You heard it right. A meatless burger is our favorite burger of the year. It was so memorable and unique that we just had to put it on our Top NOMs list. Read full review and discover the meatless burger that bleeds.

Best of Vegetarian / Veggie Okonomiyaki @ Uzu

Get ready for taste bud blowing dish Veggie Okonomiyaki savory pancake from Uzu in Union Market, DC. This dish literary means “how you like” in Japanese as in its prepared the way you want it to. The reason why this is one of our favorite vegetarian dishes is that it’s not like anything we’ve ever tasted before. The flavor of this dish and the joy it brought us was so much that it just had to be featured on the Top NOMs list. Read our full review and try this amazing vegetarian dish.

Best of Breakfast / Smoked Salmon Hashbrown Benedict @ Summer House

There is no brunch without an amazing egg dish like these perfectly poached eggs. It takes a lot to impress this nomster as we are big egg lovers. During this weekend brunch, they didn’t just make a great dish, and they raised the game to a new level that not many restaurants will be able to match. Every bite of this dish is such joy that it had to be placed on our Top NOMs list as a favorite egg dish. Read our full review and fall in love with the runny yolk.

Best of Sandwich / La de Pernil (Pork) Arepa @ Arepa Pues

Pork pork pork! La de Pernil quickly became one of our favorite orders because of all that pork shoulder goodness. It was so flavourful and tender that you might orgasm in your mouth. Seasoned to perfection and combined with their special sauce. All this together made for one of our favorite dishes of the year. Now is it a sandwich? We don’t know but don’t care either. It’s so good that it would have made it on the list one way or the other. Read our full review and discover an amazing world of Arepas.

Best of Ramen / Tonkotsu Black Ramen @ Jinya

After all the drinks and starter dishes, we are very excited to try Tonkotsu Black Ramen’s main course. This is pretty standard pork both ramen that comes with everything that Ramen lovers expect like nori-dried seaweed, green onions, fried onions, and seasoned soft eggs. This might be a newcomer to the DC food scene, but they quickly made a big taste splash. Read our full review to stay warm on a cold day.

Best of Side / Vegan Mozzarella Balls @ Pow Pow

I tried vegan meat, and I liked it! It is very exciting to try vegan sweet and sour pork seitan from Pow Pow, a New Asian cuisine that brings Chinese, Japanese, and Korean techniques together in the H Street Corridor neighborhood. This being one of our first dishes at EmporiYUM, it makes for a great entry. What caught our eyes is their vegan and veterinarian selections. They might small, but they are mighty in taste and cheesiness. Even though it’s not real cheese!!! This really could have fulled us if we didn’t know any better. Read our full review and enjoy some balls!

Best of Fusion / Doffle (Donut + Waffle) @ BToo

It’s the creation of an evil scientist, a tasty combination of Donut and Waffle together to bring us Doffle from B Too, one of our favorite Belgian restaurants in DC. We are very familiar with this restaurant and dish, but we can’t pass up having it again at EmporiYUM. It has everything you love all in one bite, the softness of a donut, and the texture of a waffle. The fact is we can’t figure out a category for it. Best Donut? Best of Waffles? Best of Desserts? Best of Fusion since it combines two things and so well! Regardless of it’s a great and must-try dish for you. Read our full review and let us know what category to use.

Fan Pick / Game of Thrones Pop Up Bar

Welcome to Game of Thrones Popup Bar right here in Washington DC, where you can take a trip all around Westeros and Essos brought to you by the amazing people of The Drink Company in Shaw/U Street. This place deserves Fan Pick of Top Noms! This is by far our most popular review of the year. For a good reason, this is an amazing place! Read our full review and join the fight for Westeros.