White House correspondents’ dinner weekend: top five parties, by food

Waffles and caviar for breakfast, fish and chips for dinner. The Guardian's reviewer digests a social week in Washington

The annual White House correspondents' dinner in Washington is ostensibly about the dinner poking fun at the president. But like the Oscars, or the Met Gala, it's also about the parties.

But how to decide which parties to attend and which ones to skip? Every day of the White House correspondents' dinner weekend is now inundated with competing events.

The rules were as follows: two food options were chosen at random at each party, and given a score out of 10 based on taste and execution. The parties reviewed were cocktail parties only; sit-down dinners were not included. Where the primary reviewer could not attend, a secondary reviewer sent notes. The final list was submitted to a three-judge appeals panel" made up of longtime MSNBC contributors, though the ranking could only be overturned in the event of plain error by the reviewer. The rankings were not overturned.

Events not reviewed: Washington Women in Journalism awards ceremony, White House Foreign Press-Meridien party, WME-Puck party, Washingtonian/embassy of Qatar soiree, Politics and Inclusion dinner, Washington AI Network-TGI Friday lunch, Substack New Media party.