Washington, D.C. Map Anders Husa & Kaitlin Orr

Washington, D.C., is best known as the political center of the United States. This city is the nation’s capital and the home of the White House, the Supreme Court, the Capitol Building, Congress, and numerous other significant government buildings. D.C.’s many museums house important historical documents and priceless artworks, and the city’s landscape is dotted with treasured national landmarks like the Washington Monument. D.C. is also home to some of the country’s top restaurants. So whether or not you’re working on The Hill, you can eat well in the District.

We’ve compiled all our Washington, D.C., favorites in this foodie map. You’ll find the city’s top fine dining restaurants, casual eateries, cocktail bars, ice cream shops, and more. Navigate the map easily either by scrolling through the list on the right or by clicking the points on the map. Places are listed in geographical order.

Lutèce is our favorite casual restaurant in D.C. This charming neighborhood spot has an eye-catching bold blue exterior, an adorable patio, and a cozy dining room with big, bright windows. Tables are crammed in close, making the space feel buzzy and alive, like a Parisian bistro. Husband-and-wife duo Matt Conroy and Isabel Coss are in charge of the kitchen. Two of our favorite dishes were the savory madeleines with whipped chicken and duck liver and the potato hash browns, gooey on the inside and crispy on the outside, topped with crème fraîche, dill, and oscietra caviar. We also loved the stuffed golden chicken neck with garleeks, chanterelles, and Albufera sauce. But you can’t leave without ordering the signature dessert – whipped honey semifreddo topped with curls of 18-month-aged Comté cheese and studded with crunchy pieces of honeycomb. Somewhere between a cheese course and a sweet treat, this is one of the most balanced desserts we’ve had. Lutèce is serving some of the tastiest, most original food in D.C.

Yellow is an all-day Levantine café from chef Michael Rafidi of Michelin-starred restaurant Albi. The wood-fired pita sandwiches here are a great lunch option – the chicken shawarma was our favorite, but they also serve charred steak, smoked lamb, crispy falafel, and barbecued cauliflower. We loved the fresh fattoush salad with stone fruit, heirloom tomatoes, feta, pita croutons, and a harissa vinaigrette. Our favorite savory bite, however, was the batata tots – layered potato cubes with urfa chili sauce and shawarma spices. Be sure to save some room for the sweets – the snickerdoodle-like brown butter cinnamon cookie was a winner, as was the incredibly moist basbousa (olive oil cake) topped with pistachio. But the dessert we’re still dreaming about is the creamy cardamom oat soft serve! Yellow also serves specialty coffee drinks like a coconut cardamom cold brew and a baklava mocha with chocolate and rose. Yellow has two locations: one in Georgetown and another at Union Market.

Our favorite specialty coffee shop in Washington, D.C. is Grace Street Coffee Roasters, an independent roaster with a flagship store in Georgetown. The interior of the café has sleek, minimalist design with a large bar in the center and bench-style seating along the perimeter. They offer a daily selection of pour-over coffees from different countries – some washed, some natural process. Our two favorites were the Ethiopian with notes of bubblegum, strawberry, and chocolate, and the Colombian with flavors of milk tea, melon, and cherry. Georgetown is where they roast all their coffee, and they also have another location in Maryland, as well as a partnership with the Rubell Art Museum in D.C.

Reverie is chef Johnny Spero’s one-Michelin-starred daydream, hidden in a back alley in Georgetown. Walk down a cobblestone street until you see the zen garden-like entrance. When you step inside, you’re face-to-face with a black marble counter where the chefs are plating dishes. A limited number of cloth-covered tables face the open kitchen. There’s no meat on the tasting menu – instead, Reverie highlights locally sourced seafood from New England. The signature sea urchin dish was a standout: Carolina gold rice is cooked like congee, topped with a gigantic tongue of uni, and covered in a silky egg yolk and white soy sauce. This dish was incredibly creamy, like a wonderfully comforting porridge. Another favorite was the catch of the day – gently grilled cod with hazelnut oil, a magnificent butter sauce with marigold, black currant, and lemon verbena, and a caramelized purée of koginut squash and carrot juice.

For a fancy weekend brunch, look no further than Imperfecto. The venue has a sleek, upscale feel, with cobalt blue accents coloring the dining room and an expansive marble bar. The à la carte brunch menu is Mediterranean-inspired: a classic eggs benedict gets a Middle Eastern twist with sumac hollandaise, and pancakes come topped with halva foam. The signature tiger prawns “a la diablo,” with lemon butter, house-made Cholula hot sauce, and sourdough bread, are a must-order – the only crossover item on both the brunch and dinner menus. But for us, the absolute can’t-miss dish is the lemon blueberry soufra, a baked phyllo dough dessert with lemon custard, fresh blueberries, and vanilla thyme ice cream. (The restaurant may be Imperfecto, but this dessert is perfecto!) Imperfecto also offers a Michelin-starred tasting menu experience for dinner at The Chef’s Table, the long communal table by the kitchen.

Former minibar chef Ruben Garcia opened a relaxed Spanish restaurant with a menu inspired by the food he cooks at home. This is authentic Spanish cuisine, with recipes passed down to him through his family. Start with some croquetas (our favorites are the oxtail and béchamel) and the pan con tomate. Casa Teresa’s version of this Spanish classic requires a hands-on approach, so grab a tomato and grate it on top of crispy bread, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt. Then, move on to the Ibérico presa with crispy confit garlic chips, and fill your table with fire-roasted sides, like beef fat potatoes, mushrooms in a sweet pine nut sauce, and smoky onions with egg yolk, sobrassada, and honey. And don’t stop there – no visit to Casa Teresa is complete without their signature Basque cheesecake. It’s goaty (in a good way), creamy, and perfectly straddles that sweet/savory line with a drizzle of walnut praline on top. It's the best Basque cheesecake we’ve had outside of Spain.

Tail Up Goat is a charming neighborhood restaurant in Adams Morgan serving a playful tasting menu. Highlight dishes from our visit included a comforting bowl filled with Yukon gold potato foam, a salt-roasted new potato, corn, sweet onions, and chives, as well as a savory take on a funnel cake, featuring crispy pecorino cheese straws topped with shaved truffle. We also loved the dessert: a labne chocolate cake with coffee buttercream, nectarine honey, and hazelnuts – rich, creamy, moist, and totally addictive. The food is what made us come here, but the service is what will bring us back – the entire staff was so friendly and fun!

Our top meal in the U.S. capital was at Jônt, the fine dining tasting menu restaurant discreetly tucked above the casual Bresca. The 17-seat chef’s counter faces the kitchen, where executive chef Ryan Ratino mans an open fire and binchotan grills. Jônt is heavily Japanese-inspired, using ingredients and cooking techniques from Japan, as well as handcrafted plates and cutlery brought back from research trips. Their signature donabe-cooked sasanishiki rice is one dish that never leaves the menu; it’s seasoned with kombu, maitake mushrooms, wild king crab from Hokkaido, and Australian winter truffle. The Jônt team was polished and professional, serious and knowledgeable, yet still fun and personable. And don’t expect a stuffy vibe – the playlist had us dancing in our seats to party hits from The Pussycat Dolls, Snoop Dogg, and Jay-Z. This restaurant is in a league of its own in D.C. and right up there with the best meals we’ve had in the States. Jônt currently has two Michelin stars, but it won’t be long until they earn the third.

On the ground floor you’ll find Bresca, the more laid-back, one-Michelin-starred counterpart to Jônt. While Jônt leans into more delicate flavors and broth-based sauces, Bresca leans all in on the butter. They call it “butter season” downstairs, and it’s butter season year-round! That means richer, more indulgent, decadent, and heavier butter-based sauces alongside hearty dishes like their famous dry-aged duck or brioche chicken. You’ll get full at Jônt, but you’ll get stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey at Bresca. The hospitality is just as professional, polished, welcoming, and friendly as upstairs – this entire team is truly unmatched in the hospitality game. Bresca is another must-visit D.C. restaurant, whether you opt for a few dishes à la carte or go all in on the chef’s tasting menu.

You can find D.C.'s best ice cream at Malai, a woman-owned, Brooklyn-born ice cream shop with a location in D.C. The name "malai" means "cream of the crop" and refers to the high butterfat content in Indian desserts. All of the spice-forward flavors are inspired by the South Asian flavors of the founder’s childhood. Our favorite was the rose with cinnamon-roasted almonds, which we paired with the masala chai – an extremely aromatic combination. We also sampled lemon cardamom, saffron pistachio, pumpkin garam masala crumble, orange fennel, pineapple pink peppercorn, and coffee cardamom. These are some of the best and most unique ice creams we’ve tried. Malai also has two rotating soft-serve flavors. During our visit, mango and coconut were on offer. When swirled together, they tasted like mango sticky rice, with the flavors enhanced by the contrasting textures of the silky mango soft-serve and its chunky, coconut-flake-studded sidekick.

Allegory is a storybook brought to life in the form of a cocktail bar. Hidden, fittingly, inside a hotel's library, this bar serves more than just tasty drinks. The murals on the walls are inspired by Alice in Wonderland – but in Alice’s place, you’ll find young Ruby Bridges, a civil rights activist who made history as the first African American student to integrate an all-white school. Each page of the cocktail menu tells a bit of Ruby’s story, with a drink inspired by each chapter. Our favorite was the “Beat of the Drums,” Allegory’s take on a margarita, made with tequila, clairin, sherry, orgeat, lime, and fermented huckleberries. We also liked the “Garden of Live Flowers,” with rum, gin, bitter bianco, snap peas, cardamom, aloe, black pepper, coconut, and lemon. And when those caviar cravings hit, an easy $14 will buy you a Caviback – a single Pringle chip topped with a dollop of caviar, served with a shot of chilled vodka. Bottoms up!

Housed in a futuristic space that resembles a science lab, Barmini is the cocktail bar from José Andrés, adjacent to his fine dining restaurant Minibar. Barmini is known for its cocktail flight, a two-hour experience featuring innovative drinks. Current offerings include a pineapple pizza-flavored cocktail and one inspired by the Spanish dessert crema catalana. We opted for the slightly less experimental drinks from their à la carte menu and tried the Floral Cloud, with gin, lemon, crème de violette, maraschino, and a billowing hibiscus cloud. The fog not only makes for a fun presentation but also provides aromatics that enhance the drink. Our two favorite cocktails were the “Anvil Sour,” their take on a daiquiri, with a blend of rums, lime, sugar, and Peychaud's bitters, and the “Chief Lapu Lapu,” a tiki-style drink served in a skull, with rum, orange, lemon, passion fruit, vanilla, and nutmeg. There are also fancy bar snacks available, like grilled cheese with truffle butter and foieffles (waffles with a foie gras espuma).

Pineapple & Pearls is not fine dining; it’s fun dining! This Michelin-starred restaurant is the perfect place to celebrate a special occasion – it’s totally luxurious and wonderfully hedonistic. Caviar, truffles, wagyu, and vintage crystal plates are all on the table – you feel like royalty here, in the best way. Although Pineapple & Pearls does not have a dress code, they encourage you to dress up like it’s a New Year’s Eve party. We saw guests really having fun with this, donning their best sequins and fancy attire. And the food is equally festive – sorbets doused with Champagne, desserts drizzled with 24-karat gold-flecked maple syrup, all the soft serve you can eat, and take-away cheeseburgers. We cannot recommend Pineapple & Pearls more highly – this is one heck of a dinner party!

Michael Rafidi is the chef of the Michelin-starred restaurant Albi. The concept is based on Levantine home cooking, and much of the menu draws inspiration from his Palestinian grandmother’s recipes. Start your meal with a variety of breads and spreads. The fluffy pita resembles a big balloon, served hot from the oven and puffed up in the middle. The dips on the side were also quite tasty. Our favorites were the coal-fired mushroom hummus with black garlic, confit egg yolk, and oyster mushrooms, and the burnt eggplant baba ganoush with cucumbers, pine nuts, and mutabal (a smoky dip of charred eggplant and tahini). We shared a seven-spice lamb rib as a main dish – the meat was so fatty, tender, and incredibly flavorful, served with a pepper spread and pickled onions. Another meal highlight was Albi’s potatoes – layered slices of potatoes dusted in shawarma spices and served with toum (garlic dip). A must-order!