The Resy Hit List: Where In D.C. You’ll Want to Eat in February 2025

Providencia is more than a cocktail bar — it’s a gathering place to enjoy rotating secret menus, seasonal specials and guest chef collaborations. Co-owners Erik Bruner-Yang, Paola Velez, Pedro Tobar, and Daniel Gonzalez came together to entice guests to experience one of the city’s most intimate dining spots, with just 22 seats. Dare we say this is the sweetest bar in D.C. too? Bright, cute, and comfy — like any neighborhood bar should be — and with an even sweeter menu thanks to signature dessert dishes like a Baked Alaska with shaved ice, and cocktails like the Lights of the Night Market, a gin-mezcal sour with pandan. We especially love this partnership because it allows Velez to bring her creative cultural storytelling to a new physical space.

One of 2024’s most highly lauded restaurants, with good reason. Wife-and-husband team Isabel Coss and Matt Conroy of Lutèce  created an intimate Mexican restaurant in Capitol Hill in what was formerly a barbecue shop. The space is reminiscent of one of Mexico’s beach-chic eateries, and all that remains of the barbecue joint is the smell of wood-fired coals. Dishes that take on those smoky flavors include lamb-neck barbacoa, and tacos al pastor with each tortilla made in house. And don’t miss the parsnip tamal, with its spice-rich mole blanco. While seating is limited to indoors, there are bar seats for walk-in visits and plans for a patio, should a mezcal margarita be calling your name.

For robust Korean dishes layered with complex, fermented flavors, look no further. Start with their irresistible mandu — pork and kimchi dumplings — and finish with something bright, like melon flan with pistachios, candied orange peel, and sweetened condensed milk. Beyond the classic gochujang-glazed Korean fried chicken (served here with Alabama white sauce) and the ssam board, we are keen on the dolsot bibimbap served over a hot stone bowl of rice, and your choice of bulgogi or tofu. Indeed, Mama Lee’s Classics are also recipes innovatively adapted from chef Danny Lee’s mother, the family’s first restaurateur — including a jjigae of pork rib, soft tofu, and aged kimchi.

New York City restaurateur Keith McNally’s has brought his cherished Greenwich Village tavern to D.C. with all the elements that made the original such a hit: dark woods, aged photos, a gorgeous hand-painted mural over red leather banquettes, and tables close enough to join into conversation. Let’s not forget the American-meets-French menu: favorites include the Black Label burger, roasted bone marrow, French onion soup, coq au vin, and a perfect Vesper that will make you weep. Just don’t forget to make your way to the bar upstairs.

Kensington was once a sleepy Maryland suburb but has recently become a hotbed of restaurant activity, including these wood-fired pizzas. They emerge piping hot, deep golden to mahogany brown with an intended bubbly, charred (not burnt) crust. The menu features a half-dozen red and white pies, with a catalogue of extra toppings for personalizing to your preference, plus homemade focaccia, and desserts like a triple chocolate flourless brownie.

This Francophile’s dream has all the requisites: beef tartare, mussels, seared hanger steak with wispy, crisp frites, and Niçoise salad. The long and airy space is the perfect date night option. The restaurant is unfussy and vibey, just what you want when enjoying an earthy Côtes du Rhône or a Frenchified cocktail.

U Street has a new Ethiopian restaurant with a side of jazz, art, and storytelling nights. The menu is filled with traditional dishes, and each bite tells a story. Take for instance the essential berbere-spiced chicken stew known as doro wat, Ethiopia’s national dish (and understandably so). But there’s plenty more to love, including exceptional plant-based specialties and seafood entrées to vibrant communal vegetable platters.

Chef Pepe Moncayo (of Cranes D.C. fame) recently opened his red-hot restaurant Arrels in the new Arlo hotel. The menu honors his Spanish family and personal travels across the Iberian Peninsula. Diners will immediately be drawn in by the heat of this kitchen. The restaurant features a state-of-the-art charcoal grill, infusing dishes with smoky flavors. Early contenders for top dishes include Spanish classics like seafood paella, croquetas, and churros with Espelette pepper chocolate sauce. Moncayo also uses some of his mother’s recipes, including a Catalan dish with rabbit shoulder, carrots and artichokes, served in a broth that is emblematic of the rustic warmth of Spanish home cooking.

We can’t think of another quintessential neighborhood restaurant in The District quite like Tail Up Goat. If you’ve been paying attention, you may have noticed that chef Jon Sybert‘s menu options are refreshed for a new year. New and red-hot dishes include the Nashville hot sweetbreads with shiso ranch and pickles served on chef Aiden McGuiggin’s milk bread. Or a dish that screams Maryland-fresh: Chesapeake Bay rockfish with perfectly crisp skin, served with sunchoke, lentils, celery, and dates. And when she’s not baking bread, McGuiggin is churning out decadent desserts like layered chocolate cake. You’ll want to mint yourself as a regular.

D.C. chefs Matt Adler and Kris Jimenez recently refreshed the menu options at the Osteria, a cornerstone of Italian fare in Navy Yard. New dishes lean to the influences of Northern Italy including several new pastas: osso bucco ravioli with saffron butter, tortellini in brodo, and baked polenta topped with a rich mushroom ragu. They also recently introduced a new pasta tasting menu where you can sample these dishes together for just $50. The tasting includes a selection of four pastas plus dessert — a perfect way to share family-style or indulge solo.

Ama brings the essence of Northern Italy to the Navy Yard. Chef Johanna Hellrigl and husband Micah Wilder have pulled from regions around the Ligurian Sea and the “Pale Mountains” of Alto Adige to create a dining experience that is inviting and unrushed. Mornings begin with Caffè Vergnano espresso “al banco” and a delicately flaky cornetto, followed by focaccia Genovese sandwiches and seasonal salads. As the sun sets, Wilder has conjured up spritzes, seltzers, and carbonated frozen drinks to complement signature Northern Italian flavors and dishes, including Tyrolean knödel and Ligurian langoustines.

What was once a former Burger King is now one of D.C.’s hottest ramen shops. Bantam King serves ramen in various Japanese styles from shoyu to spicy miso and the classic shio style. Don’t forget to order a side of crispy fried chicken. Like the ramen, the fried chicken comes in a variety of savory flavors, from Nashville hot to curry snow fried chicken. If you make it to dessert, the big fat chocolate chip cookie may be the best there is in the city. It’s a warm, gooey cookie stuffed with Valrhona chocolate and includes rendered chicken adding to the decadence factor.

Walk-ins welcome. Find more info here.

Most omakase experiences put an emphasis on an experience where you have to whisper if you talk. Not at Kiyomi, which is a sushi bar smack-dab in the middle of The Square food hall in downtown D.C. This is more of a sushi party, with ’90s pop playing in the background as you savor fresh cuts of monkfish, fatty tuna, and uni in successive pairings. This counter is also one of the best bargains in the city for a quick omakase at lunch. Seven pieces of sushi, hand roll, and miso soup by chef Masa Uchi are available Monday-Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 pm at $40 per person.

Chef Alfredo Solis (of Mezcalero and El Sol fame) took this lively Columbia Heights Mexican seafood restaurant to new heights with an expanded menu that includes pizzas inspired by the Mexican coasts. Think pies topped with chicken mole or chile relleno, alongside classic seafood dishes like shrimp aguachile, fish tacos, and pulpo a la diabla. Cocktails are similarly fresh and dynamic, with options ranging from a paloma infused with ancho chile to a sotol-based jungle bird.

Restaurateur Ashok Bajaj of the Knightsbridge Restaurant Group is at it again with the grand opening of Rosedale, designed to be a neighborhood gathering place. The giant U-shaped bar is the perfect perch to make new friends and overhear conversation, or opt for the sleek and formal dining room, more casual outdoor patio space, or private dining room. The menu reads new American, with rotating specials including a rotisserie chicken, potato and smoked cheddar croquettes, and grilled Rhode Island squid with ginger sabayon. Don’t overlook sides like the charred carrots with pickled onion and mustard. And pizzas range from traditional to playful (see: Across the Aisle, with bacon, fig jam, and ricotta).

This is one of the best bets in Washington, D.C. for Belgian and American craft beers on tap. And as an added bonus, they’re paired with steaming hot bowls of Belgian-style mussels. Fun fact: This restaurant, which has been on H Street for almost two decades, is so popular that the kitchen pumps out hundreds if not thousands of pounds of mussels each week. Don’t miss half-priced mussel Mondays, and if shellfish isn’t your thing, there’s a well rounded menu of pub sandwiches, tavern steaks, and Belgian fries.