D.C.’s Greatest Eating places – The New York Instances

Within the The place to Eat: 25 Greatest collection, we’re highlighting our favourite eating places in cities throughout the US. These lists will probably be up to date as eating places shut and open, and as we discover new gems to advocate. As all the time, we pay for all of our meals and don’t settle for free dishes.

Riverdale Park | Barbecue, Salvadoran

As at any good barbecue restaurant, the odor of wooden smoke declares 2Fifty Barbecue earlier than you enter the doorways to the informal eating room. The house owners, Debby Portillo and Fernando González, moved from El Salvador to Maryland with a customized smoker in 2018, promoting plates of barbecue at farmers’ markets earlier than opening this location and one in Washington, D.C., correct. Followers order forward for plates of tangy, South American-inflected Texas barbecue that usually sells out earlier than the day is thru. Don’t miss the tender prime brisket, smoky ribs or rooster quarters, all with a facet of craveable macaroni and cheese. It’s an ideal unfold to take to close by Riverdale Park on a pleasant day. KORSHA WILSON

4700 Riverdale Street, Riverdale Park, Md.; 240-764-8763; 2fiftybbq.com

Navy Yard | Mediterranean, Center Jap

Albi, which suggests “heart” in Arabic, is the chef Michael Rafidi’s love letter to the meals of his Palestinian American childhood. The kitchen is dominated by a coal-fire fireside, which sends aromatic wafts of smoke out to the eating room alongside Mr. Rafidi’s impressed takes on Levantine classics comparable to hummus (topped with crab and charred ramps), kebabs (skewered morsels of date-glazed duck and foie gras) and grape leaves (full of rockfish, inexperienced tomato and preserved lemon). The fervour of the place can be on show within the wine record. Filled with traditional gems and deep cuts from all around the world (with specific emphasis on the Center East), the charming wine record has sections, like “#Unapologeticallyclassicwhitewines,” and “‘Donnie Darko’ Reds,” that make even the most important wine snobs crack a smile. MELISSA CLARK

1346 Fourth St. SE, Washington, D.C.; 202-921-9592; albidc.com

Petworth | African Diasporic

Constructed round a conceptual, extremely private menu, Almeda has simply 18 seats. If that seems like numerous eating places in D.C., assume once more. The chef and proprietor Danielle Harris channels the cooking of the African diaspora in a singular, intimate neighborhood restaurant the place you possibly can moderately think about changing into an everyday. Go along with an urge for food to pattern the complete menu, together with tostone doubles, shrimp aguachile seasoned with Previous Bay, jollof risotto and the entire rooster, which is smoked, roasted after which fried. They’re dishes you’ll recall when it’s consolation you crave. BRETT ANDERSON

828 Upshur Road NW, Washington, D.C.; no cellphone; almedarestaurant.com

Mount Vernon Sq. | Thai

If there may be ever a silver lining to a restaurant closing, as 14th Road’s beloved Baan Thai did in 2019, it’s the probability that it would in the future return in a brisker however acquainted kind. Enter Baan Siam, a pandemic child now approaching its fourth birthday. Don’t hassle flipping by way of the chef Jeeraporn Poksupthong’s multi-page menu in quest of pad kee mao or pad see ew — you received’t discover them right here. As a substitute, revel within the Northern Thai dishes she constructed a following round at her outdated Logan Circle spot and now expertly prepares within the sprawling kitchen of her Mount Vernon Sq. restaurant, just like the exemplary khao soi, a curry within the brightest shade of marigold, teeming with fall-of-the-bone rooster and topped with a Medusa-esque tangle or fried egg noodles. These looking for the stability of candy, bitter and fiery flavors that may be a hallmark of Thai cooking will discover it ample in dishes just like the inexperienced mango salad strewed with peanuts and a sprightly salad of fried lotus root and plump grilled shrimp. TANYA SICHYNSKY

425 I Road NW, Washington, D.C.; 202-588-5889; baansiamdc.com

You possibly can add Bostan’s rooster and lamb skewers to the record of nice kebabs on the market: juicy, hot-from-the-coals, heady with cumin. However what makes these kebabs really particular is every little thing you order to go together with them, dishes like saozi, supple flat noodles in a tart, red-tinted broth; rangpiza, a chilly noodle dish sparked with chili oil; and the beef-and-onion stuffed flatbread known as goshan. The house owners, Mirzat Salam and Zulhayat Omer, began serving conventional Uyghur delicacies on this Arlington, Va., strip-mall after coming to the US in 2019, the place they finally joined the waves of immigrants fleeing battle and persecution granted asylum in Northern Virginia over the a long time. Bostan is one among a handful of Uyghur eating places within the space; a second location opened in Herndon late final 12 months. BRETT ANDERSON

3911 Langston Boulevard, Arlington, Va.; 703-527-2026; bostanuyghurcuisine.com

14th Road Hall| Bistro

Bresca, the chef and proprietor Ryan Ratino’s tribute to Parisian neo-bistros, is the uncommon restaurant the place avant-garde, technique-heavy dishes are approachable and enjoyable. Slices of kanpachi crudo are fanned in a semicircle like a perpetual Tilt-a-Whirl, whereas an amuse bouche that resembles a complete black truffle is definitely a charcoal-dusted gougère full of truffle-scented Mornay sauce. Even the cocktails present up in whimsical vessels just like the Bee’s Knees served in a glass bee adorned with a recent sprig of child’s breath. Diners can order à la carte or from a prix fixe menu — or go all out and splurge on a tasting menu at Jônt, Bresca’s spendy upstairs sibling. KORSHA WILSON

1906 14th Road NW, Washington, D.C.; 202-518-7926; brescadc.com

Rubén García was a longtime high lieutenant of the Spanish American chef José Andrés, the individual most answerable for bringing prime quality tapas and Spanish-influenced molecular gastronomy to the Washington space. Casa Teresa, the primary restaurant Mr. García opened after putting out on his personal final 12 months, raises the bar but once more. The menu is crammed primarily with conventional Spanish dishes, however they’re handled with a stage of technical proficiency and whimsy not usually afforded pa amb tomàquet, croquetas de jamón or Basque cheesecake. This cooking will make you fall in love with Spanish meals over again. Take time to peruse the wine director Sarah Vanags’s Spanish drinks choice, which focuses on girls winemakers. BRETT ANDERSON

919 nineteenth Road NW, Washington, D.C.; 202-856-7979; teresadc.com

Silver Spring | Mid Atlantic

Open since 1945 on Georgia Avenue, Crisfield is a grasp class in no-frills Mid Atlantic dishes like seafood bisque, broiled fish platters and crab desserts with no filler. The inside of the restaurant hasn’t modified a lot through the years, however the neighborhood round it has, making a go to really feel like stepping again in time, the place this model of eating was the norm for the realm. It’s an ideal vacation spot for a platter of fried seafood with juicy, frivolously battered shrimp, scallops and perch. KORSHA WILSON

8012 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, Md; 301-589-1306; facebook.com/crisfieldseafoodrestaurant/

Falls Church | New American

Yuan and Carey Tang, the husband and spouse staff behind Ellie Chook, reduce their tooth working in fine-dining eating places in Washington, D.C., the place they opened their critically acclaimed tasting-menu restaurant Rooster & Owl. Their second challenge, within the prosperous bed room group of Falls Church, the place the couple grew up, is decidedly homier. There, they’re proving that suburbanites are as hungry for imaginative cooking as any metropolis denizen. Assume Vietnamese French onion soup with braised oxtail, cacio e pepe crossed with elotes, and fried oyster larb gai. It’s nicely well worth the quick journey outdoors the District. NIKITA RICHARDSON

125 Founder’s Avenue, Falls Church, Va.; 703-454-8894; elliebirdva.com

H Road Hall | Ethiopian

D.C. has lengthy had an abundance of Ethiopian eating places — and everybody has their favourite — however Ethiopic on a bustling part of H Road is likely one of the most trendy examples of simply how a lot Ethiopian delicacies is a key a part of native eating. The house owners Samuel Ergete and Meseret Bekele opened the shiny eating room in 2010 and it has since develop into a staple within the space, a spot to fulfill pals for a meal of classics like doro wat, tibs and timatim salad on springy, tangy injera bread, alongside glasses of honey wine. KORSHA WILSON

401 H Road NE, Washington D.C.; 202-675-2066; ethiopicrestaurant.com

Rockville | Filipino

Kuya Ja’s specialty is in its identify: pork stomach that condenses the attraction of Filipino-style entire roast pig right into a rolled roast redolent of lemongrass and garlic, with pores and skin too crisp to interrupt with only one whack of your fork. The pork stomach is accessible with atchara (principally spicy Filipino papaya kraut, in case you’re unfamiliar) in a sandwich, on a mattress of rice or together with one other of the co-owner and chef Javier Fernandez’s meats, which you shouldn’t ignore. The lechon could also be what first introduced crowds to Kuya Ja’s, however there are lots extra causes to trek to this fast-casual strip mall storefront in suburban Maryland, together with desserts from Gwenie’s Pastries, run by Stella Fernandez, Mr. Fernandez’s sister. BRETT ANDERSON

5268-H Nicholson Lane, Rockville, Md.; 240-669-4383; kuyajas.com

This homey Afghan restaurant is greater than only a good spot to eat tender beef kofta stewed with root greens and flatbreads full of onions and leeks spiked with cilantro, it’s additionally a style of residence for the chef Shamim Popal. Ms. Popal fled Afghanistan and got here to Washington, D.C., in 1987. Right here, she is making the dishes she remembers from her upbringing. The Popal household additionally function the wonderful Lutèce in Georgetown and the brand new Pascual on Capitol Hill, however Lapis appears like their household residence. KORSHA WILSON

1847 Columbia Street NW, Washington D.C.; 202-299-9630; lapisdc.com

H Road Hall | Cambodian, Taiwanese

Coming into the glossy house at Maketto presents a little bit of a choose-your-own-adventure: the eating can function an all-day cafe, an amazing choice for group dinners or enterprise lunches, and single diners typically even open their laptops to work whereas having fun with a espresso. On heat evenings, the again patio appears like a cocktail party. The menu presents scrumptious and stunning mash-ups of Cambodian and Taiwanese cuisines like Gruyère dumplings with hearty Chinese language chili, wok-charred lo mein noodles with roasted pork and satisfying baos. KORSHA WILSON

1351 H Road NE, Washington, D.C.; 202-838-9972; maketto1351.com

Fairfax | Chinese language

Peter Chang is likely one of the area’s most celebrated chef-restaurateurs. Mama Chang is a testomony to the truth that he didn’t obtain this standing alone. The menu pays tribute to Mr. Chang’s principal sources of assist and inspiration: Ronger Wang, his mom, and Lisa Chang, his spouse and enterprise accomplice, who can be an completed chef. Since opening in 2019, the restaurant has launched dishes, many impressed by the house cooking of Mr. Chang’s native Hubei province, which have gone onto the menus on the Chang household’s 16 different eating places within the space. Standouts embody fish ball and lamb soup, lychee pepper rooster and a stew full of candy potato noodles, bitter cabbage and pork. Consuming this dazzling meals at this elegant Northern Virginia restaurant, lined with snug cubicles and blond wooden surfaces, appears like an event. BRETT ANDERSON

3251 Blenheim Boulevard, Suite 101, Fairfax, Va.; 703-268-5556; mamachangva.com

Shaw | Latin American, Vegan, Tasting Menu

In Mita’s hushed, gray-hued eating room, warmly accented in tonal browns, the Latin American, vegetable-based delicacies of Miguel Guerra and Tatiana Mora arrives in neon bursts, with daring flavors to match. Orbs of vibrant watermelon kind a jewel-toned mosaic with fermented carrots and cilantro; marinated orange-fleshed squash and a ruffle of crispy kale are liberally however rigorously drizzled with pungent mole. For dessert, a cherry blossom-themed confection in dazzling pink jubilantly mixes rhubarb with strawberry and yuzu. When you’re vegan-curious and even vegan-resistant, Mita’s tasting menu will win you over. That is plant-based delicacies in fireworks mode: playful, incandescent and immediately interesting. MELISSA CLARK

804 V Road NW, Washington, D.C.; 202-929-7792; mitadc.com

Shaw | Tasting Menu

Many eating places take sustainability severely, however few are as rigorous as Oyster Oyster. The chef Rob Rubba’s ever-changing, hyperlocal tasting menu celebrates each fungi and bivalves, exemplars of sustainable foodways that in his fingers are additionally totally scrumptious. Mushrooms play the larger position, whether or not roasted and topped with verdant spring onions or simmered in a dusky, woodsy stew thickened with potatoes. Oysters, which get a go on an in any other case plant-based menu since their cultivation is helpful to the ocean, typically seem coyly, hidden below gossamer sheets of radish with herb oil, and different instances overtly, layered with watermelon and crunchy peanuts. Even the candle holders are crafted from recuperated oyster shells, and no matter is left in your water glass goes to grateful crops, like a tip for nature itself. MELISSA CLARK

1440 Eighth Road NW, Washington, D.C.; no cellphone; oysteroysterdc.com

Capitol Hill | New American, World, Tasting Menu

You would possibly groan on the electronic mail reminding you that there’s no costume code however “most people dress fancy” a number of days earlier than your reservation at Pineapple & Pearls. However upon getting into the velvety, chandeliered eating room, you perceive that the foundations aren’t to dampen the enjoyable, however to boost it. When you’re seated, the night is a celebratory, all-out affair the place caviar flows freely and a parade of dishes combine and match influences from all around the globe. French bouillabaisse meets Brazilian moqueca in a course that includes lobster and a wealthy fish broth. A pasta course impressed by Cheez-Its is deliciously punchy (severely), and a sundae dessert course comes with caviar and gummy bears organized like multicolored troopers. It’s dizzying and enjoyable, and like every good occasion, ends with a parting present: a Wagyu cheeseburger to assist nurse your hangover. KORSHA WILSON

715 Eighth Road SE, Washington, D.C.; 202-595-7375; pineappleandpearls.com

Rockville, Md. | Salvadoran

Salvadoran meals is tightly knit into the material of the native tradition. Elsy Claros — whose mom, Emilia Cruz Lopez, ran a pupuseria in El Salvador — performed a task in spreading the delicacies throughout the metro space, with the pupuserias she opened together with her sisters. Mamá Emilia ups the ante. Ms. Claros opened the restaurant with the assistance of her daughter, Ericka, in 2022. There are conventional pupusas, oozing cheese, frijoles and chicharrón. However there are additionally pupusas with fillings that embody shrimp, mint and kale. There are practically 30 totally different types, all served scorching and freshly blistered, beginning at breakfast, whenever you’d be nicely served ordering the signature merchandise with eggs, in a pink sauce that rivals one of the best enchilada gravy. BRETT ANDERSON

785 Rockville Pike, Suite H, Rockville, Md. 20852; 301-605-7063; facebook.com/PupuseriaMamaEmilia/

Penn Quarter and West Finish | Indian

Numerous eating places are worse for put on after practically 20 years in enterprise, however Rasika, chef Vikram Sunderam’s, game-changing, fine-dining Indian restaurant that opened in 2005, nonetheless purrs with a full eating room most nights. Devotees of Mr. Sunderam’s cooking go to the West Finish location or the unique in Penn Quarter close to the Nationwide Mall for crispy fried spinach with candy yogurt within the palak chaat or the buttery black cod (that are each traditional D.C. dishes at this level), however the collection of naans and meat dishes just like the chile-heavy lamb roganjosh are additionally spectacular. KORSHA WILSON

633 D Road NW; 202-637-1222; and 1190 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.; 202-466-2500; rasikarestaurant.com

Adams Morgan| Italian American

Maybe you’re a type of individuals who believes an city neighborhood is incomplete and not using a up to date Italian American trattoria the place the meals is phenomenal however the setting and costs (no less than by present big-city requirements) make it appropriate for all events. Reveler’s Hour serves this position in Adams Morgan. The regularly altering menu is full of pleasantly acquainted, subtly erudite dishes. There’s a Caesar salad, although it could possibly be made with escarole or kohlrabi, and in case you go hungry for rooster, hope that it’s fried and drizzled with saffron scorching honey. The ricotta cavatelli Bolognese arrives with a wholesome shaving of two-year aged Parmesan, whereas the caramelized onion-Gruyère arancini is accompanied with the sensible suggestion to pair it with amontillado sherry. That is meals worthy of admiration, however humble sufficient to recede into the background of an evening to recollect. BRETT ANDERSON

1775 Columbia Street NW, Washington, D.C.; no cellphone; revelershour.com

U Road | Fashionable Caribbean

Close to the nightlife of the U Road hall, this fashionable restaurant is proof of a youthful, newer D.C. eating crowd that desires easygoing and scrumptious. The menu performs the hits of Trinidadian delicacies with dishes like tender roti, dense cassava dumplings, spiced aloo and chaat pies with barely candy fried bread, but in addition presents trendy takes on Caribbean elements like the fragile and evergreen-colored callaloo soup garnished with lump crab meat. The environment is enjoyable and repair is pleasant making it an amazing spot to get pleasure from pleased hour or an informal dinner. KORSHA WILSON

2017 14th Road NW, Washington, D.C.; 202-695-8620; stjames-dc.com

Shaw | Mid Atlantic, Tasting Menu

Mid Atlantic delicacies sits on the intersection of the North and South, drawing on elements from the Chesapeake Bay and recipes created alongside its huge watershed. Jeremiah Langhorne, the chef and co-owner of the Dabney, provides this regional model of cooking the tasting menu therapy. The outcomes — pork crépinette in a mustard inexperienced casing, bluefin tartar wrapped in nasturtium leaves, aged tilefish served in a hail of pumpernickel crumbs and benne seeds — are playfully inventive, however earthier of their attraction than what’s discovered at different high-priced choices permeating D.C. It’s additionally arduous to not be entranced on this transporting eating room within the Blagden Alley historic district, dominated by the open kitchen’s blazing fireside. BRETT ANDERSON

122 Blagden Alley NW, Washington, D.C.; 202-240-2660; thedabney.com

Capitol Hill | New American

Opened in 2020, the Duck and the Peach’s sparse eating room within the shadow of Jap Market calls consideration to the star of the present (and the menu): a big, spinning rotisserie that looms within the open kitchen. The proprietor, Hollis Wells Silverman, and the chef, Katarina Petonito, serve wonderful dishes utilizing seasonal native produce, turning it into easy dishes with California influences. Tilefish is roasted and served with asparagus and a cream sauce, lemon risotto is topped with grilled native child onions and the namesake dish, the rotisserie duck is showered with dressed native greens. It’s a contemporary tackle Mid Atlantic delicacies that reveals how a lot the area has to supply past its storied seafood. KORSHA WILSON

300 Seventh Road SE, Washington, D.C.; 202-431-1913; duckandpeachdc.com

Columbia Heights | Laotian

Seng Luangrath spurred a D.C. renaissance within the natural, funky, typically spicy cooking of her native Laos when she opened Thip Khao in 2014. The stylishly informal cafe struck a chord with dishes like nam khao, a crispy coconut-rice salad with fermented pork, the marginally candy beef jerky known as sin, and pink goat curry well-known for its furnace-blast warmth. The cocktails, which additionally draw on Laotian elements, are alone price a go to, however they’re additionally neatly designed to enrich the meals. Ms. Luangrath has opened plenty of well-liked Lao eating places within the metro space, together with two areas of Padaek in Northern Virginia, each price looking for out. BRETT ANDERSON

3462 14th Road NW, Washington, D.C.; 202-387-5426; thipkhao.com

Rockville | Levantine

The crust of Z&Z’s traditional manoushe, coated in a forest inexperienced slick of olive oil and za’atar, is each tantalizingly chewy and totally crisp, from the sting to the tip of every triangle-cut slice. If the standard and complexity brings to thoughts artisan pizza, you’re not alone. Whereas the house owners, Danny and Johnny Dubbaneh, are fast to level out Levantine flatbreads predate pizza, the brothers’ family-run enterprise does function a bit of like a pizzeria, with the numerous variations on its signature merchandise — don’t miss the manoushe topped with tomatoes, cucumbers and toum — ordered to-go in cardboard takeout packing containers. The comfy, four-table bakery is a step up from Z&Z’s farmers’ market beginnings, but it surely nonetheless belies the regional demand the Dubbanehs have helped to create for manoushe, with Z&Z merchandise now obtainable in grocery shops throughout the Mid Atlantic. BRETT ANDERSON

1111 Nelson Road, Rockville, Md., 301-296-4178; zandzdc.com