Albi

Michael Rafidi, the chef/owner of this five-year-old Levantine dining room in Navy Yard, has had a lot pulling at his attention this past year: new restaurants (La’ Shukran and Yellow, both in Union Market) as well as national accolades (the James Beard Award for best chef in the country). Yet Albi, his first restaurant, is better than ever. Rafidi celebrates his family’s Palestinian roots in dishes that look beautiful and, often, lead to a perfect bite. The tenderest octopus we’ve tasted outside of the Mediterranean is grilled on a spear and paired with dill yogurt and pomegranate molasses. The dips, such as baba ghanoush with smoky pumpkin and pickled raisins or spheres of oil-preserved labneh with apricot, will have you tearing through warm puffs of pita. Meat eaters will find a lot to love—order all the lamb you can, and don’t skip the beef-cheek-stuffed cabbage—but a whole trout, cooked in the sparking hearth that backlights the open kitchen, is equally revelatory.