The Seven Corners area of Falls Church is best known for two things: the bustling Vietnamese enclave of Eden Center and a notoriously gnarled traffic pattern. The dining at Eden Center is its own delicious story, but if you can overlook the often-congested arterial scramble of Washington and Wilson boulevards, Route 50 and Route 7, the food in this neighborhood is worth the drive.
Hong Kong Pearl Seafood Restaurant
There’s plenty of space to get your dim sum fix at this popular spot for ex-pats. Even when there’s a line, the spacious dining room ensures that turnover is fast. The Cantonese small plates are offered until 3 p.m. daily, with limited options via carts and trays during the week and a full-blown bonanza on weekends. Rows of tanks and loads of plates featuring shrimp, crab, conch, lobster, scallop and flounder—as well as abalone, squid and other creatures, including frog—back up the name. Open until 2 a.m. daily. // 6286 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church
Mark’s Duck House
Mark’s, a Falls Church staple for 25 years, serves Hong Kong-style dim sum every day in addition to the namesake fowl. Tucked into Willston Centre, the restaurant sees lines forming early on the weekends when its dim sum carts increase in number. It’s worth a stop anytime to grab roast pork or duck, but the weekend’s expanded dumpling selection—from crabmeat to abalone and shrimp with bamboo—make the Saturday midmorning wait for a table worth your time. //6184 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church
El Catrin
It’s a great day when you can start things off with Pan Frances — bites of bread and eggs, beans and bacon — at El Catrin, which offers a wide mix of Bolivian, Peruvian, Mexican and Salvadoran dishes. Pupusas come stuffed with cheese and vegetables, beans, pork and chicken; tacos are heaped with beef tongue; and juicy Salvadorian fried chicken is served with rice and beans. Finish with a fresh banana or papaya shake. The TVs are tuned to soccer matches and the bar is stocked with Latin-American beer, drawing big crowds in the evening. // 2930 Patrick Henry Drive, Falls Church
Little Saigon Restaurant
The fact that this Vietnamese restaurant is located just down the street from dozens of competitors at Eden Center hasn’t mattered. This year it marks 25 years of white-tablecloth dining, and continues to be a destination for its 18 versions of pho (most of which feature beef or beef broth). The quiet atmosphere, doting staff and low prices keep customers loyal, and the enormous menu ensures surprises every time. Crab spring rolls, salt-and-pepper calamari and roast quail are standouts. // 6218 Wilson Blvd., Falls Church
Pistone’s Italian Inn
Roomy booths, live music in the lounge and an enormous menu have kept the locals coming back for 43 years. Chef-owner Telemaco “Telly” Bonaduce has been at the stove since 1990 turning out gigantic meatballs, lobster linguini (which is loaded with an entire crustacean-worth of meat), and fettucine with milk-fed veal ragu. Every dish is easily shared, and children are welcome. // 6320 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church
Sunflower Vegetarian
This vegetarian/vegan Pan-Asian restaurant is a haven for non-meat-eaters. The menu includes fish-free sushi, as well as rice and noodle dishes including udon and jinenjo soba, buckwheat noodles with Japanese wild yam. Vegi-ham, soy protein, vegi-chicken, seitan and yuba do stand-in duty for meat in many dishes, but the stars of the menu are pure vegetarian creations, including daikon cakes, vegetarian spring rolls and the “Eggplant Lover”—battered eggplant stuffed with cheese, sundried tomato and pesto. //6304 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church
Padaek
When chef-owner Seng Luangrath’s native Lao dishes started to become the main event at Bangkok Golden (which recently changed its name to Padaek), she leaned into it and added a Laotian menu alongside the Thai one. In late 2014, she opened D.C.’s first Laotian restaurant, the incendiary Thip Khao in Columbia Heights. You can still order pad Thai and panang curry at Padaek, but you’re missing out if you don’t also try the crispy rice salad and mok paa, fish brushed with Lao curry paste and steamed in banana leaves. //6395 Seven Corners Center, Falls Church
Fairfax Inn
Owner Solita Adler has been serving Filipino specialties alongside pancakes, Reubens and tuna melts for nearly a decade. The Fairfax Inn itself has been serving diners for 50 years, but today it is better known for Adler’s native dishes, including crisp lumpia, pancit noodles and homey arroz caldo, a gingery chicken stew. //2946 Sleepy Hollow Road, Falls Church