Causa

Carlos Delgado elevates his native Peruvian cuisine at this Shaw tasting room—and the caliber of the DC dining scene along with it. The six-course (plus snacks) menu journeys from the coast to the Andes with artistic plates such as kombu-cured scallops showered in leche de tigre snow or a flower-adorned butternut-squash stew hiding sweet bites of Maryland crab. The kitchen sources seafood typically reserved for the best sushi restaurants, and “fish market” add-ons show off an ambitious dry-aging program as well as whole fish sliced to order for preparations both raw and grilled in a wood-burning oven. The upstairs cocktail bar Amazonia gussies up street foods and ceviches alongside the best pisco sours in town.