100 Very Best Restaurants 2013: BlackSalt

Each night in the open kitchen off this dining room lined with Mondrian-like grids of frosted glass, chef Thomas Leonard and his crew deftly turn out bacony oysters Rockefeller one minute, pristine fluke sashimi the next. The menu may be all over the map—dashes of Mexico, hints of Provence—but the common denominator in most dishes is that seafood is the star.

Oyster lovers are rewarded with bivalves from British Columbia, New England, and Washington state, and owners Jeff and Barbara Black have collaborated with Virginia’s Rappahannock Oyster Co. to come up with two varieties of their own (we like the brinier Old Black Salts).

Fronting the restaurant is the area’s best fish market—it carries most of the seafood you’ll find on the menu (excellent lobsters, sweet scallops from Taylor Bay).

Don’t miss: Bigeye-tuna tartare; fried clams with curried aïoli; tuna with pork belly and ginger-soy broth; bouillabaisse; Key-lime pie; butterscotch pot de crème with a Dewar’s milkshake; brunchtime gravlax with bagels.

Open: Monday through Saturday for lunch and dinner, Sunday for brunch and dinner. Expensive.