The five best desserts in D.C. for people who don’t like sweets, from a Capitol Hill baker

In 2020, Jill Nguyen joined the hordes and made her first sourdough starter to keep busy during the pandemic. Unlike most of us, though, Nguyen quickly transformed this hobby into a full-blown obsession, and eventually, a booming business.

Today, you may know Nguyen as the owner of Capitol Jill Baking, a bakery run out of her house in Capitol Hill that sells upwards of 600 pastries, as well as over a hundred loaves of bread and roughly 50 slices of cake, every single week. It’s now her full-time job, and she’s hired two part-time bakers to help. 

Nguyen describes her business as a microbakery and cake workshop. Whereas the bread and pastries are more predictable in their production, “there is a bit more of studio experimentation and playing,” when it comes to cakes, she said. Recent innovations include a “caprese cake” (olive oil cake with tomato peach jam, whipped ricotta cream, and basil olive oil buttercream) for Hill East Burger’s tomato party and a mango passionfruit milk tea cake for a summer block party at Immigrant Food celebrating National Immigrant Heritage Month. 

While baking is a more recent development for Nguyen, she’s a lifelong foodie. She started cooking as a pre-teen in Hanoi, Vietnam, where she was born and lived until she moved to the U.S. as a high school student in 2008. Perhaps surprisingly for someone who now bakes cakes and pastries for a living, Nguyen has never been much of a sweets person. Having grown up cooking and eating Vietnamese food, with its savory flavors and crispy textures, “a lot of time [dessert] doesn't have enough salt or texture for me,” she said.

But there are a number of desserts in D.C. that Nguyen loves. Her perfect treats have a good crunch and chew, as well as savoriness and salt. “I feel like I'm forever chasing that ultimate umami perfection,” she said. Here are her five recommendations of desserts at D.C. restaurants for people who, like Nguyen, don’t love sweets – plus one bonus suggestion for another delicious, flavorful bite.

Honey semifreddo at Lutèce

1522 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, D.C. 20007

Nguyen believes that D.C. needs more fun, playful food — and French neobistro Lutèce’s honey semifreddo fits that bill. The dessert is made up of crispy caramelized honeycomb pieces and an airy semifreddo (a “cousin to ice cream”), with shaved 18-month-old Comté cheese on top. Like the rest of Lutèce’s menu, Nguyen says, the honey semifreddo is inspired by a French classic — in this case, a traditional cheese plate — and given new life with a modern, unique twist. “You got savory, salty; you got cold, fresh; you got crunchy, crispy, sweet — all in one bite,” she added.

Mango malai kulfi at Tapori 

600 H St NE, Washington, D.C. 20002

After you’re done eating your main course at this H Street restaurant inspired by the streetside eateries of India, Nguyen recommends getting Tapori’s mango malai kulfi. Kulfi is commonly known as Indian ice cream, but it’s pretty different from the American version of this dessert: it’s frozen, fragrant, and melts much slower. Plus, it’s served on a stick, so you can take it to-go. “It's so refreshing,” said Nguyen. “I can eat five.”

Tarta de queso at Casa Teresa

919 19th St NW, Washington, D.C. 20006

Nguyen first had Casa Teresa’s tarta de queso a few years back, and she said it was “just perfection.” It’s the Spanish restaurant’s version of a basque cheesecake, made with goat cheese and served with a walnut praline sauce. The goat cheese adds a little funk to the dessert, the sauce adds to the smoothness, and it’s not too warm or cold — an important factor for a treat like cheesecake. “A lot of dessert has to be served at the right temperature,” Nguyen said. “This little cheesecake was perfectly room temp.”

Cà Ri at Moon Rabbit

927 F St NW, Washington, D.C. 20004

This Vietnamese restaurant in Penn Quarter has what Nguyen calls an “excellent dessert program,” which isn’t a surprise, as Moon Rabbit’s pastry chef Susan Bae won a James Beard award this year for best pastry chef in the country. Nguyen’s go-to choice on the menu is their Cà Ri, an airy green curry sponge cake. The ingredients are unexpected — avocado sorbet and soursop mousse top the cake, served with a pool of fish sauce caramel — but the combination of the flavors makes it a perfect cake to Nguyen. “I'm a big fan of incorporating spices and flavors that are not typically associated with sweet into dessert,” she said.

Budino at Cucina Morini

901 4th St NW, Washington, D.C. 20001

When the weather gets colder, Nguyen craves Cucina Morini’s budino: a dark chocolate custard served with pistachio gelato, cocoa nib crumble, and candied orange. The custard is very smooth, says Nguyen, while the crumble and orange give the dessert a lot of texture. If you go to this Southern Italy-inspired restaurant in Mount Vernon Triangle, Nguyen’s tip is to order the budino and then ask the bartender to recommend an amaro (an herbal Italian liqueur) to go with it. “It just pairs so well with the chocolate,” she noted. 

Bonus rec: If you’re looking for a good appetizer to start a meal, Nguyen says to head over to Baan Mae in Shaw for their sakoo — tapioca dumplings filled with peanuts and preserved radish, served with a bit of red chili and cilantro. While it’s not a dessert, Nguyen almost treats it like one: she’s gotten in the habit of ordering an extra to go home with. “It just tastes to me like a different kind of mochi, with almost a ground nut mixture in the middle,” she said. “It's a little bit of like, ‘Ooh, sweet, sour, spicy.’”