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Welcome to Washingtonian’s Hot List! These are 10 restaurants our food team is particularly excited about right now. Every month, we’ll swap in and out new recommendations—old and new, fancy and casual—that we’ve visited recently and deserve your attention. While our 100 Very Best Restaurants ranking is still our ultimate guide to the DC area’s top dining destinations, this is a place where we’ll give you a real-time pulse check on the region’s eating and drinking scene.
Italian • Navy Yard • 885 New Jersey Ave., SE
At this new, neighborhoody Italian spot from former Doi Moi chef Johanna Hellrigl and cocktail guru Micah Wilder, the mission statement is about as long as the menu, describing everything from the restaurant’s dish-washing system to its frying practices to the kitchen’s nut oils and unrefined sugars. That commitment to such high back-end standards is admirable, and even better, it doesn’t make the rustic Italian cooking feel any less indulgent. (As any spirulina-smoothie drinker knows,“wellness” and “deliciousness” don’t always go hand in hand.) Start with thin focaccia laced with mild and milky crescenza cheese, or a generous salmon tartare punched up with sun-dried tomatoes. Then, move onto straightforward pleasures like spaghetti pomodoro, veal Milanese, and a big bowl of mixed berries draped with sabayon. To drink, there are several negronis to choose from, plus a smoky and smooth vodka martini. Curiously, the only underwhelming drinks we tried were the non-alcoholic ones.
![Ama - Washingtonian](https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/AMA-DAY-2-GIADA-PAOLONI-1689-300x200.jpg)
Laotin • Shaw • 1604 Seventh St., NW
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.
![Baan Mae - Washingtonian](https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240530-BaanMae-Massaman-Andrew-Noh_Noh-Leftovers-300x200.jpg)
Indian • Fairfax • 3957 Pender Dr.
This brand new vegetarian South Indian snack bar is impossible to stumble across, tucked way off the street into a low-slung Fairfax business park it shares with a memory care facility and a tax consultancy. But owner Sri Saravan picked the space for a reason: the quiet spot, surrounded by ornamental trees, reminded him of the restaurant’s namesake, Bangalore, India’s “Garden City.” Like the snack bars there, Bengaluru Cafe has a slightly institutional, canteen-like feel. Beautifully crispy doubled-over dosas, topped with a melting pat of butter, come out on colorful cafeteria trays, as do plates of fluffy steamed idly and doughnut-like vada, with vivid coconut and tomato chutneys for dipping. The daily specials menu, scrawled on a chalkboard, rewards experimentation. Bright yellow lemon rice, served with chutney and fresh papadam, was a recent prize.
![Bengaluru Cafe_MasalaDosa_Ike - Washingtonian](https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/MasalaDosa_Ike-300x225.jpg)
Pizza • Daingerfield Island • 1 Marina Dr, Alexandria
Water. Sun. Pizza. Frosé. What more do you really want on a summer’s day? The team behind Sonny’s Pizza in Park View recently took over operations of the waterfront restaurant at the Washington Sailing Marina in Alexandria. They serve the same grandma-style pan-pizza squares and natural wines they’re already known for, but with views of boats on the Potomac and planes flying out of DCA. Grab a seat on the umbrella-dotted deck or make a picnic on the grass (indoor seating is coming soon). The place is pet- and kid-friendly with live music and tasting events planned throughout the summer.
![Catboat Pizza Bar - Washingtonian](https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/DSC_0756-259x300.jpg)
American • Vienna • 111 Church St., NW, Vienna
Nick Palermo—the former chef at Clarity, once Vienna’s most ambitious restaurant—has opened a dining room with former Clarity GM Sam Schnoebelen just a few blocks away from their old workplace. The brick-walled spot, already packed with a neighborhood clientele, specializes in cheffy comfort food. Onion rings come laden with beef-shank ragu, caramelized onions, and Comté, in a nod to French onion soup. The fried green tomatoes are everything you’d want in the oft-maligned dish—supremely crunchy on the outside, tangy and juicy on the inside, and slathered with fabulous pimiento cheese. A fat, decadent burger is made from house-ground ribeye and served on a just-baked brioche bun. And the kitchen puts out a plate of cavatelli and meatballs that would make any grandmother—Evelyn and Rose are the names of Schnoebelen’s and Palermo’s—proud.
![EvelynRose-14 - Washingtonian](https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/EvelynRose-14-300x212.jpg)
Latin American • Shaw • 804 V St., NW
Vegetables put on a show at this plant-based tasting-menu restaurant from chefs Miguel Guerra and Tatiana Mora, formerly of Michelin-starred El Cielo and cocktail bar Serenata. Choose four ($75), six ($95), or 14 ($150) artistic courses—or go à la carte at the bar, which turns out immaculate mezcal cocktails. A hit available whichever menu you opt for: build-your-own arepas with corn-cake variations using plantains or smoked potato, plus tropical peach-palm “butter,” guac, and a cashew “sour cream.” Mushroom dashi tops a dreamy Andean root-vegetable soup.
![D85_4170 - Washingtonian](https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/D85_4170-300x208.jpg)
Vietnamese • Penn Quarter • 927 F St., NW
Chef Kevin Tien has amped up his ambitions for modern Vietnamese cooking at the latest reincarnation of Moon Rabbit—originally at the Wharf, now in Penn Quarter—and it shows. Take the bò lá lốt, grilled ground beef traditionally wrapped in betel leaves. Here, the dish is upgraded with wagyu and perilla, plus a drizzle of fermented honey and labneh with chili oil for dipping. Meanwhile, kabocha squash turns into a star when paired with a sweet fermented red curry, plus a shower of crispy seeds and curry leaves. And crab rangoon is transformed into a creamy dip, gooey with robiola cheese and layered with pepper jelly. Unexpected savory ingredients make their way into both cocktails and desserts, whether it’s a passionfruit drink with fish sauce or a green curry sponge cake with avocado sorbet. But we’re most impressed by pastry chef Susan Bae’s durian mousse dessert, which tempers the fruit’s funk and pairs it delightfully with white chocolate.
![Moon Rabbit Kevin Tien - Washingtonian](https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/DSC07681-Enhanced-NR-300x200.jpg)
Vietnamese • Takoma Park • 7006 Carroll Ave., Takoma Park
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.
![IMG_3328 - Washingtonian](https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/IMG_3328-300x200.jpg)
Eastern Mediterranean • Adams Morgan • 1813 Columbia Rd., NW
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.
Sushi • Capitol Hill • 522 Eighth St., SE
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.
![CR3_4455 - Washingtonian](https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/CR3_4455-300x200.jpg)