The Best Places to Eat and Drink in Washington

Todd Thrasher makes his own tonic water, his own bitters, and his own roasted pineapple juice, which tells you almost everything about PX before you've touched the door. It's a cocktail bar in Old Town Alexandria running on a serious DIY ethic, the kind where the drink in front of you contains something nobody else thought to make from scratch. The room is small and unhurried, well ahead of the speakeasy moment before that moment existed.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

12 Stories is a rooftop cocktail bar on the twelfth floor at the Wharf, with a DJ, a dancehall and R&B soundtrack, and a view of the whole Potomac. The food is slider-and-truffle-fries territory, so eat beforehand and treat the menu as a courtesy. It's a place to debut a new outfit, with a gingery rum-pineapple Story Teller in hand and a dance floor that rewards commitment.

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants In The Wharf

1. Washingtonian Where to Eat Near the National Mall

A converted tourist kiosk steps from the Air and Space Museum that happens to be the only place on the National Mall where you can order a glass of wine with your pizza. The team behind Sonny's Pizza runs this casual counter, pouring natural wine, beer, and spritzes alongside grandma-style pan slices and focaccia sandwiches. Mornings lean espresso and pastries. The footnote writes itself: museum gift shops sell astronaut ice cream; this place sells Aperol spritzes.

1. Washingtonian Where to Eat Near the National Mall

This is the hotel lobby bar at the Pendry on the Wharf, all brass, espresso wood, and dim velvet, the sort of room where a Louis Vuitton-print jacket would blend right in. Hotel guests and the well-funded settle into the lounge with coffee-and-rum cocktails while complimentary nuts and olives arrive unprompted. Entrees exist, but most people stick to truffle fries and a charcuterie board. It's a nightcap spot.

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants In The Wharf

1. Eater Where to Eat and Drink on Capitol Hill

1. Eater Where to Eat and Drink on Capitol Hill

1. Eater Where to Eat and Drink on Capitol Hill

Cantina Bambina is a two-story bar on the Wharf where the main attraction is the sunset, which turns the whole room gold around 8pm in summer. Drinks run to beer, wine, and a vodka-strawberry lemonade, and the food is beef sticks, Moon Pies, and potato chips, so eat dinner first. It suits the stretch before a show at the Anthem across the street, or any sunny afternoon with nowhere to be.

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants In The Wharf

1. Washingtonian Where to Eat Near the National Mall

1. Washingtonian Where to Eat Near the National Mall

The noodles come from Sapporo, which tells you something about how seriously this ramen counter takes its business. Downstairs, bowls of springy, custom-made noodles arrive in a long-simmered broth, with a vegetarian version that holds its own against the pork. Upstairs flips into a Japanese tavern pouring sake and yuzu cocktails alongside a full menu of drinking snacks. Two moods, one address, zero bad options on either floor.

1. Washingtonian Where to Eat Near the National Mall

1. The Washington Post 9 of the best restaurants in Shaw

1. The Washington Post 9 of the best restaurants in Shaw

1. Eater Where to Eat and Drink on Capitol Hill

Ilili is a Lebanese dinner-and-brunch spot at the Wharf, where hanging vines, cages of light-up birds, and a trickling stone fountain make the dining room look like a very well-funded aviary. Hand-painted tiles cover the floor, and graduation parties and promotion dinners show up in their Sunday best. Skip the small plates for the mixed grill, a charred platter built for sharing.

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants In The Wharf

1. Eater Where to Eat and Drink on Capitol Hill

1. Eater Where to Eat and Drink on Capitol Hill

1. Eater Where to Eat and Drink on Capitol Hill

1. Eater Where to Eat and Drink on Capitol Hill

1. Eater Where to Eat and Drink on Capitol Hill

1. Eater Where to Eat and Drink on Capitol Hill

Officina is a multi-story Italian restaurant on the Wharf, and the second-floor dining room looks like a Campari ad, all art deco light fixtures and golden-green everything. The menu roams the whole country with a strong lean toward seafood, plus housemade pastas for when you want a linguine that stays on message. Upstairs, a plant-filled terrace gets a lovely view south and a less lovely one of the overpass north. Dress like you're in Milan.

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants In The Wharf

1. Washingtonian Where to Eat Near the National Mall

Pink Tiger is a Wharf cocktail bar and restaurant where everything arrives in some shade of rose, from the patio umbrellas to the drinks, which seem to have been color-matched to the walls. The menu wanders between Southeast Asian, American, and Mediterranean ideas, so go in with a loose itinerary. Expect a dressed-up, mildly flamingo crowd and a tab that matches the waterfront address.

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants In The Wharf

1. Washingtonian Where to Eat Near the National Mall

1. The Washington Post 9 of the best restaurants in Shaw

This is a small oyster bar with an outsized patio, parked a few steps from the Wharf's fish market, where the barge bobs and the air does some of the marketing. It's run by the oyster growers whose name is on the door, so the bivalves have a short commute. Weekday happy hour from 4 to 6 puts oysters at $2 and clams at $1.50, which tourists and locals both do the math on.

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants In The Wharf

1. Eater Where to Eat and Drink on Capitol Hill

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia
2. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic · Matt Hill

1. Eater Where to Eat and Drink on Capitol Hill

1. Eater Where to Eat and Drink on Capitol Hill

The Grill is a sit-down American restaurant at the Wharf, the sort of place you pick when the show at the Anthem starts soon and nobody can agree on dinner. The menu is steaks, salads, mac and cheese, and lobster rolls, a dressed-up cousin of the roadside chain. There's a wine wall with faux wood pillars, and the servers wear formal attire, which feels generous for a burger.

1. The Infatuation The Best Restaurants In The Wharf

The Roost is a Capitol Hill food hall where you order from your phone and the food finds you, which spares everyone the usual tray-and-buzzer shuffle. Under one roof you get Cameo Coffee, Hi-Fi Taco, and a craft beer bar pouring Bluejacket brews. There's also Caruso's Grocery, a sit-down red sauce joint with faded red booths and chicken Parmigiana, doing a convincing impression of a place your grandfather had a table at.

1. Eater Where to Eat and Drink on Capitol Hill

1. The Washington Post 9 of the best restaurants in Shaw

1. Eater Where to Eat and Drink on Capitol Hill

Zom Tum is a casual Thai and Laotian spot on Capitol Hill, set in the old Joselito space, with a papaya salad station right at the door so you meet the main attraction before you meet a host. The name is a playful spin on "som tom." Curries come from a longtime D.C. Thai restaurateur, and a bar pours craft Thai beers and whisky. Daily happy hour covers spring rolls, wontons, and wine, an unusual trio.

1. Eater Where to Eat and Drink on Capitol Hill

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic · Peter Prime

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic · Joy Crump

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Emerging Chef · Elias Taddesse

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Michael Reginbogin and Jason Berry - KNEAD Hospitality + Design

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Michael Reginbogin and Jason Berry - KNEAD Hospitality + Design

1. James Beard Awards 2023 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurateur · Michael Reginbogin and Jason Berry - KNEAD Hospitality + Design

The bucatini arrives spun tableside inside a wheel of parmigiana, which tells you immediately that this Arlington red-sauce Italian spot has more going on than the checkered-tablecloth classics. Chef Mike Cordero keeps inventing, so the menu shifts, but the instinct stays the same: familiar comfort food pushed somewhere unexpected. The room fills with people who came for spaghetti and meatballs and end up ordering whatever the server talks them into.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine #8 · The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

The lavender dining room is your first hint that Celebration by Rupa Vira is not playing by anyone else's rules. This modern Indian restaurant in Ashburn runs on contrast: crispy kale chaat with yogurt pearls and tamarind, tandoori salmon arriving in a pool of chile and mango with a cloud of foam on top. Desserts come with dry ice and gold leaf, because subtlety left the building. The self-trained chef earned a spot on Northern Virginia Magazine's 50 Best list, and the room makes a convincing case without needing the press.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine #9 · The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

The water arrives with a tray of cucumbers, lime, and lemon so you can pick your infusion, which tells you something about how seriously this Korean steakhouse in Vienna takes its choices. A six-course prix fixe builds around American wagyu cuts grilled tableside, but nearly every element is yours to configure, from appetizers to noodles to the savory finish. The kind of place where the decisions feel like half the dinner.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine #7 · The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

The focaccia-stacked lamb burger keeps regulars coming back, but at this Sterling neighborhood restaurant, even the fritto misto and a bowl of rigatoni Bolognese feel like they got the same amount of thought. Housemade bread arrives with cultured butter, seasonal cocktails shift with the calendar, and the kitchen seems constitutionally unable to phone anything in. A place that treats a Tuesday dinner like it matters.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine #10 · The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

1. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Restaurant

The tableside saganaki arrives in a burst of actual flames, which sets the tone for everything that follows. This is a proper Greek restaurant, the kind where white curtains billow, conversations run in several languages at once, and a server steers you toward an Assyrtiko without being asked. The wine list leans Greek and the dips arrive with warm pita still soft from the oven.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine #2 · The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

A dry-aged rib-eye on a tabletop grill is a good start, but Seoul Prime is doing considerably more than that. This Korean barbecue steakhouse in Falls Church layers fine-dining ambition onto the tableside format, with a kimchi vinaigrette on burrata and a croissant pressed in a waffle iron for dessert. The beef tours give the meal a shape; the à la carte menu lets you freelance. Dressy enough to feel like a night out, smoky enough to remind you it's still barbecue.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine #5 · The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

The dining room of an old country inn in the Virginia foothills, where the kitchen takes a locavore menu seriously enough that nobody's ordering a chicken-fried steak. Housemade gnocchi, herb-crusted rack of lamb, and a mango mousse that arrives looking like a art installation suggest the chef has somewhere to be. The drive out to Paris, VA is part of it, and the setting does a lot of the work before the food even arrives.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine #3 · The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

Murals on the walls, A5 wagyu with foie gras on the plate: the contrast is kind of the point at this Arlington sushi spot. The menu runs toward the lavish end of the spectrum, with precision plating that makes you feel slightly guilty picking up your chopsticks. The ceviche with wasabi nori chips cuts through all that richness with real sharpness. Book ahead; the room fills fast and nobody's rushing out.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine #4 · The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

Mosaic lanterns cut through the Tysons corporate blur the moment you walk in, and the room stays loud and kinetic from there. Agora is a lively Mediterranean restaurant where mezze plates arrive fast and tables turn on a two-hour clock, which somehow adds to the fun rather than the stress. The Ottoman rice, fragrant with currants and crowned with fried shallots, tends to be the dish people talk about on the way to the car.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

The polished metal trays arrive loaded with banchan, and the arrangement shifts every time, which is half the point. Baek ban is the format, a Korean rice-set meal with a main and a rotating cast of small dishes, and at this Chantilly spot the lineup might include cubed radish kimchi, sesame-glossed glass noodles, or a perilla-leaf omelet. The smoky-sweet bulgogi landed on the Washingtonian's favorite dishes list, so that one is worth keeping an eye out for.

1. Washingtonian Bulgogi Baek Ban · Our Favorite Dishes of the Year in the DC Area

1. Washingtonian Nashville Hot Chicken Bánh Mì · Our Favorite Dishes of the Year in the DC Area

1. Washingtonian Bao Bei Bowl · Our Favorite Dishes of the Year in the DC Area

The whole branzino is flown in from Greece, cured, air-dried for days, then grilled until the skin shatters, which tells you everything about the kitchen's priorities at this polished Pike & Rose restaurant. It reads like a classic American steakhouse, and you could easily miss the Greek thread running through it, which is exactly what makes that fish such a pleasantly disorienting moment. The owners also run Cava, which is quite the range.

1. Washingtonian Grilled Whole Branzino · Our Favorite Dishes of the Year in the DC Area

1. Washingtonian Chicago Dog · Our Favorite Dishes of the Year in the DC Area

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

Jonathan Krinn's fine-dining tasting menu restaurant pulls vegetables from a garden steps from the kitchen, so what arrives on the plate might include a cucumber or basil variety you've never seen in a supermarket. The monthly menu changes as the garden does, and the open kitchen means you can hear the chef laughing while you work through it. Bring the kind of time and appetite that a slow, course-by-course evening demands.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

The name is a tribute to two grandmothers who believed life's best moments happen when everyone squeezes around the dinner table, and the dining room, with its exposed-beam rafters and rosemary focaccia drifting from the open kitchen, takes that mandate seriously. This is a neighborhood restaurant in the warm, come-as-you-are mold, where the menu leans into comfort food handled with care, pasta buried under braised brisket and meatballs being the kind of dish that turns a Tuesday into something.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

The fire blazing at the back of the dining room is the first thing worth noticing, and the plastic tablecloths are the last. Harvey's is a casual neighborhood restaurant in Falls Church that cooks with an ingredient-obsession more common to places charging three times as much. Fire-roasted duck breast arrives with blistered, chicharrón-like skin, and the server describes the bread pudding as "intimidating," which is accurate.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

The dinner menu at this fine dining room is organized like a syllabus, with sections for Craft, History, Ingredients, and Indulgence, which tells you something about how seriously Eric Ziebold, a French Laundry alum, takes the whole project. The brick building keeps things grounded while the cooking leans nostalgic and precise. DC's well-heeled crowd fills the minimal room most nights, apparently unbothered by homework.

1. James Beard Awards 2022 · Semifinalist · Outstanding Pastry Chef · Anne Specker
2. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

A golden peacock greets you at the door before you've even seen a menu, which sets the tone for this ornate Indian restaurant in Herndon. Chandeliers, jewel-toned booths, and ornate parasols floating overhead make the dining room feel like a royal court that never got the memo about subtlety. The menu ranges across regional India, from street-snack starters to silky coconut curries. Bring a group and something of an appetite for theater.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

Finding this Italian osteria means navigating an office building in Alexandria, which is either charming or a mild ordeal depending on your mood. The menu leans into unexpected combinations: a filet mignon draped in cacio e pepe raviolo and shaved black truffle is the kind of dish that sounds like a dare and reads like a flex. A Nutella pizza piled with marshmallows closes things out on similarly committed terms.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

The sourdough under the roasted chicken isn't an afterthought; it sits in the pan and drinks up every drop of stock and butter until it becomes the point. Nancy Silverton's Georgetown Italian restaurant is a Stephen Starr co-production that landed as a full-blown scene, the kind where former presidents apparently just show up for dinner. The room runs loud and the pastas are homey, but the chicken alla diavola is the dish people are still talking about.

1. Washingtonian Chicken alla Diavola · Our Favorite Dishes of the Year in the DC Area

A cooking cart wheeled tableside for nearly every order is the signature move at this Italian restaurant in Vienna, where Roberto Donna has brought back guéridon service as a centerpiece rather than a novelty. The fettuccini alla parmigiana gets twisted in a parmesan wheel right in front of you, which is a lot of theater that happens to also produce very good pasta. The room is warm and neighborhood-beloved, without behaving like a neighborhood restaurant.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

Geometric tilework and honey-hued lighting set the scene at this casual Spanish tapas bar on Columbia Pike, where a pitcher of sangria and a spread of small plates is the whole plan. The kitchen leans into Moorish-influenced staples, bacon-wrapped dates, chickpea stew, mussels with charred bread for sopping. The room rewards lingering, and the crowd tends to take that as a personal challenge.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

The name nods to the signature dessert, but an Italian restaurant tucked into a Manassas strip center probably shouldn't lead with sweets. The chef works an open kitchen, sending out grilled romaine with a light Caesar dressing and biquinho peppers, housemade pasta, and a New York strip with wild mushrooms over cheesy polenta. The kind of neighborhood spot that rewards people who wander past the big-box anchors.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

A Thai restaurant in a Chantilly strip mall that has been quietly building a following on the strength of its spicy salads and curries, Sense of Thai takes heat seriously. The larb gai arrives bright with lime and chile, and the noodle soups, a coconut lamb khao soi among them, are the kind of thing people drive past closer options to get. Multiple locations now, but the cooking still has a point of view.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

The stracciatella cheese is pulled by hand, and the dough ferments for 72 hours before it ever sees a topping. This Roman-style pizzeria in Alexandria started as a food truck and now draws a wait for tables, which people seem willing to endure. Specials rotate fast, salads lean seasonal and serious, and the mainstay pies hold up without leaning on novelty. Order by QR code; the servers are worth talking to anyway.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

A restored vintage barn with chandeliers overhead sets the tone for this upscale casual restaurant inside the NOVA Live entertainment complex in Manassas. The menu is eclectic in the way that works, running from charred grilled octopus with romesco and chimichurri to dry-aged strip steak finished with harissa butter, and closing on espresso-stuffed beignets. Book ahead; it books out fast, and the surrounding music venue makes a natural second act.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

Clifton is small enough that you'll probably drive past it once before finding it, which makes this warm Italian trattoria feel like a proper discovery. Focaccia with olive oil arrives first, and the menu runs from Caesar salads and calamari through baked meatballs and stuffed gnocchi to a seven-layer chocolate cake that earns its place at the end. A raw bar adds a little ambition to what is otherwise honest, home-style cooking served with genuine care.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

Locals call it Tuskie's, which tells you most of what you need to know about a place this well-worn. It's a big, roomy American restaurant set inside a historic mill in downtown Leesburg, and the menu casts a wide net any night of the week. The Sunday buffet brunch is the main event: French toast, fried chicken, an omelet station, and a chafing dish of butterscotch bread pudding that the room quietly orbits.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

The lobby address inside The Watermark Hotel is a deliberate misdirect, because Wren is a Japanese-leaning restaurant that takes itself seriously. Sleek interiors and a lively bar ease you in, and then the kitchen starts sending out hamachi carpaccio with jalapeño-citrus soy and pork belly bao with all the right tucked-in extras. The room reads hotel-casual but the plates argue otherwise.

1. Northern Virgina Magazine The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia

A paper bowl at a picnic table outside a rural Virginia brewery is where this tasting trailer does its finest work. Sumac is exactly what it sounds like: a fire-cooked, hyper-local tasting menu served from a trailer parked in a field, with ingredients sourced within 150 miles. The menu shifts with whatever the land offers, and the New York Times put it on their 2024 Restaurant List, which seems about right for somewhere this quietly serious about a paper bowl.

1. The New York Times 2024 · The Restaurant List

1. Baltimore Magazine 2024 · Old-School Peruvian Chicken · Best of Baltimore

1. Baltimore Magazine 2024 · Old-School Peruvian Chicken · Best of Baltimore

1. Baltimore Magazine 2024 · Barbecue · Best of Baltimore