🚀 go-pugleaf

Across the street in the Watergate is Les Champs: the food is good,
and "non-expensive" in my opinion: certainly no Four Seasons, and a
good bit cheaper than the rooftop restaurant in the Kennedy Center.
They have a range of things - semi-French in inspiration, as you can
guess from the name. A few ok wines by the glass (plus bar and wine by
the bottle, of course). And the service is usually quite good - a
combination of considerate and efficient (they're quite good at
getting you in and out in time for your curtain without rushing you
unnecesarily). It's certainly not close to being the best French
restaurant in town (for which my nomination is Yannick's, a place that
seems to get stunningly little publicity despite the history of its
chef and the overall quality of the restaurant), but it's an excellent
and reasonably priced compromise before a performance at the Kennedy
Center.

In the Kennedy Center itself, a possibility is to go to the rooftop,
and get a table in the bar/lounge area outside of the main restaurant.
They have a number of rather interesting, fairly generous sized and
not too expensive appetizer items, and two of those apiece will
usually make quite a satisfactory light dinner. Plus it tends to be
more efficient in time than the main restauarant, which in turn has
been quite good sometimes (and not quite good a few others); but it
sounds like the main room is more than you want to spend.

--Steve Anderson