Bon Appétit magazine just came out with its annual list of the 50 Best New Restaurants in America, and two DC-area dining rooms are among the standouts: Indian hotspot Daru near the H Street Corridor, and family-run Palestinian flatbread joint Z&Z Manoushe Bakery in Rockville.
Daru, opened by barman Dante Datta and chef Suresh Sundas—both Rasika alums—has been a darling of the dining scene since it opened a year ago. Bon App critics love Datta’s creative cocktails like the Chai-teani, and Sundas’s ” thoughtful and cheeky” dishes such as black daal with burrata. Meanwhile, Z&Z Manoushe is more of a sleeper hit. It was opened last October by Palestinian-American brothers Danny and Johnny Dubbaneh, who also run Z&Z spice company (this video of the brothers surprising their family with the new restaurant space—which originally belong to their grandfather—is a tear-jerker). We agree with Bon Appétit that over-ordering the griddled flatbreads is the way to go.
This year marks the return of the 50 Best list, which was on hiatus during the pandemic (last year’s lineup of 50 Best Restaurant Meals didn’t include any DC-area names). On September 14, Bon Appétit will announce their list of America’s 10 best new restaurants.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
