Opal

This airy Chevy Chase DC dining room from the team behind Shaw’s Nina May turns out modern-American plates that nod to the season. A good starting point is the $29 two-course lunch menu, which comes with a zero-proof drink or iced oat-milk latte (upgrade to wine or a cocktail for an extra $6). Portions are substantial: Our generous serving of chicken paillard, loaded with olives, mint, and sun-chokes, yielded plenty of leftovers, and starters include gazpacho with jumbo lump local crab and a light take on a Caesar.

Ambar

These trendy Balkan restaurants are known for some of the area’s most generous all-you-can-eat menus. The deal is best at lunch, when $27.99 buys you an unlimited choice of nearly 50 dishes—from beef-short-rib goulash to gnocchi with truffled-mushroom sauce. Even the hearty plates are petite enough to sample widely, and Balkan signatures such as cevapi (beef kebabs atop a roasted-pepper/feta spread) tend to be solid choices.

Caruso’s Grocery

Friday and Saturday lunch is prime time to visit the Pike & Rose branch of this red-saucy Italian joint. (The Capitol Hill original doesn’t serve lunch.) The $25 three-course menu starts with a salad (we recommend the standard-setting Caesar), lets you choose any pasta, including the fabulous scampi, then wraps up with a Nutella cannoli.

Del Mar

Yes, this is the home of the $100 paella. But Fabio Trabocchi’s soaring waterfront dining room also sneaks in a daytime deal: a $28 three-course lunch. The Spanish offerings are more rustic than luxe—say, country bread with roasted vegetables and romesco, or grilled branzino in a Basque-style pepper sauce—but the quality of the ingredients and the care in the kitchen make them stand out. Our sendoff of choice is the horchata gelato.

Jaleo

José Andrés’s peppy tapas restaurant in Penn Quarter just celebrated its 30th anniversary. Happily, some of its longest-­running hits are on the $26 express-lunch menu, which gets you three small plates plus dessert. If you haven’t yet tried bacon-wrapped dates with apple-mustard sauce, goat-cheese-stuffed piquillo peppers, or the ever-popular gambas al ajillo (shrimp in garlicky, lemony oil), now is the time.

This article appears in the August 2023 issue of Washingtonian.