Middle EasternLevantineBakeryBrunchHalalVegan-friendlyModerateDinnerBrunchCasualCocktail Bar
Last updated: 4/23/2026, 5:59:58 AM
Key Information
Lapis is a modern, family-owned Afghan restaurant located in the heart of Adams Morgan, Washington D.C. It offers homestyle Afghan cuisine prepared with local, seasonal ingredients in a cozy and inviting atmosphere. The restaurant also features a cocktail bar with unique, spice-inspired drinks and serves a popular mimosa brunch on weekends.
Customers consistently praise Lapis for its delicious and authentic Afghan food, with many highlighting the Afghan dumplings (Aushak), Bolani, lamb shank, and Qabuli Pulow as standout dishes. The atmosphere is described as positive, authentic, cozy, and welcoming, with traditional decor. Service is generally regarded as good, quick, and hospitable, with staff like Ali agha offering helpful recommendations. While some find it a little pricey, most agree the quality is worth it, with one reviewer calling it the 'best Afghan restaurant in the DMV area'.
Additional Details
The restaurant emphasizes its commitment to using local and seasonal ingredients to create its homestyle Afghan dishes. It also boasts a cocktail bar that crafts unique drinks with house-made syrups inspired by traditional Afghan spices. The menu is 100% halal.
Came here with high expectations due to the amazing reviews. Also came excited to try Afghani food for the first time. Our waiter, “Matty” was wonderful and helped us navigate the menu. We did have a bad experience with the food runner who was rude and left a sour taste. Fortunately, both our waiter and management were very kind and receptive to this incident. As for the food itself, it was good, but didn’t quite live up to the expectation set by the reviews. The starter plate was interesting but a bit dry. The shrimp dumplings weren’t particularly special. The lentil soup was amazing, however. The lamb chops were a bit overcooked and not incredibly flavorful. The eggplant, surprisingly, was really good. Overall, this is a good restaurant with good service and management that is worth a stop, but not on my must go list in DC.
Great vibe. Great food. Great service. We were there for an Adams Morgan PorchFest pregame and breakfast. Mimosas! Everything was wonderful with one caveat. The steak was over cooked. Very flavorful but certainly well-done. Made it less good.
I’ve also included a photo of Henry because you’ll all want to see him.
Everything was amazing! I especially enjoyed their lamb shank, so tender and juicy, perfect with the rice. The dumpling felt like a signature of theirs, and the sauce was really good. Fish of the day was cooked well but felt a bit pricey compared to their other items.
Parking can be hard to find, I went during weekday lunch hours but had to drive around the neighbour to find a street parking.
What do you do about a restaurant with amazing food and bad service? I recently visited with a party of 11 and despite the fact that there were four waiters walking around the floor downstairs in the basement, it seemed like nothing was really getting done. Water bottles and cups sat empty for most of the meal. It took me 15 minutes to get a cup of Sprite, and then another 15 minutes after I asked to get a refill. We were celebrating a birthday and they tried to charge us more than $4 per person in the party to eat a cake that we had brought despite making a reservation and mentioning it was a birthday and no such fee being announced previously. We talked to the manager and she wasn't willing to budge, despite the fact that we ended up spending over $500 in total without the cake. Not to mention her tone was dismissive and condescending.
Despite all this, the food is amazing, if pricey. It's spicy, it's tasty, it's very very good. I just don't know if it's worth the price and worth dealing with this level of service.
While I love a family owned business, Lapis was underwhelming for me.
Start with the good:
Doogh Punch: 5/5 best mezcal drink! Smooth, well balanced.
Atmosphere: relaxed, warm! Love the photos on the walls giving that family vibe. Candle lit as the sun went down. Nice vibe.
Meh:
Shrimp dumplings: 3/5 shrimp in a dumpling. No flavors stood out even with the sauce.
Beet salad: 3.5/5 this was an arugula salad with maybe half a beet cut up on top. The description of ingredients were flakes of toppings. I had to request more beets as there were few. I could have had more nuts and cheese, but I just wasn’t in the mood to really complain.
Chopawn: 3/5 lamb chops, tender but lacking flavor. “Picked” salad on top, not pickled. Just cut up onions and peppers with sumac.
Buranee Kadoo: 3/5 also ok. The garlic sour cream sauce needed more tang.
