Tenleytown just got the bakery of its dreams with the arrival of SakuSaku Flakerie’s breakout storefront. Confectionary couple Yuri and Jason Oberbillig birthed the baked goods brand inside the National Building Museum and have amassed a devoted D.C. following for their tantalizing French pastries infused with Japanese and seasonal ingredients. Highlights include lychee and raspberry-rose croissants, green tea-pecan sticky buns, chocolate and matcha cream pan, and Earl Grey bundt cakes. Starting Sunday, March 5, hours expand to 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Michelin-starred chef Pepe Moncayo (Cranes) unveiled glamorous, seafood-heavy Singaporean restaurant at Tysons Galleria that pays tribute to the Southeast Asian city-state he called home for a decade. Bold, fresh, spicy, and intense flavors make up an opening menu full of street foods, hawker classics, signatures, and pandan desserts. Highlights include carrot cake adorned with pickled daikon, tapioka, and turnips; a spicy noodle soup called Laksa with shrimp and fried tofu; and fiery snow crab served with a steamed bun. The showy space has room for 170 inside and 80 across a year-round terrace.

Modern Parisian fare and sushi curiously collide on U Street at the sleek new replacement to two-story hangout Local 16. On the French front, there’s bavette and New York strip steaks, cheese and charcuterie, a rack of lamb over Parmesan risotto, and steamed mussels. Chef “Noriaki” Yasutake of Chinatown’s dearly missed Sei resurrects his acclaimed rolls at Baby Shank, including the “S.O.S.” with salmon and strawberry, beets tartare, spicy tuna beignets, and his famed “Fish and Chips” creation. His raw fish hits made a comeback last year inside Dupont’s French restaurant Le DeSales, and this marks Sei’s latest revival in D.C. Hours run until 1 a.m.

Experimental comfort foods chef Damian Brown builds on his wonderfully wacky waffle and flavor combos at Uncaged Chefs in District Heights with the January opening of a polished, flower-filled offshoot in Truxton Circle. Appetizers include jerk salmon sushi with avocado and Cajun aioli, grilled oysters doused with garlic butter sauce, and duck-fat tater tots blasted with Parmesan and rosemary with a side of Sriracha ketchup. For mains, opt for jerk salmon and grits with creamy Cajun sauce or red velvet pancakes with whipped cream cheese icing. Uncaged Mimosas goes big on its name with a whopping 25 varieties in every color of the rainbow.

The team behind Georgetown’s acclaimed cocktail bar L’Annexe added a sophisticated, 100-seat brasserie next door in December that pays homage to Parisian nightlife with foie gras beignets, John Dory, classic French roast chicken with frites, and a parade of bubbly Bellinis. Renowned French chef Gilles Epié — the youngest chef to receive a Michelin star at age 22 (in 1980 at Le Pavillon des Princes) — was most recently at the helm of the five-star Turtle Bay Resort in Oahu, Hawaii, and the former Montage Beverly Hills before that. His star-studded Rolodex of political and celebrity guests include U.S. Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton; French Presidents Emmanuel Macron and Nicolas Sarkozy; and Princess Diana and Robert De Niro.

Baltimore’s prolific Atlas Restaurant Group made a big splash downtown last month with the debut of an upscale, all-day seafood spot and whiskey bar. Find fancy dry-aged steaks, extravagant shellfish towers, Chesapeake crab dip, diver scallops, and lobsters flown in fresh daily. Executive chef Brandon Sumblin, formerly with the St. Regis hotel, also showcases regional purveyors and the Maryland watershed across an abundant oyster program. Marylanders can also appreciate classic dishes like Smith Island Cake, Eastern Shore-style fried chicken, and cream of crab soup.

This sleek new restaurant for H Street NE aims to reimagine the history of the African diaspora through the lens of a fictional character named Alonzo Bronze. Owner Keem Hughley, a 15-year hospitality vet and native Washingtonian, plants the new project inside the former three-story home of Smith Commons. A 26-foot bar on the first floor offers a large cocktail menu with spirits from all over the world. Bronze’s dream team includes wine consultant Nadine Brown; Barmini alum and Hanumanh mixologist Al Thompson; and Brooklyn native and acclaimed Afro-Caribbean chef Toya Henry. Opening dishes include braised oxtail with pappardelle; coconut basmati and bamboo rice; kanpachi crudo; charred yuzu squid skewers; and a guava cheese doughnut.

Superstar chef and global humanitarian José Andrés fulfilled his decades-long dream of opening a restaurant inside downtown’s historic Old Post Office Pavilion last month. His Beverly Hill-born Bazaar checks into the newly minted Waldorf Astoria with a parade of avant-garde delights like “Jose” tacos topped with ibérico ham, gold leaf, and caviar; tortilla de papatas “new way” topped with potato foam; Chinese steamed bun with pork belly; and bite-sized “cotton candy foie gras” made famous in LA. Chesapeake Bay delicacies also show up in an artsy array of a la carte snacks and tapas. The two-level stunner puts a glossy Jamón carving station on full display upon entry alongside dry-aged smoked fish and poultry.

The Southwest Waterfront’s first-ever wine bar debuted in late January with European pours of red, white, prosecco, and rosé by the glass and carafe. The 49-seat brasserie, with room for nearly twice as many under a glass-enclosed patio out front, features a versatile food menu full of dips, burgers, flatbreads, egg yolk tagliatelle, roasted chicken with Parmesan potatoes, and charcuterie. Better Hospitality Group (BHG) also runs Takoda Restaurant & Beer Garden and Boardwalk Bar & Arcade at the Wharf.

Vegas-born beef Wellington sensation Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen planted its first East Coast flag along D.C.’s Southwest Waterfront in January. Michelin-starred chef Gordon Ramsay’s surf-and-turf restaurant, which pays tribute to his hit Hell’s Kitchen TV show on Fox, slides into a scenic, two-story waterfront building. The D.C. edition of Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen, the first that’s unaffiliated with a casino, circulates famed dishes from Ramsay’s long-running global reality series like its best-selling beef Wellington and sticky toffee pudding. Classics like a Negroni and Old Fashioned are joined by a dry ice-adorned Smoke on the Boulevard served in a lantern and the Notes from Gordon, complete with a personalized message from Ramsay himself.

The latest Middle Eastern marvel from Michelin-starred Maydan and Compass Rose owners Rose Previte and Mike Schuster debuted in the Fairfax’s Mosaic District right before Christmas. The inviting menu kicks off with homemade breads and spreads (hummus, grilled red pepper, olive-walnut); snacks and sides (turmeric rice, an escarole and red cabbage salad, and pickled vegetables); and all sorts of kebabs, combo plates, and picnic-style platters. At the bar, za’atar from local Palestinian purveyor Z&Z gets infused into gin to make a uniquely dirty martini. Egyptian-American executive chef Omar Hegazi comes with a background running Egyptian chain cafe Zooba in New York City and working as sous chef at Bourbon Steak in Georgetown and Zaytinya in Texas.