Marco Canora’s Gnocchi at Pineapple & Pearls

Veteran NYC chef Marco Canora created these ethereal gnocchi with just two ingredients—potato and flour. The Capitol Hill tasting room’s version of his recipe tastes like pure alchemy: tiny clouds finished with a seemingly endless blizzard of shaved truffles.

Grilled Mussels at Petite Cerise

Sauce Choron—a mix of lush béarnaise and tangy tomato that’s particularly great with seafood—doesn’t get the love it deserves these days. This Shaw French spot resurrects it beautifully, glazing it over grilled mussels with chorizo.

Seafood Chả Giò at Nue

This gussied-up Vietnamese restaurant stuffs its crackly-­fried rice-paper spring rolls with crab, shrimp, pork, and taro, then tops them off with even more crunchy bits. Wrap the rolls with fresh herbs and lettuce, then dip them in tangy fish-sauce dressing.

Conch Fritters at the Bazaar by José Andrés

This surrealist Spanish dining room is full of surprises—including this throwback dish from one of José Andrés’s first DC restaurants, the long-closed Café Atlántico. The crunchy Caribbean-style snacks are filled with warm béchamel and get a whiff of umami from bonito flakes.

Butternut-Squash Tart at Rose Ave Bakery

Rose Nguyen’s Woodley Park cafe—one of the best bakeries to come out of the pandemic pastry boom—turns out these flaky square tarts holding a comfortingly warm and sweet squash curry.

Herring-Style Salmon and Warm Potato at L’Avant-Garde

Salmon and potato do not sound like a pairing that would result in culinary fireworks, but that’s just what you’ll get when you order this juniper-marinated fish topped with rings of onion—one of lauded French chef Gilles Epié’s decades-­old signatures.

Churros at La Tingeria

Perhaps because the tacos are among the very best in the region, the churros here might get overlooked. But the caramel-filled fried treats—with even more caramel on the side—are their own worthy attraction.

Brisket Kare Kare at Sari Filipino Kusina

American barbecue meets Filipino comfort food in this decadent bowl, pairing smoky slabs of brisket and a creamy peanut stew with long beans and Chinese eggplant.

Peking Duck at the Duck & the Peach

The juicy, crisp-skinned rotisserie duck at this relaxed Capitol Hill dining room is served whole or by the half, and its accompaniments change with the seasons, whether grilled peaches and pickled chilies in the summer or a lovely citrus vinaigrette in the fall.

Mochi Agedashi at Perry’s

Chef Masako Morishita uses delightfully gummy chunks of deep-fried mochi instead of tofu for this classic Japanese dish with dashi broth and grated daikon. Smoked salmon roe adds an extra pop.

This article appears in the December 2023 issue of Washingtonian.