Speaking of long round trips, Slim and I have been to Saravana Palace five times in the last six or seven weeks. It's that good, though the gulab jamun isn't as good at dinnertime when they aren't loading up the buffet with fresh ones.
We also made it out to Grill from Ipanema in Adams-Morgan; decent Brazilian food, but fairly pricy (especially if one takes parking into account) for what it is. And no cheese-bread.