The Hot List: 10 Restaurants Around DC We’re Loving Right Now

Chef Seng Luangrath already has another hit on her hands with this friendly, vibrant Southeast Asian bar-restaurant. The long-awaited Baan Mae replaces Hanumanh, the cocktail spot that the Laotian chef (also behind Thip Khao and Padaek) ran with her son Boby Pradachith. It’s much less mixology-focused, leaving room for Luangrath’s cooking to shine. Spoon gaeng ped, a warming crab curry topped with a handful of pea tendrils, over a mound of fragrant rice tinted a surrealistic blue with butterfly pea flower. Or, knock back a few drinks with snack-sized dishes like jaew bong chicken wings with fermented Lao chili paste. Either way, you should make room for an order of Luangrath’s sakoo dumplings—small, sticky tapioca orbs filled with crushed peanuts and preserved radish, which you tuck into lettuce leaves. Though it still feels like a bar, Baan Mae is a serious restaurant, and one of Luangrath’s most exciting culinary contributions yet.

In the past decade, Takoma Park has gone from dining dead-zone to destination. One of this year’s most notable arrivals is this snug Vietnamese market/dining room in the old Mark’s Kitchen space. Owner Thuy-Tu Tran, who once worked at Doi Moi and previously ran a food truck, recreates the homey, brightly flavorful dishes she grew up on. Smoky lemongrass chicken is nearly—but not quite—upstaged by a heap of pickled mustard greens. A lunchtime bowl of vermicelli with grilled pork sings with mint and pickled daikon. There are loads of vegetarian and vegan options, too, like mushroom-filled egg rolls, an eggplant banh mi, and a vibrant cabbage salad with sesame-rice chips. And if you’re hooked on the kitchen’s nuoc cham, you can grab some to go from the fridge up front.

French-American bistro Mintwood Place, which closed in 2022 after 10 years, was known for its cozy vibe in a rustic, woodsy room. That’s just a memory now. Its light, airy replacement—all Turkish rugs, painted tiles, and off-white banquettes—couldn’t feel more different. What remains, though, is a neighborhoody feel, with warm and welcoming service (the place is still owned by restaurateur Saied Azali). The menu is filled with Greek, Turkish, and Persian-accented dips, mezze, and kebabs. High on our list right now: a salad of green olives with tons of fresh herbs and high-quality olive oil; a spread of whipped feta with honey and pine nuts, served with crusty bread; golden zucchini fritters with yogurt; and a homey platter of Greek roast chicken.

David Guas, who has worked for decades as a pastry chef—including at his own Bayou Bakery in Courthouse—raises his game at this already-packed McLean dining room. The Millennial-peach-and-green decor, with its basket-weave lights and leafy wallpaper, nods to Florida, and dishes like crispy tuna croquetas with lime taste like something you’d find on a Key West vacation. But much of the menu is more generally rooted in the American south and in Guas’s native Louisiana. A skillet of buttery roasted oysters comes with plenty of bread for sopping up the good stuff, and the menu’s early star is a lemony, creamy crawfish pasta.

Chef Ricky Wang, an alum of Sushi Nakazawa and Minibar, presides over this elegant 14-seat marble tasting counter above Capitol Hill’s Han Palace. The 21-course omakase ($180) includes a couple of seasonal prepared dishes, like tempura-fried local soft-shell crab, but the focus is on the thoughtfully sourced and elevated premium fish for nigiri. Scallops, submerged off the coast of Hokkaido less than 48 hours prior, are paired with a kumquat-kosho that’s aged for two months. Unicorn fish is magical with a sauce of its own liver. But a particular delight is the mackerel—not fishy at all—which you’re instructed to eat immediately so the warmth of your mouth melts the fat. The staff provides more narration than you’ll find at other omakase spots, for those who want to know the seasonal differences in yellowtail or preparation of the conger sea eel.

Just as we have reached the era of the $20 cocktail and $17 sandwich, now we have the $30 pizza (that will feed a few, not a crowd). At this new shop from former Seylou Bakery alums Charbel Abrache and Andrea Alvarez, you get what you pay for. Locally milled flour and carefully procured ingredients, sure, but also, that crust! The slightly sour rectangle pizzas (also served by the slice) nod to both Roman and Sicilian styles, and their bases, crisped in an olive oil-slicked pan, are at once chewy and airy. The straight-up pepperoni pizza is excellent, but the pies also stand up to a bigger crowd of toppings, including eggplant, cherry tomatoes, olives, and parmesan cream. For dessert, there are creative soft serve flavors, such as fig-leaf-and-orange.

In the past year, Takoma Park’s Carroll Avenue has turned into quite the food destination—there’s the Vietnamese Muoi Tieu, Red Hound pizzeria, and now, this breakfast-through-dinner burrito spot. San Pancho comes from the couple behind nearby Cielo Rojo, the vegan-friendly Mexican cafe that recently moved into a larger space (also on Carroll Avenue). We head here for the terrific flour tortillas, which are imported from Mexico and swaddle burritos filled with proteins like spicy shrimp, carne asada, and chicken in mole sauce (order the “super” version, which adds guac’, cheese, and sour cream). In the morning, though, it’s all about the barbacoa breakfast torta on telera bread. Other great perks: the zingy avocado salsa that comes alongside the burritos, plus margaritas and non-alcoholic drink options like horchata and lemon/mint slushies.

What started as a stall in an out-of-the-way Brentwood food hall transformed this spring into a sleek, well-appointed standalone eatery— and still offers one of the most flavor-packed grilled meat lunches you can find in the area. Spice Kitchen’s specialty is suya—flame-licked meat dusted with peanut-chile powder and found on every street corner in Lagos— and it applies the suya treatment to various proteins. Lamb chops and salmon are two of the less-common variations absolutely worth a try. Fiery red jollof rice and honey-sweet fried plantains are crucial accompaniments.

When it opened in May, we wrote that Tamashaa was joining the ranks of DC’s other inventive, upscale Indian options like Rasika and Rania. But step into the neon purple-and-orange dining room and it becomes clear that Tamashaa is more vibrant and quirky than those refined places. Chef Manoj Goel cooks in a traditional Indian idiom, but his inventions have the same vividness as the dining room: shrimp-and-asparagus chaat tucked into taco-shaped puffs of sago starch; hot cheese-and-shishito-stuffed kulcha bread; pinwheels of paneer in saffron sauce; and a rainbow of chutneys accompanied by pastel pink and green papadums and crackers.