This 12 months, DC was busy with celeb chef arrivals (Nancy Silverton! Kwame Onwuachi!), New York exports (Pastis! Minetta Tavern!), and native expansions—principally, locations from restaurant teams who can afford the hire. That mentioned, this was nonetheless a fairly thrilling 12 months for the eating scene. Listed below are the ten openings we’ve been most enthusiastic about.
1010 New Hampshire Ave., NW
Philadelphia restaurateur Ellen Yin, who received the 2023 James Beard award for Excellent Restaurateur, opened this jewel field of a restaurant inside a West Finish resort this fall. The menu options the identical global-pantry sensibility as its beloved Philly sibling (sorghum right here, salsa verde there). It’s a dreamy date spot, due to grazing-friendly share plates and an formidable wine and cocktail listing.
4747 Bethesda Ave., Bethesda
.
Bethesda, lengthy identified for teeming with just-okay eating places, lastly has an precise eating vacation spot. This swank Italian spot from Pink Hen/All Objective chef Mike Friedman seems ace spritzes, negronis, and soiled martinis with parm-stuffed olives. Then, we love grazing on plates like a chicory salad with Robiola French dressing; ricotta with honey and rosemary; or cockles with white wine and marsala. Ex-Kinship pastry chef Ann Specker’s desserts are worthwhile, too. Briefly, there’s loads right here that makes us comfortable, whilst we wait patiently for the lamb ribs to return again on the menu.
3054 Mount Nice St., NW
.
This ethereal Mount Nice eating room from Oliver Pastan and his father, 2 Amys proprietor Peter Pastan, is 2024’s most idiosyncratic opening. This isn’t a menu that goals to please a crowd, however in the event you’re right into a dinner that entails choosing at a number of little issues— anchovies with water-buffalo butter, bottarga with lemony salmoriglio, rabbit-liver parfait with pickled cherries—you’ll really feel proper at residence. There are a pair pizzas, too, they usually’re wonderful, as are desserts like creme caramel or a pairing of lemon and Sicilian almond sorbets.
1330 Maryland Ave., SW
.
In 2020, rising star chef Kwame Onwuachi closed his hit Wharf restaurant Kith and Kin and moved again to his native New York. This September, he returned to our metropolis a legit star, having launched Tatiana, the Lincoln Middle restaurant that the New York Occasions has topped #1 within the metropolis for the previous two years. Right here, Onwuachi’s Afro-Caribbean eating room is darkly lit, attractive, and the form of place you gown up for. It’s fairly not possible to get into, however make it previous the curtain of gold chains on the entrance, and there are wealthy rewards. Buttery blue crab is served in its shell alongside tiny plantain hoecakes and a terrific inexperienced sauce impressed by DC’s Peruvian hen joints. Charbroiled oysters arrive with a pink stew jam you’ll need to hold round for the entire meal. That is among the most thrilling, scrumptious meals we’ve eaten all 12 months.
417 Morse St., NE
Was there a warmer eating neighborhood that Union Market this 12 months? Or an area chef with extra momentum than Michael Rafidi? He not solely took residence the Excellent Chef award at this 12 months’s James Beards, however he opened two new locations close to the Northeast DC meals corridor. Yellow is an expanded model of his hit cafe in Georgetown, however we’re most enthusiastic about La’ Shukran, the alluring restaurant/lounge that sits upstairs. Rafidi is greatest generally known as the chef/proprietor of Albi, the Levantine eating room in Navy Yard. However earlier in his profession he spent years overseeing the French Michael Mina restaurant RN74 in San Francisco (and later, the short-lived Mike Isabella restaurant Requin on the Wharf). Right here, he faucets into that have, turning out escargot-topped hummus, fabulous steak kebabs au poivre, and fried quail with tahini ranch.
927 F St., NW
This 12 months’s first massive opening was really a reopening: Again in January, Kevin Tien resurrected his fashionable Vietnamese restaurant, which had beforehand been on the Wharf, in a smaller, chicer Penn Quarter area. Tien’s cooking is rooted in Vietnam, however borrows loads from the American south. The crab rangoon, topped with pepper jelly and served with scallion crackers, is among the greatest issues we ate this 12 months. Additionally of notice: scrumptious cocktails like a grimy martini reimagined with pho.
6641 Outdated Dominion Dr., McLean
David Guas, who has labored for many years as a pastry chef—together with at his personal Bayou Bakery in Courthouse—raises his (and McLean’s) sport at this packed suburban eating room. There’s Instagrammy decor in Palm Seashore colours, and dishes like crispy tuna croquetas with lime style like one thing you’d discover on a Key West trip. However a lot of the menu is extra rooted within the American south and in Guas’s native Louisiana. A skillet of buttery roasted oysters comes with loads of bread for sopping up the great things, and there’s a barely fancified tackle New Orleans barbecue shrimp.
732 Maryland Ave., NE
One of many largest delicacies traits of the previous couple years right here has been cheffy Mexican (Amparo Fondita, El Presidente, and Ometeo all arrived in 2023). Salsa macha in all places! We’re not complaining. However this Capitol Hill eating room from restaurant world it-couple Isabel Coss and Matt Conroy, who met whereas working at New York’s Empellon, stands above all of them. You’ve in all probability had 1,000,000 guacs, however there are none in DC pretty much as good as Pascual’s, with its palette of colourful accompaniments. The place is a boon for vegetarian diners—we’d come only for the chayote salad—whereas meat eaters can tear right into a large-format lamb neck barbacoa.
7056 Carroll Ave., Takoma Park
Up to now 12 months, Takoma Park’s Carroll Avenue has became fairly the meals vacation spot. I really like the cheffy sq. pies on the new Pink Hound pizzeria, however this breakfast-through-dinner spot earns the place on this listing for filling a void: nice burritos. San Pancho comes from the couple behind close by Cielo Rojo, the vegan-friendly Mexican cafe that just lately moved into a bigger area (additionally on Carroll Avenue). We head right here for burritos crammed with proteins like spicy shrimp, carne asada, and hen in mole sauce (order the “tremendous” model, which provides guac’, cheese, and bitter cream). Different nice perks: the zingy avocado salsa that comes alongside, plus margaritas and non-alcoholic drink choices like horchata and lemon/mint slushies.
1114 Ninth St., NW
DC’s status as a staid eating vacation spot is within the rear view mirror at this Shaw sandwich-and-cocktail bar. We adore it for its sense of caprice—take a look at the stained glass homage to Duke’s mayo—and likewise its affection for lowbrow nostalgia. The Chicky Pep No. 2 sandwich, a riff on hen parm, is completed with “OG breadstick” mud, whereas onion rings are flavored with Cool Ranch “pow-pow.” Cocktails nod to the ‘90s, with a lot improved variations of Midori coolers, Amaretto sours, and appletinis.
Govt Meals Editor/Critic
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was beforehand an editorial assistant at Leisure Weekly and a cook dinner in New York restaurant kitchens, and he or she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Schooling. She lives in Petworth.
