Kinilaw Na Hipon (Instagram)

The D.C. food scene has been getting a lot of love from Bon Appétit lately. Last week the magazine named D.C. its “restaurant city of the year.” Now the magazine has come out with its annual list of top 10 new restaurants, and Bad Saint, a Filipino restaurant helmed by Chef Tom Cunanan, made the number two spot.

Restaurant editor Andrew Knowlton called Bad Saint “the kind of place I spend all year searching for” and praised the “personal” menu by the Filipino-American chef that was borne of deep research into regional cuisine and lots of tinkering. He especially praised the ukoy—fritters made with shrimp, sweet potato and cilantro, dipped in a chile and vinegar sauce—calling the dish “as addictive as a Bloomin’ Onion but 50 times more delicious.” (Bon Appétit snagged a copy of the recipe, if you want to take a stab at it yourself.)

Bad Saint, which has already earned a lot of praise by locals and out-of-towners alike, said they were floored by earning a spot on the list:

our cheeks are flushed; our heads are spinning. we’re so honored to be in this year’s #BAhot10.

we’ve got a lot of gratitude.

many many thanks to our energetic, lovely guests; our friends and colleagues on the DC restaurant scene; and our neighbors on 11th street in columbia heights – for all of your graciousness and encouragement.

special thanks to our family and friends, our boosters and cheerleaders from our earliest days.

lastly, BIG UPS and BIG LOVE to the passionate, hard working Bad Saint crew and our chef, Tom Cunanan.

how lucky are we….to have the chance to pursue what we love so madly??

This is also a big moment not just for D.C.’s food scene, which has topped the magazine’s list before with Rose’s Luxury, but also Filipino cuisine, which has become more available than ever in the District.

The lines were already bad at Bad Saint—which only has 25 seats and doesn’t take reservations—but expect it to get even worse as out-of-towners make the trip up to 11th Street NW, too (and without Game of Thrones on the air, there’s no reprieve on Sunday nights).

If you haven’t gone yet, God help you. We warned you to get there as early as this fall: