For D.C. residents, sampling the most tantalizing brisket inside the Beltway requires a drive into Riverdale Park, Maryland. Fernando González and Debby Portillo, the couple that own and operate 2Fifty, pay homage to Central Texas by using oak smoke to develop a dark bark on fatty hunks of prime and American wagyu beef that jiggle on the chopping block. Beef ribs, pulled pork, sliced turkey, and St. Louis-style ribs are all available too. Daily specials like brisket tacos and barbecue pupusas give the kitchen a creative outlet. Sides like red kidney beans braised with brisket, caramelized pineapple, and coleslaw interspersed with raisins nod to the owners’ Salvadoran heritage. Diners can preorder for pickup Wednesday through Sunday with the option to dine there or take it to go. 2Fifty expanded into D.C. during the pandemic with a small stall inside Union Market.

Considered the standard-bearer for Lao cuisine in D.C., Thip Khao comes from mother-and-son chefs Seng Luangrath and Boby Pradachith. Their Columbia Heights standby continues to satisfy heat-seekers with a menu full of fermented fish sauce, a heavy dose of chiles, offal, and cured meats. Hit orders include crispy tamarind-glazed wings, grilled pork shoulder with lemongrass, and a fiery Lao papaya salad. The restaurant is open 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Monday with carryout, indoor dining, and outdoor service across a cozy tented patio (90-minute limit with a $20 deposit charged via Tock). For small plates and tiki cocktails from Minibar alum Al Thompson, consider its Shaw sibling bar Hanumanh.

At this Malaysian restaurant in Columbia Heights, chef James Wozniuk navigates a balance of pungent, spicy-sweet, and funky umami flavors that vary in intensity but never veer out of control. Wozniuk’s condiments — sambal made from bird’s eye chiles, palm sugar, tamarind, and fried anchovies; appetite-piquing pickled limes with prune and golden raisin; and peanut-based satay sauce — assert themselves in an array of rice and noodle dishes. The bar mixes complex tropical cocktails, like a blackstrap rum and pineapple Jungle Bird, that vie for attention. Order takeout or delivery online. Tables are available in a breezy dining room or on a patio. Wozniuk also unleashed a bar bites menu at underground sibling Thirsty Crow.

This versatile, basement-level shop is part of a three-piece project from chef Darren Norris that includes a penthouse cocktail bar and zen middle floor for shabu shabu. At Shibuya Eatery, Norris’s team prepares sushi rolls, sashimi, and nigiri that incorporate North Pacific bluefin tuna and yellowtail flown in from Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market. There are also succulent short rib skewers grilled over binchotan charcoal, build-your-own bento boxes, and donburi bowls. Noodles brim with hot or cold dashi, chopstick-thick udon, or matcha tea-green soba. Walk-ins are welcome in the 15-seat basement, the top-floor Death Punch bar, and outdoors, which all serve the same food menu. Call for pickups, order delivery through third-party apps, or reserve a seat on Resy.

U Street NW’s old Chi-Cha Lounge transformed into a stylish Peruvian hot spot in 2021 with a focus on comforting Criollo food and other dishes that speak to culinary influences from Japan and China. Standout starters include teriyaki wings, sizzling shrimp (gambas al ajillo), and ribeye yakitori. Any of its tangy ceviches are likely to impress, but the hit since day one is the “Mercado” (a mixed medley of fried calamari, rocoto chile base, mahi mahi, and fried plantain chips). Chef Cristian Granada carves out room for creativity with one-off specials like lobster ceviche, delicacies like grilled beef hearts, and his use of daring Andean ingredients. A leafy bar oozing Amazonian rainforest vibes makes its own chicha morada, which gets turned into a syrup for a frothy, lavender-colored take on a pisco sour.

Chef Ryan Ratino’s buzzy bistro on lower 14th Street NW whips up prix fixe dinners filled out by tuna crudo with Calabrian chile, wild fennel, makrut lime and foie gras gateau with pistachio, strawberry, celery, and anise. The ambitious chef, who’s among the youngest to ever earn a Michelin star, also incorporates a vintage French duck press gifted by gourmet supplier D’Artagnan into a theatrical tableside offering. A boundary-pushing bar program spearheaded by beverage director Will Patton is also not to miss, earning the team an exceptional cocktails award from Michelin last year. Seasonal tasting menus start at $84 (reserve via Resy).

Situated between Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan, Anju serves Korean bar food with a refined touch from the restaurant group behind casual hit Chiko. James Beard Award-nominated chef Angel Barreto leads a kitchen that plates up standouts ranging from pork and kimchi mandu (dumplings) and smoky gochujang-glazed fried chicken with white barbecue sauce to a seafood fried rice (bokum bap) and seared ribeye galbi boards. Weekend brunches bring on breakfast sandwiches and a grit bowl that riffs on juk.

This family-run underground lounge landed in Dupont last spring with a star cast of Thai talent behind the wheel. Former sushi chef Billy Thammasathiti brings the heat with quail egg wontons, fiery papaya salads, boneless duck laap, and spicy beef or pork skewers, plus experimental orders like Parmesan-dusted egg noodles with tom yum herbs, bacon, and roasted chili jam or bite-sized calamari dressed with garlicky salt. Andy Thammasathiti of Baltimore’s Mayuree Thai Tavern whips up passion fruit daiquiris and Sichuan baijiu cocktails behind a racy, red-lit bar fit for Bangkok. Billy’s aunt Satang Ruangsangwatana, of Fat Nomads supper club fame, also contributes destination dishes like khao soi. The 50-seat lair swings open at 4 p.m.; reserve a seat or order takeout or delivery.

Chef Rob Rubba puts vegetables on a pedestal, so Oyster Oyster’s presence in Shaw is somewhat ideal for diners who don’t eat meat but still want to enjoy an avant-garde tasting menu with a Michelin star. Food & Wine’s best new chef for 2022, who first attracted D.C. critics’ attention as the former chef at Hazel, partnered with Estadio owner Max Kuller on this venture — which prioritizes sustainability with a dedication to sourcing from hyperlocal farms and mills. Think: a bird’s nest of fried celery root wrapped around a morsel of smoked tofu and shiitake chip cookie for dessert. A $60 selected wine pairing goes with a $95 meal. Reservations are available here.

This flashy Mexican restaurant from Oaxaca-born, Mexico City-based chef Alam Méndez Florián entered Logan Circle’s competitive dining landscape in fall 2021, instantly piquing interests with tangy ceviches, cactus salads, cilantro-and-tomatillo margaritas, marinated octopus roasted over coals, and expert applications of its namesake ingredient with the use of a gas-fired comal up front. Blue corn from the Mexican state of Tlaxcala builds a tortilla for a suckling pig terrine taco, while a crunchy tostada relies on yellow corn to balance a medley of veggies on top. Head below to a candle-lit mezcal den to pair rare pours with grasshopper tacos. Brunch is available too.

This beloved Brooklyn import smashes the city’s stuffy steakhouse conventions with a menu at this Union Market tavern that gives vegetables equal billing. Butter-packed biscuits with pimento cheese have become the stuff of legend, and a salmon collar practically melting under a butter-lemon bath has its own cult following. Ax-handle ribeyes and pork chops are priced by the ounce for communal feasts. Like sibling spot Le Diplomate, St. Anselm built nifty dining nooks on the street during the pandemic that are here to stay. Stephen Starr’s blockbuster NYC bistro Pastis is slated to join St. Anselm in the budding industrial complex this year.

Mexico-born restaurateurs Alfredo and Jessica Solis (El Sol, Mezcalero, and Anafre) gave Logan Circle a color-soaked seafood spot that bounces all around Latin America. Mariscos, which means “seafood” in Spanish, opened nearly a year ago with a treasure trove of fresh fish, crustaceans, and bivalves prepared raw, fried, and grilled. Made-to-order citrusy ceviches, jicama slaw-topped oyster po’boys, Caribbean-style lechon, and other Latin dishes harken back to Alfredo Solis’s days running downtown’s Ceiba for Passion Food Hospitality. A 12-seat bar sends out a pisco sour, caipirinha, mojito, and other Latin-hopping cocktails that follow the food’s lead. A Coronarita — a Corona bottle draining into a frozen margarita — keeps summer in swing all year. Book a patio or indoor booth seat online.

Venezuelan chef Enrique Limardo’s follow-up to scene-y, tropically appointed Seven Reasons brings the West End a new fine dining venue for Mediterranean-Latin fusion full of surreal plating and modernist technique. Sturdy staples like a moussaka cigar — with crispy phyllo dough, smoked eggplant, ground lamb, and goat-manchego cream — and fried Spanish octopus with Amazonian chimichurri anchor the rotating dinner menu. Go a la carte or choose the omakase tasting experience at the chef’s counter (currently 16 to 22 bites) that has a Michelin star. A soaring white bar lined with soft cranberry stools sends out sharply conceived cocktails with Mediterranean ingredients like Greek olives, truffle honey, and limoncello.

At this roomy Thai restaurant in Mt. Vernon Triangle, chef Jeeraporn Poksupthon has a kitchen worthy of her skill and ambition. Poksupthon led large catering kitchens in Thailand before she helped usher a wave of chile-fueled Northern and Northeastern cooking into D.C. at now-closed Baan Thai in Logan Circle. At Baan Siam, she’s playing the hits — creamy, crunchy, and complex khao soi; tapioca skin dumplings with ground chicken, peanuts, and sweet fermented radish; and all sorts of spicy-sweet salads — while exploring sour-leaning dishes from her home country’s interior and ultra-hot curries from the South. Order for pickup or in-house delivery here, or reserve a table for indoor or outdoor dining here.

After a long pandemic pause, CityCenterDC’s polished seafood showpiece made a triumphant comeback last March with a menu full of remixed Chesapeake classics like fluke-flanked ceviche and smoked rockfish dip served in shells. The Conrad hotel’s glassy, 3-year-old restaurant, originally headlined by celebrity chef brothers Bryan and Michael Voltaggio, reemerged with No Goodbyes alums Ria Montes and Sean Tew at the helm. Estuary 2.0 casts a wider menu net across the largest estuary in the nation, the Chesapeake Bay, with Maryland crab hush puppies dressed with yuzu aioli, decadent shrimp toast with lobster butter sauce, squash disguised as dan dan noodles, and sourcing from local growers like Moon Valley Farm. Hungry tables should consider its expertly-fried whole fish and Roseda Farms bone-in rib-eye. Playful surprises include build-your-own sundaes comprised of caviar, ice cream, and mini black sesame waffle cones.

A wood-burning oven imported from France is the workhorse inside Amy Brandwein’s Italian cafe in CityCenter, an everyday alternative to Centrolina, her dressier osteria across the street. Last summer, the five-time James Beard Award finalist added twice as many seats, seasonal spritzes, and more wood-fired capabilities to roast all kinds of vegetables, seafoods, and meats like ribs and pork and lamb sausages. A daily pastry program produces quiche and phenomenal focaccia, and the 10-layer eggplant Parmesan remains a best-selling showstopper. Eating light is painless, too, from charred Napa cabbage to a carrot-and-bulgur wheat bowl with cauliflower, raisin, and pistachio. Order takeout online or get delivery via Caviar from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

H Street’s buzzy seafood showpiece offers an abundant underwater menu filled with lobster rolls, peel-and-eat shrimp, crab cakes, and East and West Coast oysters shucked up front behind its glassy facade. The 3-year-old nautical venture with some serious sourcing skills comes from Aaron McGovern and Arturas Vorobjovas (Biergarten Haus). Oysters Rockefeller get a Cajun spin from broiled andouille sausage, red pepper corn succotash, Parmesan, and corn bread crumble. Other crowd-pleasers include po’boys, truffled mushroom mussels, and daily specials like grilled branzino or lobster risotto.

Dante Datta and Suresh Sundas, a respective drink expert and chef who met while working together at Rasika West End, reunited under one roof last summer with an anticipated Indian restaurant and cocktail bar at a corner just south of H Street NE. At Daru, which recently landed on New York Times’s coveted top 50 restaurants list, Sundas likes to combine Northern and Southern Indian cooking styles with some unorthodox touches. That includes za’atar olive naan, chicken tikka tacos, chimichurri chutneys, or grilled chicken reshmi kebabs with a hint of blue cheese. Datta and bar manager Tom Martinez, both alums of now-closed Columbia Room, collaborate on inventive riffs on classics. Book a seat online for service after 5 p.m. or order takeout and delivery for both lunch and dinner.

Chef David Deshaies (Unconventional Diner, Central) and business partner Eric Eden unveiled their soaring, “glam Italian” restaurant in the shiny new Capitol Crossing development last fall. The flashy showstopper, framed with shimmering Missoni drapes and abstract art, has amassed a fast following for pizzas crisped to perfection in a gold-plated oven, a 40-layer lasagna that begs to be photographed, and Florentine steaks fired up on an imported grill from Spain’s Costa Brava region. Other highlights include generous orbs of saffron-accented arancini, grilled cabbage adorned with creamy beurre blanc and glistening trout roe, and mini shots of duck ravioli served in claw-footed vessels. Starting at 5 p.m., fight for a spot at its scene-y bar to order a spot-on Negroni and decadent espresso martini. Reserve a seat in the dining room or order takeout and delivery. Lunch recently joined the mix, too.

This is the flagship restaurant for Daikaya Group, D.C.’s foremost experts in ramen. The ground floor houses a first-come, first-served ramen shop that imports bouncy noodles from Sapporo. On the second level, its experimental izakaya gives chef Katsuya Fukushima a platform to present playful dishes like a new wagyu beef tartare with rice crackers and kimchi, a classic fried eggplant and miso rice ball, or a beloved mentaiko (spicy cod roe) burrata with orange zest and grilled toast. During the pandemic, the company put considerable thought into takeout and delivery, which remains an option. Customers can order par-cooked noodles for a quick nuke in the microwave, or uncooked if they want to boil their own. The entire Daikaya Group portfolio, which tastes and looks more polished than ever these days, includes Tonari next door, Bantam King nearby, Hatoba in Navy Yard, and Haikan in Shaw.

José Andrés’s whimsical Mexican staple, situated in Penn Quarter since 2007, is a premiere place for made-to-order guacamole, colorful ceviches, vegetable-heavy antojitos (small plates), and tacos like a Yucatán-style cochinita pibil (pit-cooked pig). Head chef Omar Rodriguez’s menu highlights longtime purveyors like Rancho Gordo beans, Anson Mills rice, and Hamakua Farms hearts of palm. Oyamel was among the first in D.C. to grind its own Mexican heirloom corn, and its salt air margarita remains a top seller at the bar brimming with butterfly decor. An on-site agave store is stocked with over 30 types of tequilas and mezcal to take home.

James Beard Award-winning chef Vikram Sunderam plays liberally with spicy chiles and sour fruits to make Rasika one of the most celebrated Indian restaurants in the country. His palak chaat—a fried baby spinach dish decorated with sweet yogurt, tamarind, and date chutney—has inspired imitators around town. Dal makhani is slowly simmered in a decadent, buttery gravy. Both the Penn Quarter flagship and its West End sibling are ideal venues for vegetarian diners, too.

Open since 2014, Spanish stalwart Ser continues to shine in its evolving Ballston neighborhood. It’s hard to go wrong with any of the 12-plus tapas on the list, but the tomato bread, gambas al ajillo, croquetas, and deep-fried eggplant are not to miss. Seafood, meat, or vegetable paella for two is another excellent choice, and for a dash of drama at the table, go big with a whole roast suckling pig. Other standouts include crab-topped lobster from the raw bar, gorgeous seasonal salads, and gazpacho when summer calls. Its Spanish co-owner Javier Candon infuses his own spirits, as seen in Ser’s superior gin and tonic. Joselito is its sister spot in Capitol Hill.

Matt Adler’s decidedly unmodern tribute to classic red sauce joints takes diners on a well-worn path that carefully steers clear of the contrived. Dishes heavy on nostalgia, quality ingredients, and technique are served in a red banquette-lined, vintage photo-laden dining room that buzzes with hospitality and delight. Tender chicken parm with a light breading gets tucked under a zingy marina, hunky garlic bread arrives with a bowl of four-cheese sauce for dipping, and shrimp scampi gets splashed with house-made limoncello. Drinks, like a Manhattan with an amaretto rinse, receive equally attentive treatment. Keeping with theme, the menu is surprisingly affordable. Adler recently opened a second location in Maryland’s Pike & Rose complex.

Anyone who’s followed Kevin Tien’s career in D.C. restaurants should know well enough to order crudo and fried chicken wherever he’s cooking. At Moon Rabbit, like at short-lived Emilie’s and nationally regarded Himitsu, Tien delivers on those signatures with aplomb. At the modern Vietnamese restaurant inside a luxe hotel on the Southwest Waterfront, he also serves a five-spice foie mousse tart with tamarind onion jam and cornmeal-fried catfish dressed with pea leaves and fermented mustard greens. A newer banh hoi dac biet order for the table loops in woven noodles, lemongrass pork, salt-and-pepper shrimp, and short ribs. On the lighter side, a papaya salad gets a sweet kick from lychee. The sleek bar sends out spins on a Boulevardier and espresso martini engineered with chicory drip coffee. Moon Rabbit also just added lunch seven days a week with new dish drops like wonton noodle soup with fried confit duck leg and baby bok choy.

Partners Gerald Addison and Chris Morgan made a huge hire last spring at their waterfront Caribbean mainstay with the addition of Eater DC’s 2019 Chef of the Year Peter Prime. The Cane alum brings his native Trinidad and Tobago to the table with a revised menu full of signature doubles (fry breads), smoked jerk wings, grilled oxtail, whole fried snapper escovitch, stews, and duck or chickpea curries. A family-style menu ($75) is also available. Sit down for a creamy, rum-packed painkiller cocktail on the patio, or place an order for takeout or delivery.

Come to 2941 for chef Bertrand Chemel’s French-infused take on contemporary American dishes, and stay for the serene, floor-to-ceiling views of bubbling waterfalls and a koi pond. The Falls Church fine-dining destination has expanded its focus over the years to be both a place for special occasions and random nights out. Fish, pastas, duck, and soups are among Chemel’s go-to specialities. East Coast oysters with a citrusy ponzu mignonette, truffled wagyu tartare, and bright Caesar salads are ideal precursors to rich mains like fondue-flanked ravioli and Australian lamb chops. Props to a knowledgable wine service too.