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CITY GUIDES | WASHINGTON, D.C.
The 18 Best Restaurants in Washington, D.C. Right Now
By Eric Barton | Jan. 17, 2026
AUTHOR BIO: Eric Barton is editor of The Adventurist and a freelance journalist who has reviewed restaurants for more than two decades. Email him here.
Every time I think I’ve nailed down the best restaurants in Washington, the city opens another one that demands a rewrite.
That’s just how D.C. works—ambitious, restless, and always serving something new worth chasing. We last updated this list in February, and after The Adventurist team descended on the city last week, we found a new favorite that wasn’t even on our list back then.
So whether you’re a local searching “best restaurants near me in DC” or just in town for a few nights, start here, with this list of the best Washington, D.C., restaurants. But don’t get too comfortable—this city doesn’t sit still.
Albi
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This Michelin-starred hearth in Navy Yard is where Middle Eastern tradition meets DC swank, like these coal-roasted mushrooms with black garlic and an oozy, decadent confit egg yolk. The kubaneh bread service – served with toum whipped into cloud-like submission – should be classified as emotional support carb.
Best for: A hearth-fired dinner in Navy Yard that starts with kubaneh bread service
Arrels
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Pepe Moncayo’s restaurant at the Arlo Hotel in Penn Quarter is an ode to Spain’s Catalan coast. A 14-seat counter frames his open kitchen theater. The arroz de pato – duck confit mingling with blood sausage and bomba rice – achieves paella nirvana, while cap i pota (veal stew) arrives under a veil of black truffle shavings. Moncayo’s tasting menus blur haute technique and grandma’s hearth, best enjoyed with pours from their sherry-focused wine list.
Best for: A Spanish tasting menu with a talented chef
Bar Cana
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D.C.’s best new cocktail den in Adams Morgan isn’t shy about its Latin roots – expect mezcal flights paired with banana leaf-wrapped canapés and a soundtrack heavy on Bad Bunny remixes. The house special involves clarified milk punch infused with tamarind and tajín. Trust me.
Best for: Late-night cocktails in Adams Morgan, especially when mezcal is the mood
Beth’s
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The Gulluoglu brothers (of ala fame) went full magpie in Bethesda – glammed-up hummus shares the stage with kimchi-topped fried chicken under a disco ball-lit ceiling. It’s the rare place where your book club and your college roommate’s bachelorette both feel equally at home.
Best for: A group dinner in Bethesda where hummus and fried chicken can share the same table
Centrolina
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Amy Brandwein’s James Beard-nominated pasta laboratory in CityCenter turns out cappellacci so delicate they should be insured by Lloyd’s. The market sells her signature nduja alongside truffle grinders – because every home needs a $200 spice apparatus, obviously.
Best for: Handmade pasta in CityCenter, plus a market stop that turns into impulse buys
Cranes
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At Cranes, chef Pepe Moncayo walks the tightrope between Japanese precision and Spanish exuberance—and somehow never loses balance. The menu reads like a dare: toro nigiri with Ibérico lardo, soba noodles with jamón broth, tempura made for wine, not beer. It’s part izakaya, part Barcelona wine bar, and completely its own thing.
Best for: A date-night menu that can’t decide between Japan and Spain and refuses to choose
Elena James
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Nina May’s younger, cooler sibling in Chevy Chase serves lamb za’atar pizza alongside short-rib lasagna in a sun-drenched space that’s equal parts neighborhood hang and culinary laboratory. Their “business meeting approved” cocktail list features a smoked old fashioned that’ll make your PowerPoints sparkle.
Best for: A Chevy Chase dinner that swings from lamb za’atar pizza to something richer like lasagna
The Inn at Little Washington
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Patrick O’Connell’s fantasyland look like Liberace’s hunting lodge, complete with staff who’ll crumb your table like it’s the Shroud of Turin. The service never misses, the always changing menu is decadent, and even though Michelin dropped it from three to two stars this year, it’s still one of the finest restaurants in the D.C. metro.
Best for: A once-a-year blowout meal that turns dinner into theater
Karizma
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Ajay Kumar’s restaurant in Chinatown is like two concepts in one: an a la carte menu from Karizma and then Karma, a chef's tasting menu with four, six, or nine courses with wine pairings. Whichever path you take, the dishes are explosions of flavors and ingredients that highlight what makes Indian food great. Example? The 37-ingredient Nirvana salad arrives like Jenga at a toddler party – servers theatrically dismantle the tower into a riot of textures that somehow includes both pomegranate molasses and edible silver leaf. It’s both delicious and an experience, just like dining at Karizma.
Best for: Indian food in Chinatown that can go à la carte or full tasting-menu commitment
L’Ardente
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L’Ardente is what happens when you give a Roman trattoria a glam makeover and send it out for cocktails with a fashion editor. The lasagna is a 40-layer architectural marvel, the pizza comes blistered and bougie, and the whole place glows like it’s lit for a magazine shoot. It’s Italian, yes—but unapologetically D.C., where the style is half the point. —Eric Barton
Best for: A big Italian night built around the forty-layer lasagna
Mallard
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At Mallard, chef Hamilton Johnson reimagines the Southern food he grew up with—less Sunday supper, more South Carolina on sabbatical in Paris. Think buttermilk biscuits with serious swagger, hushpuppies that flirt with fine dining, and a duck confit that could make your grandmother reconsider her gumbo. It’s Southern comfort, sure—but sharper, smarter, and unafraid to show off a little.
Best for: Modern Southern cooking when biscuits and hushpuppies are non-negotiable
Minetta Tavern DC
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Keith McNally’s Gotham institution landed in Union Market like a velvet glove slap – red banquettes, that infamous Black Label burger, and bartenders who’ll school you on proper Vesper construction. The upstairs Lucy Mercer lounge does things with champagne that should be illegal in three states.
Best for: A burger-and-martini dinner in a red-banquette room designed for lingering
MITA
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You’d be forgiven for thinking a restaurant this sleek, run by two Michelin-starred chefs, would lean into fine-dining theatrics. But MITA, from chefs Miguel Guerra and Tatiana Mora, is more interested in showing what happens when you let vegetables lead a Latin kitchen. There’s smoke and spice and a confidence that comes from a team that’s earned the accolades but doesn’t need to brag about them.
Best for: A vegetable-forward Latin tasting menu that still brings smoke, spice, and swagger
Moon Rabbit
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Moon Rabbit, now in downtown, serves the kind of meal that makes you stop mid-bite and reassess your priorities. The canh chua, roasted black cod, rests in a tomato-tamarind broth that managed to be both tart and comforting; like many things here, it tastes like a childhood memory re-engineered into fine dining that’s never fussy. And the fish sauce caramel with the avocado sorbet pictured above? It lands briny, sweet, and way more elegant than it has any right to be, just like Moon Rabbit.
Best for: A Vietnamese meal that lands briny, tart, and memorable in all the right ways
>>>READ OUR FULL REVIEW>>>
Osteria Mozza
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Nancy Silverton’s marble-clad temple to carbs in Georgetown (Michelin-starred, naturally) still serves DC’s best $28 plate of pasta – the orecchiette with fennel sausage pictured here that’ll make you want to slap your nonna. Pro tip: The bar pours obscure Italian amaros that’ll convert even the staunchest Aperol loyalists.
Best for: Georgetown pasta at the bar, with a deep-cut amaro as the closer
SOST
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This tri-level love letter to the African diaspora in the U Street Corridor will have you sipping Ethiopian spiced tea in the café before dancing between Berbere-spiced chicken and Nigerian suya skewers in the vinyl lounge. The soundtrack’s as curated as the menu – expect Fela Kuti remixes with your hibiscus gin fizz.
Best for: A night in U Street that moves from café tea to skewers to the vinyl lounge
Xiquet
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Danny Lledó’s Michelin-decorated paella palace in Glover Park proves Valencia’s flavors translate perfectly to our capital’s marble counters. The bomba rice crackles with soccarat magic, while avant-garde takes on horchata involve barrel-aged rums and cinnamon smoke. Spain never tasted so Beltway.
Best for: Paella with real socarrat and a reason to make a night of Glover Park
Yellow
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Michael Rafidi’s Levantine powerhouse in Union Market moonlights as a kebab speakeasy after dark. Daytime regulars swear by the ras el hanout croissants, but night owls know the real magic’s in harissa-glazed quail skewers paired with jaffa orange cold brew martinis.
Best for: Ras el hanout croissants by day and kebabs after dark in Union Market
Inside Arrels: Spanish Roots, Japanese Precision, Michelin Cred
Cranes earned a Michelin star just two years after opening, and now chef Pepe Moncayo's Arrels brings a more personal connection
