The Resy Hit List: Where In D.C. You’ll Want to Eat Right Now

Known for their martinis and pub-style menu, Capitol Hill staffers come here for a neighborhood bar that delivers on oversized and slightly overzealous dishes, especially at happy hour. That includes the wagyu glizzy, featuring an all-beef wagyu hot dog in a buttered toasted bun, topped with Dijon mustard and Imperial Osetra caviar. Looking for something more like mom would make? Try the tomahawk pork chop or a half-roasted chicken served with seasonal vegetables and mashed potatoes. The cocktails are top notch: Our current favorite is the porn star martini with passion fruit and a vanilla simple syrup, served with a side shot of sparkling wine.

U Street is known for its plethora of Ethiopian restaurants, but only one offers injera with a side of jazz, art, and storytelling nights — making this restaurant the perfect spot for your next date night. The menu features traditional Ethiopian 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 is plenty more to love, including exceptional plant-based specialties and seafood entrées to vibrant communal vegetable platters. Learn more about Eatopia here.

Chef Sanjay Mandhaiya, best known for his Indian restaurant Pappe, delivers new flavors and a menu inspired by the Silk Road by way of Union Market. Dishes here focus not only on Indian cuisine, but also the Middle East, Central Asia, and China, with nods to Morocco and Iberia along the way. Must-order dishes include Georgian khachapuri, Lebanese fish kofte, and wild mushroom biryani. This is also a great place to come with a few hungry friends to explore the ample Turkish-Indian mixed grill options.

For more than a decade, the Patch has served Filipino fare under the direction of chef and owner Patrice Cleary. Cleary’s dedication to her craft and her ability to fuse traditional Filipino dishes with modern touches extends to pancakes and waffles injected with ube’s purple color, and pork and chicken adobo brunch bowls. At dinner, an order of Mama Alice’s (her mom’s) lumpia is a must, as is the crab fat lechon kawali with a fiery edge thanks to habanero peppers. But this isn’t just a D.C. restaurant institution: It’s a gathering place for the Filipino community in D.C., with a goal to continue to be a place that preserves and elevates Filipino cultural heritage for years to come.

Bethesda may not feel like Rome. And yes, it’s exactly 4,481 miles away from the Eternal City, but who was counting when chef Mike Friedman (of The Red Hen and All Purpose Pizza fame) made it feel a whole heck of a lot closer? Friedman’s Aventino comes into the new ywar offering a modern look to counterbalance its traditional Roman dishes. It’s still a great space for special occasion dining or a small dinner party with friends, while also serving for a quick stop-in for a spritz at the bar. 

What was once Compass Rose has been reincarnated into an global cafe that channels the look and feel of restaurateur Rose Previte’s original vision, but now with all-day hours, plus a robust coffee and natural wine bar. Her globe-trotting restaurant is now known as Sook. And it recently opened with breakfast including Lebanese platters and cheesy Georgian khachapuri. Soon it will expand to all-day service and include other bar snacks and a market with grab-and-go sandwiches, spices from her restaurant Maydan, and an extravagant shrimp cocktail that’s easy to pair with one of the many spritzes served at the bar for happy hour. Consider this your all-day D.C. hangout for the new year.

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This Japanese culinary collection from internationally celebrated chef Makoto Okuwa, part of a giant food hall, plays host to a full-service sushi omakase experience for dinner, featuring “new school” and “old school” sushi techniques, plus an omakase express lunch, and plenty of à la carte options like hand rolls and Japanese A5 wagyu that you grill over a tableside hot stone. The latest addition here is Japanese breakfast. Their all-you-can-eat Sunday brunch features sushi, skewers, carving stations, salads, and desserts for $65 per person. Need something sweet a little sweeter? Head to the back of the food hall and order one of the many heart-shaped donuts offered at Love on the Run.

What’s better than pizza? How about a pizza garden. Sonny’s keeps its backyard covered and climate controlled year-round for large gatherings. They accept reservations up to 16 people, which means this is your go-to for a spritz happy hour or square slice party. With crust resembling focaccia, its slices come with some added heft, but don’t be fooled, their dough is incredibly airy, yet somehow perfectly crisp on first bite. For something spicy and vegetarian-friendly, order the Pesky Mario, topped with Calabrian chilis, fresh mozzarella, mushrooms, and rapini greens. Another pie favorite is the Wolfie, topped with pepperoni, onion, and roasted red peppers. This is also the only pizza party in town with a speakeasy bar attached to it. No Kisses is a slick little cocktail parlor with a groovy vibe known for its late night DJ-dance parties.

After a recent menu revamp, Reveler’s Hour is proof that this restaurant has staying power after more than a half-decade in service. What’s changed? For starters the menu is much larger, thanks to new chef Mari Kolchraiber (formerly Pineapple & Pearls). Most of those dishes come straight from the wood-fired grill, including whole fish and grilled vegetables. For example, mackerel marinated in brine with garlic and bay leaves, and served with caper bagna cauda. And don’t miss the grilled okra prevalent in Brazilian cuisine — chef Kolchraiber’s homeland. 

Here, conversations linger, nights blur, and secrets go down smoother than the drinks at this hotel bar in Dupont Circle. Reynold’s cocktail bar captures everything Washington needs in a watering hole: An Americana-inspired design, with a menu that highlights seasonality. Reynold’s offers high-end noshing from Osetra caviar with dill chips to Canadian-style poutine with foie gras. Of course, you must order a martini. But also try one of the nouveau iterations like Dirty Secrets (Think: a savory pesto-washed Tequila and tomatillo brine martini). There are plenty of forgotten classic cocktails to rediscover here too, like the Connecticut Shade. It’s a stiff drink that mixes Cognac, Johnnie Walker Black, Cynar, and Luxardo maraschino, plus Angostura bitters.

Stable DC defines wintertime coziness thanks to Swiss-themed chalets that serve kirsch schnapps alongside pots of fondue. Stable blends Schlossberger Old, Schlossberger Young and Vacherin cheeses into a fondue cooked with garlic and white wine, which makes for a tangy and rich flavor like you might have in the Alps. Added to your order one of the massive potato rösti, a must-try dish with grilled veal bratwurst and onion gravy. It is, needless to say, exactly what you’ll want in a D.C. January.

Chef Aaron Silverman has been making people (and stomachs happy) on Capitol Hill for more than a decade thanks to a menu of fun and fanciful eating. A meal here is an extravagant choose-your-own-adventure. Each bite is more memorable than the last. This includes the pork lychee salad (which has been on menu since day one) to newer hits like the Italian beef sandwich pasta or the miso-glazed cod inspired by celebrity chefs like Joel Robuchon and Nobu Matsuhisa.

Red checkered tablecloths and outfitting gear adorn the walls, making this restaurant campy and fun. But beyond the aesthetics, this beloved neighborhood gem has earned its reputation for down-home cooking with a legacy spanning more than two decades in Chevy Chase. The menu features locally sourced ingredients and changes daily. What does not change? The divine airiness of Buck’s restaurant’s rosemary focaccia bread or the super savoriness of specials like the bone-in pork chop or heritage half chicken. 

After abruptly closing on H Street at the end of June, Kayu by chef Paolo Dungca is officially back. The James Beard Foundation 2025 Emerging Chef Semifinalist reopened his modern Filipino restaurant in August. The more casual, streamlined version of chef Paolo’s former Filipino tasting room offers some new spins and old favorites from the previous menu, including a sweet corn agnolotti, cassava cake with crab fat and trout roe, and ube bao bun chorizo burgers with crispy pork belly and a chickpea stew. Enjoy a glass of chenin blanc or a tamarind margarita while snacking on bites at the bar or sitting down for a full dinner in the airy dining room or patio space.

Chef Lonie Murdock celebrates island life, drawing on her bicultural experience as the child of a Caribbean mother and Canadian father. Complex dishes spotlight ingredients common to the African Diaspora, enlivened by open-fire cooking and inspired by cooking traditions found across the world. Handmade pumpkin gnocchi tastes like a cross between a West Indian spinner — a dense dumpling crafted from a simple recipe of flour, salt, and water — and ricotta gnocchi. Elsewhere, snapper crudo with passion fruit ponzu is given a hint of umami thanks to the seaweed prep known as wakame. Sip on cocktails like the Style and Grace, a luscious mash-up of creamy peanut punch and an espresso martini.

The multi-continent menu here spans dishes from places like Mexico City to Copenhagen and Tokyo. Chef Josa Maldonado reimagines familiar dishes — moles, lasagna, and quesadillas — and layers them with Japanese flavors, fermented accents, and locally sourced produce, plus a vegetable-forward ethos that focuses on Mid-Atlantic organic produce and heirloom grains. Top dishes include the Maryland koshihikari brown rice, an umami-rich sticky rice topped with mushroom mole, egg yolk, and garlic tamari, and the buttered Chesapeake Bay blue crab, Eunoia’s ode to the District, served with carrots, espelette pepper, and optional caviar add-on.