WASHINGTON, D.C.
Where José Andrés Eats in D.C. When He’s Not Saving the World
By Eric Barton | June 7, 2025
AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and has reviewed restaurants for two decades. He splits his time between Miami and Asheville, N.C. Email him here.
After three decades in Washington, José Andrés has earned the kind of local status usually reserved for monuments and mascots.
His restaurants are scattered across the region like breadcrumbs leading to a better-fed society. But when he’s not manning the pass at Zaytinya or giving TED Talks about hurricane relief, Andrés is out eating—often in places that might surprise you.
Here’s where he actually goes when he’s in the D.C. area, in his own words and from public sightings, just in case you want to follow the breadcrumbs of the world’s most charitable chef.
Ben’s Chili Bowl
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Andrés is the unofficial ambassador of Spain’s culinary achievements, so perhaps you wouldn’t expect him to also appreciate a good old American hot dog. But Andrés has talked up this D.C. institution, which serves half-smoke dogs that just downright taste like this city. The original location on U Street feels like a museum to everyone who ever mattered here. Plus, where else can you sit next to a mural of President Obama while trying not to get mustard on your t-shirt?
Bethesda Crab House
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Andrés has waxed poetic about this no-frills crab shack, where brown paper tablecloths are the only formality. He once said there’s “nothing more comforting” than eating blue crabs on a hot summer day, which makes sense coming from a guy who’s never been shy about elbow-deep eating. If you’re picturing him in a bib and mallet, you’re probably right.
Casa Teresa
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Opened in the West End by longtime ThinkFoodGroup collaborator Rubén García, this is the closest thing D.C. has to Andrés’ childhood kitchen. The Spanish comfort food is the kind of stuff your abuela would make if she had a wood-fired oven and a sous vide circulator. Andrés has mentioned it as a go-to for family dinners, which is about as high a compliment as he gives.
Central Michel Richard
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This one flies under the radar, but Andrés has cited Central as a personal favorite, and you can see why. Michel Richard was one of the early modernizers of French cooking in D.C., and this place carries the torch with duck confit and gougères that make you feel like you’ve wandered into a Parisian embassy happy hour. It’s relaxed, but not careless.
The Crab Claw
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The Crab Claw has been serving steamed crabs and hush puppies since the Kennedy administration. Andrés has taken his daughters to this spot in St. Michaels, M.D., enough times that it reads more like tradition than a recommendation. The man likes a crab feast the way other dads like fantasy football. If he’s on the Eastern Shore, he’s probably here, claw cracker in hand.
El Cielo
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Colombian chef Juan Manuel Barrientos earned a Michelin star here for an experience that includes chocolate hand-washing and a literal tree on your plate. Andrés has praised the whole surreal show, and this is one of the few places that can pull this off without it all feeling like a gimmick. Maybe that’s why Andrés likes it—it’s theatrical, with real soul.
The Inn at Little Washington
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This is a place Andrés talks about like a child describing Disneyland. He calls it “magic,” which feels fitting for a place where your cheese cart gets its own escort. Patrick O’Connell’s three-star Michelin wonderland is where Andrés sends people when they ask where to go for a truly unforgettable meal—assuming they’re willing to drive past at least one llama farm to get there.
Maydan
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Andrés posted about Maydan not long after it opened, which might be the most D.C. version of an endorsement you can get. He doesn’t do it for the attention—he does it because Maydan’s fire-roasted meats and smoky flatbreads deserve it. It’s one of the few places in town where the open flame feels like the chef, not the tool.
Moon Rabbit
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Chef Kevin Tien’s modern Vietnamese spot in downtown D.C. made Andrés’ Michelin list of personal favorites, and it’s not hard to see why. The food is high-impact—charred cabbage with a sesame eggplant purée, a roasted black cod in a tomato-tamarind broth, and a three-day ferment sourdough with a creamy tofu taking the place of stracciatella. Simply designed with understated elegance, it’s the kind of spot Andrés could go without somebody trying to pitch him on a cookbook idea.
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Old Ebbitt Grill
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This is Washington's oldest saloon, and Andrés loves it not just for the food—though the crab cake is solid—but for the time-machine ambiance. “You can get lost in time here,” he said once, which sounds romantic until you realize he might just be talking about how long it takes to get a table during happy hour.
Oyster Oyster
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Chef Rob Rubba’s Michelin-starred ode to vegetables and sustainability might seem like an odd fit for a man who invented foie gras cotton candy. But Andrés has championed it, praising its “delicious optimism.” When a guy known for jamón ibérico raves about oyster mushrooms, you know the kitchen’s doing something right.
Reverie
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When Andrés calls a chef “a culinary force,” as he did with Johnny Spero, you pay attention. Reverie is a tasting-menu joint tucked in a side street so obscure you’d miss it if not for the map. Andrés shouted it out in the Michelin Guide and clearly respects that Spero cooks like he’s trying to prove something.
Waldorf Astoria
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Yes, Andrés has his own restaurant, The Bazaar, in the hotel, where he’s doing entirely unfiltered versions of his cooking: cotton candy foie gras, tableside liquid nitrogen, and beef cheeks that somehow reference both Eisenhower and molecular gastronomy. But he also talks about this Penn Quarter landmark as a place to hang, to soak in the grandeur. And I agree: this is Washington elegance as exemplified in arches and a bell tower and a glass-topped atrium that’s truly a marvel.
