The Best Seafood in Washington

Nautical decor that stops short of kitsch anchors this seafood restaurant on the Southwest waterfront, where the patio looks straight out over the marina. The menu pulls from Chesapeake waters and a D.C. urban fish farm, so northern puffer fish arrives whole and crispy fried, and a Maryland crab crumpet nods to the place's Scottish sister spot. Save room for the Virginia peanut tiramisu, which sounds like a dare and tastes like a good idea.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant
2. Washingtonian #77 · 100 Very Best Restaurants
3. Eater Design of the Year · The 2025 Eater DC Award Winners

A working fish market and smoker occupy the ground floor of this warehouse-style seafood smokehouse, with a tavern dining room and open-air rooftop sitting above it all. The fish comes in fresh, gets smoked on-site, and ends up on your plate with the staff making the whole operation feel relaxed. Live music turns up occasionally. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and the crowd tends to be cheerfully unpretentious about it.

1. Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand

1. The Rammys Finalist · Upscale Casual Restaurant of the Year

1. AAA Three Diamonds

1. AAA Three Diamonds

Part fish market, part seafood restaurant, BlackSalt sits in a quiet MacArthur Boulevard corner and does more with both halves than most places do with one. The menu pulls from coasts and continents without losing focus, and the shellfish in particular tends to stop conversation. A Provençal stew arrives fragrant with saffron and stocked with whatever the market yielded that morning. The key lime pie, finished with blueberry compote and whipped cream, is a genuinely strange idea that works.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

A terrace right on the Potomac makes the room hard to argue with, and regulars who know this book outside before anyone else gets the idea. This is an upscale Italian seafood restaurant where the kitchen takes raw ingredient quality seriously and the service runs like a tight ship. Lunch keeps the bill from getting too philosophical. Chef Matteo Limoli turns out dishes like a liquid cacio e pepe that has no business working as well as it does.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. AAA Approved