King of Koshary, the Egyptian restaurant that has served up bowls of rice, pasta, chickpeas, lentils and fried onion on Wilson Boulevard since 2019, has temporarily closed its doors for renovations. The Bluemont neighborhood spot says it plans to reopen on Nov. 20, 2026, framing the shutdown as a pause rather than a permanent goodbye.
The closure was confirmed per the restaurant's own website, according to ARLnow, which first reported the news. King of Koshary sits at 5515 Wilson Blvd., a parcel it shares with one other restaurant, and the site notes the reopening date is also attributed to the restaurant's website. The eatery has described the move as a pause rather than a goodbye, and said it was built to bring Egyptian flavors to Arlington.
King of Koshary announced the temporary closure in a Facebook post last month, per the same ARLnow report. In the meantime, the restaurant has encouraged customers to try Fava Pot, which has locations near Falls Church, in McLean and in Dupont Circle, while they wait for the Wilson Boulevard storefront to reopen.
A Parcel With a Documented Water Leak
County records reported an active water leak in a kitchen on the same parcel roughly two weeks before the September announcement, the same report notes. Those records also noted that the leak raised concern about the condition and safety of the premises, per county records cited in the ARLnow story.
King of Koshary opened in 2019 in the former home of House of Mandi, a Mediterranean restaurant that previously occupied the Wilson Boulevard space, the station's report notes. The business describes itself as family-run, serving traditional Egyptian and Middle Eastern cuisine, according to its own site, kingofkoshary.com, which says it was established in 2019 in the heart of Arlington, Virginia.
A Dish That Won Over Critics
The restaurant's signature dish, koshary, is a carb-heavy bowl that layers elbow pasta, vermicelli, black lentils, white rice, chickpeas and fried onions, bound together with a slow-cooked tomato sauce carrying hints of garlic and cumin, according to a 2023 review in The Washington Post. That review, written by Tim Carman, declared that King of Koshary serves some of the Washington area's best Egyptian food.
The restaurant also drew praise from Northern Virginia Magazine, whose reviewer Alice Levitt wrote of the owner, “Owner Ayob Mentry deserves the title, indeed,” in a piece for Northern Virginia Magazine. Between the Post's rave and the magazine's glowing write-up, King of Koshary has built a reputation as a well-reviewed destination on Wilson Boulevard over its seven years in business.
For now, Bluemont regulars will have to look elsewhere for their koshary fix. The restaurant's own messaging frames the closure as temporary, with a specific date on the calendar rather than an open-ended shutdown, and it has pointed loyal customers toward Fava Pot's three locations in the interim.
