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 such as 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 Saturday with the option to dine there or take it to go. In June, 2Fifty expanded into D.C. 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 opens Wednesday to Sunday (5 p.m. to 10 p.m.) with carryout, indoor dining, and outdoor service across a cozy tented patio (90-minute limit with a $20 deposit charged via Tock).

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; 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. 

Inside a narrow, dark basement underneath an ice cream shop in Mount Pleasant, Martha Dear owners Tara Smith and Demetri Mechelis serve a style of Greek pizza that’s unlike anything else in D.C. Mechelis mans a domed oven that fires round, naturally leavened pies studded with salty Mediterranean cheeses; the white pizza boasts crumbly myzithra and hard kefalograviera, while Mechelis’s take on pantzarosalata dots the classic roasted beet and yogurt salad with candied hazelnuts and herbs. Slices of exceptionally soft chocolate olive oil cake bring brownie batter to mind, albeit one made with a first-press fat sourced from one of Mechelis’s uncles in Greece. There are patio tables out front.

Chef Opie Crooks champions Mid-Atlantic farmers, fishers, and small-time ranchers at his wood-burning magnet for locavores that landed inside the retooled Line hotel last summer. Crooks sprinkles seasonal delicacies all over his breakout Adams Morgan menu, and spring ramps currently appear in pickled form in smoked trout toast or delicately fried alongside slow-cooked brisket. Plump Chesapeake oysters flecked with a house hot sauce warm up diners to an abundant charcuterie “salthouse board” with black pepper biscuits and homemade pickles. Childhood favorites get a grown-up edge here, as seen in his paper-thin potato chips dusted in crab spice and sticks of “hush doggies” bursting with bratwurst. Cocktails from D.C. bar vet Lukas Smith include a black walnut Old Fashioned and refreshing gin and tonic jazzed up with blood orange.

The final piece of chef Darren Norris’s three-part Japanese complex in Adams Morgan debuted in July with a focus on shabu shabu and kaiseki small plates that call back to his days running acclaimed izakaya Kushi. The middle floor, lined with large sake barrels and dragon artwork, invites seated customers to cook an assortment of top-notch meats like A7 Australian wagyu, local poultry, and sustainable seafoods in a bubbling dashi broth of choice (Norris suggests the duck bone collagen). Reserve a seat on Resy. The versatile project also includes a penthouse cocktail bar (Death Punch) and walk-in Shibuya Eatery in the basement, where Norris sends out sushi starring North Pacific blue fin tuna and yellowtail, succulent short rib skewers grilled over binchotan charcoal, build-your-own bento boxes, and donburi bowls.

Maydan sets an Arabic table with communal plates like zucchini baba ghanoush, chicken shish taouk kebabs, and ribeye seasoned with blue fenugreek, all complemented by an array of condiments such as toum, tahina sauce, and zhug. In addition to a dining room built around a theatrical wood-burning hearth, Maydan covered the alleyway leading to its doorway with patterned carpets that add an inviting touch to its outdoor setup. Owners Rose Previte and Mike Schuster (Compass Rose) secured future brick-and-mortar homes in Fairfax and Clarendon for Tawle, their Middle Eastern, family-style menu offshoot born at Maydan.

Descend a set of stairs to discover this longstanding West African gem in Shaw. Chef-owner Prince Matey draws inspiration from his grandmother’s Ghanaian recipes while creating flavors that cater to native Washingtonians. Slow-cooked seafood okra is a destination dish, but Matey’s hearty egusi soup, jollof rice, and red red (stewed black eye peas in palm oil) are also not to miss. Much of the menu goes well with his expert preparations of goat, oxtail, and fufu — Ghana’s doughy starch staple made of mashed plantain flour. Diners in the know flock here for one of the top vegan dishes in town: an off-menu garden egg stew.

This tiny, versatile restaurant in Logan Circle provides an essential service to homesick customers from throughout Central America. Telma Majano’s kitchen does justice to Honduran staples like plate-sized flour tortilla baleadas, full of refried beans and salty crema, or fried chicken drizzled with mayonnaise dressing, cabbage, pickled beets, and a mountainous portion of thick plantain chips. There are also Salvadoran pupusas and pan con pollo (stewed chicken subs with potato and boiled eggs) as well an impressive selection of Mexican dishes like a rich, porky white pozole, a rich chicken mole Poblano, and tacos served with sweat-inducing verde and habanero salsas. Call for takeout orders or walk in to sit in the small dining room.

At this casual, cozy “neo-bistro” in Georgetown, chef Matt Conroy adopts a French appreciation for market produce. The chef’s restraint exudes confidence in dishes made with a handful of ingredients, like the pillowy Parisian gnocchi that Lutèce offered with corn and poblano pepper on one visit, and with chanterelles and leeks on another. Reservations for a chef’s table menu ($65 per person) include four courses and a view of the kitchen.

Chef Rob Rubba puts vegetables on a pedestal, so Oyster Oyster’s presence in Shaw is fantastic news for diners who don’t eat meat but still want to enjoy an avant-garde tasting menu. Rubba, who attracted D.C. critics’ attention as the former chef at Hazel, partnered with Estadio owner Max Kuller on this venture prioritizing sustainability that’s up for a 2022 James Beard Award for best new restaurant of the year. The latest menu includes a significant holdover, a bird’s nest of fried celery root that’s wrapped around a morsel of smoked tofu, roasted sweet potato with pickled ramp shoots, and a shiitake chip cookie for dessert. A $55 selected wine pairing goes with an $85 meal. Reservations are available here.

Chef Marjorie Meek-Bradley smashes the city’s stuffy steakhouse conventions with a menu at this Union Market tavern that gives vegetables equal billing. Her 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. Stephen Starr’s blockbuster NYC bistro Pastis is slated to join St. Anselm in the budding industrial complex.

Jeremiah Langhorne’s focus on researching Mid-Atlantic recipes, deploying hearth-fueled cooking, and working with local purveyors has paid off with national accolades from Michelin and the James Beard Foundation. The Dabney ditched takeout earlier than many local hotspots, instead focusing on four-course prix fixe menus ($95 each) that require advanced planning for anyone hoping to snag a reservation in Shaw. Customers can expect to find dishes like Autumn Olive Farm pork with young collard greens, mustard, and sarsaparilla; and fluke with pea shoot pistou. Indoor and outdoor reservations are released in two-week blocks, with a la carte eats at the bar.

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 10-course, omakase tasting experience at the chef’s counter. A soaring white bar lined with soft cranberry stools sends out stylish cocktails with Mediterranean ingredients like Greek olives, truffle honey, and limoncello.

Reverie chef and owner Johnny Spero draws inspiration and techniques from Nordic countries, Japan, and Maryland. Reverie’s 10- to 15-course prix fixes in the open-kitchen dining room or on a ventilated, covered patio in the back might include anything from sunchoke miso ice cream and caviar to Carolina gold rice with crab and egg. The seafood-centric tasting menu ($205 per person) changes based on availability. Next up for the well-traveled chef: Bar Spero, a lively tribute to the nightlife in Spain’s Basque country opening this summer in Capitol Crossing.

Chef Elias Taddesse dresses freshly ground Maryland beef patties with brown butter aioli to make a cheeseburger as fine as any that can be found around the District, but that’s just an entry point to Mélange. Ethiopian spices stored in translucent containers inside the ordering counter in Mt. Vernon Triangle clue customers into more inventive options that mix up Taddesse’s East African heritage, haute cuisine background, and nostalgia for American drive-thrus. Do not miss the National, a berbere-marinated and dry-spiced fried chicken sandwich reminiscent of doro wat stew. Takeout pints of ice cream in simple flavors like milk or toast are also exceptional. Walk in or order online.

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. The chef and her crew pull ratatouille omelets out of long-handled frying pans that sizzle next to glowing red logs. There’s phenomenal focaccia here, and the 10-layer eggplant Parmesan is a showstopper, but eating light is painless, too, with choices like a charred chicken and escarole salad. Plus, Brandwein recently added wood-fired pizzas to the mix. Order takeout online or get delivery via Caviar from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. (closed Monday and Tuesday). Brandwein just revealed plans to expand into the next-door space this summer.

H Street’s cool cafe, streetwear shop, and, now, record store, continues to stay relevant five years in thanks to a loyal following for its Taiwanese fried chicken, dim sum, crystal shrimp dumplings, and lo mein topped with pork shoulder and chicken confit. Prolific D.C. chef Erik Bruner-Yang wasted no time when the pandemic hit, launching ambitious crowdfunding system Power of 10 to put restaurant workers back on the job and feed communities in need at the same time. Book a table or order pickup and delivery online.

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. Sundas likes to combine Northern and Southern Indian cooking styles with some unorthodox touches: Think 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.

Business lunchers, beware. Anyone who orders a Spanish gin and tonic will likely find themselves thirsty for an eminently refreshing refill. Chef Pepe Moncayo, a Spaniard who spent a large chunk of his career cooking in Singapore, oversees this Michelin-starred Iberian-Japanese melting pot that makes people feel welcome in many ways. There’s $38 bento boxes available weekdays from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. An omakase version handpicked by the chef is $60 (with a beverage pairing for $30). At dinner, opt for a 10-course omakase for $118. Tapas range from patatas bravas to duck rillete gyozas, and a la carte large plates offer yellowfin tuna with shiso pesto or paella studded with smoked eel.

Since opening in 2002, José Andrés’s mega Mediterranean complex in Penn Quarter has amassed a devoted fan base for crispy Brussels sprouts with coriander seed and barberries, impressive kebabs, billowing pita breads, and Greek yogurt cheesecakes. Chef Michael Costa offers family-style tasting menus for $45 a person. A “meze ora” (4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday) includes $5 pide and $8 cocktails. There’s a four-course meze brunch with rosé flights, too ($75 for two).

This is the flagship restaurant for Daikaya Group, D.C.’s foremost experts 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.

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 slowly simmered in a decadent, buttery gravy is another signature. Both the Penn Quarter flagship and its West End sibling are ideal venues for vegetarian diners, too.

When NYC-import Sushi Nakazawa opened in the Trump International Hotel right after José Andrés stormed out of a contract in the same location, it became the most controversial sushi bar in D.C. Less up for debate is the 20-course, nigiri-sushi omakase that stuns in the expert hands of “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” chef Masaaki Uchino. There’s no dinner menu, which leaves more time to linger over an impressive list of Japanese whiskey and sake. The most coveted seats are at the 10-seat sushi bar that offers the best view of the action. Fortunately for the restaurant, Trump International Hotel is in the hands of new owners who have stripped it of the Trump name.

The name means “workshop,” but this three-level Italian complex on the Southwest Waterfront is an impressive multi-hyphenate: cafe-market-butcher-shop-amaro-bar-trattoria-rooftop-lounge. Restaurateur Nicholas Stefanelli, who holds a Michelin star at tasting menu destination Masseria, offers classed-up standards like bucatini all’Amatriciana, Manilla clams with saffron linguine, and stuffed pork chops. During the course of the pandemic, Officina added sibling locations downtown and in Georgetown. Philotimo, Stefanelli’s ambitious Greek tasting spot, opened in Midtown Center in January.

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 five-spice foie mousse with onion jam on brioche and cornmeal-fried catfish dressed with pea leaves and fermented mustard greens. On the lighter side, a green mango salad gets a sweet kick from lychee. The sleek bar sends out spins on a Boulevardier and espresso martini engineered with chicory drip coffee.

Albi chef Michael Rafidi manipulates smoke with a master’s touch, sending out dishes from the wood-burning hearth at his high-end Levantine restaurant that have a way of commanding a diner’s full attention. The Maryland native’s Middle Eastern menu tweaks dishes to incorporate peak produce — see the smashed pumpkin labneh or apple and pear fattoush for fall — but the snack-sized lamb kefta kebabs speared on cinnamon sticks should never go out of style. A lengthy wine list full of hard-to-find Eastern Mediterranean labels, cocktails, and desserts all rise to the occasion. Albi recently added the title of one of Eater’s 11 Best New Restaurants in America to its growing accolades. For something more affordable, head next-door to sibling bakery and cafe, Yellow.

The “home-style” Chinese restaurant in Peter Chang’s portfolio pays tribute to the women that influenced the legendary former embassy chef, with fiery dishes that call back his childhood in the Hubei province of central China and his home life in Virginia. Chang, a master of numbing spice, has woven in Sichuan and Hunan techniques into a menu of vegetable-heavy plates, dim sum, and family-style orders. There’s dine-in seating across its plant-filled, zen dining room in Fairfax. Order takeout here or get and delivery via Uber Eats.