Best of 2026: Where to Eat and Drink in DC

Best Restaurant Vibe

La’ Shukran

Best New Sushi Spot

Maru San

Carlos Delgado has mastered the mod-Peruvian menu at the tasting room Causa. Now, at this dark, tiny, no-reservations counter in Capitol Hill, he turns his attention to another facet of Peruvian cuisine: Nikkei-style handrolls. Cylinders of shatteringly crisp nori are filled with rice and a bounty of fillings and handed to you as they’re made. Go for the version with shrimp and black-mint aïoli or the Old Bay–spiced riff with jumbo lump crab, or opt for a $37 set of six.

Best Fast-Food Riff

FiLao-O-Fish at Baan Mae

Even the most serious of chefs love fast food, so it’s no wonder that fancy riffs populate so many restaurant menus. But the one we can’t stop thinking about is chef Seng Luangrath’s Lao upgrade of McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish sandwich. The “#EatMoreInvasive” special combines fried catfish with tofu mayo, pickled daikon, and green-chili sauce on milk-bread sliders. Crunchy, soft, creamy, tangy, spicy—we’re loving it.

Best Brunch

Ellie Bird

Brunch too often feels less interesting and ambitious than dinner. Not so at Rooster & Owl chef Yuan Tang’s family-friendly restaurant, where you can order a carrot-cake cinnamon roll with masala chai frosting or a halo-halo smoothie bowl filled with tropical fruits, red bean, and lime shaved ice. Instead of the same old egg dishes, try the tornado omelet swirled atop kimchi fried rice or a duck-confit hash jazzed up with hazelnut salsa macha. Bonus: Kids under 12 get free pancakes.

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Best Happy Hours

For Top-Notch Bar Snacks

At Amparo Fondita, the “Hora Poderosa” deal features $5 tacos and $9 snacks such as a green-ceviche tostada or grilled head-on prawns with smoked-chili mayo.

For Three-Martini Evenings

Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse, the 78-year-old LGBTQ+ institution, pours $7.25 house martinis Thursday through Saturday from 4 to 7. More of a whiskey drinker? Manhattans are $7.25, too.

For Beers at ’90s Prices

Texas-themed Hill East Burger serves $2 tallboys on weekdays from 5 to 6:30 and on weekends from 3:30 to 5. Shockingly, you can still find $1 beers at the Artemis sports bar in Columbia Heights from 5 to 6 on weekdays.

For Happy Hour and a Movie

Cinephiles who frequent Alamo Drafthouse may already know about this pre-movie special. Craft-beer pints are $4, glasses of wine are $5, and appetizers are $6 from 4 to 7 on weekdays. Feel free to take purchases into the theater.

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Best Hot Dog

Let’s get this out of the way: Is a half-smoke a hot dog? We’re considering any sausage in a bun to be a hot dog. Stein sampled chili half-smokes from Ben’s Chili Bowl and Weenie Beenie; Haute Dogs’ “House Dog”; Chicago-style dogs from Bun Papa and Marv’s Dogs; and the bacon-topped “Downtown” from Dog Haus. Six sausages, but only one can be top dog.

Stein started with the half-smoke from Ben’s. For the sake of travel, we put the chili on the side, and he first sampled without it. (“A tactical error,” Stein confessed.) But it was an opportunity to really taste the sausage underneath the mustard and onions. “It’s a little coarse, it’s good,” he said. Halfway through the lineup, Stein realized he needed to U-turn for the chili. Suddenly, a frontrunner emerged: “This is how the creator intended it, for sure.” Stein later declared victory for the sausage from a DC institution.

“I am the judge and the jury in this context. The decision cannot be appealed,” said Stein. “It has to be with the chili sauce, though—a very necessary accoutrement.”

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Kitchen Counter at Cana

Some people find their happy place at a quiet park or bookstore. But have you tried posting up at the tiny open kitchen counter of the Brazilian bar Cana? While there’s no bad seat in the house, there is a best seat. From this perch, watch the chefs pull picanha steaks out of the charcoal oven while taking in the buzzy energy of the Caipirinha-filled room. It’s the ideal bar seat for people obsessed with food.

Best Chocolate Cake

“Steffie Kay’s Chocolate Cake” at Unconventional Diner

This Shaw restaurant has always felt more cheffy than blue-plate special, but the star dessert—a fudgy four-layer cake with a whiff of mocha—has humble roots. Restaurateur Eric Eden came upon the confection at a Missouri feed store, where co-owner Steffie Kay is known for her baked goods. Here, chef Leena Ali is hooked, too: She sometimes keeps a slice on her nightstand so it’s perfectly room temperature when she wakes up.

Best Reason to Believe the Hype

Eebee’s Corner Bar

Eebee’s has drawn huge crowds since it opened. We’re here to inform you that the hype is actually worth it. Everyone’s talking (for good reason) about the dry-aged Pat LaFrieda cheeseburger and ultra-stretchy mozzarella sticks, but don’t sleep on the turkey club or the shrimp cocktail with fried saltines. The appeal goes beyond the step-above tavern food and $13 martinis: It’s the Cheers- like vibe cultivated by owner Emily Brown, a bartender’s bartender who takes every detail personally.

Best Splurgy Sandwich

Ham-and-cheese flauta at Jamón Jamón

Order this Catalan-style sando at Ruben Garcia’s stall at the Square food hall and you’re handed what looks like a footlong flute. Actually, it’s a loaf of crusty bread rubbed with tomato and layered with serrano ham and manchego cheese. You’ll wait for it (everything is sliced to order), you’ll pay a lot for it ($17), and you’ll wonder if something so simple could be worth it. Trust us.

Best Cheap Sandwich

Fried-Chicken Sandwich at Blue and White Carry Out

Yes, the humble restaurant looks like it’s about to fall over at any minute. But the fried-chicken sandwich—nothing more complicated than a piece of juicy, well-seasoned dark meat tucked between slices of white bread with some hot sauce—is a pleasant surprise. Even better? At a mere $4, it’ll cost you less than a gallon of gas.

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Best Bread

Barbouzard

Cedric Maupillier’s Riviera-inspired dining room serves our favorite free bread service in town: a housemade baguette you can accessorize with tomato butter and Maldon salt or with olive oil and balsamic.

Best Buns

Ozzie rolls—savory doughnut holes—have long been served at Great American Restaurants spots. We like the to-go version at the local chain’s Best Buns bakeries, which come in a paper bag with honey butter. An A+ car snack.

RPM Italian

Like any good garlic bread, the version at this Italian dining room uses a ton of butter and Parmesan. Unlike others, it has a perfectly calibrated whiff of truffle. The same recipe debuted at the Chicago original 15 years ago.

 

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Expert Picks Best

Joan Nathan knows bagels. The James Beard Award–winning author has written 12 cookbooks focused on Jewish cuisine, so she was a natural choice to lend her taste buds to our bagel test.

Washingtonian last held a bagel tasting in 2022, and the local chain Bethesda Bagels clinched the number-one spot. This time, we lined up the reigning champ against a slate of newer places that have opened within the last two years: Bagel Street in Vienna, H&H in Mount Vernon Triangle, PopUp Bagels in Georgetown, and the downtown DC location of Mikey & Mel’s. (Nathan’s longtime local favorite, the Montreal-ish bagel from Bread Furst in Van Ness, was not part of the panel.)

What makes a winning bagel? For Nathan, it starts with process. “First of all, it should have a long rising,” she said. “They should also be chewy.”

Once the tasting began, the culinary pro quickly narrowed the field to two bagels from out-of-town imports: the “rip and dip” bakery PopUp Bagels and the legendary New York expat H&H. After going back and forth between the two, Nathan ended up crowning H&H as the best new bagel. While she praised the seasoning on both bagels for tasting homemade, texture ultimately pushed H&H rounds to the top spot. Nathan described it as “nice and chewy” and “not too steamy.”

“It’s a traditional bagel,” said Nathan. “A good bagel has you work at it. It can’t be too easy. It’s not like a roll—it tests your teeth. This one does.”

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Best Offbeat Afternoon Teas

For Shakespearean Vibes

Folger Shakespeare Library

Quick to sell out, a classic English tea comes to the Founders’ Room on select weekends. See if you can identify all the Bard’s characters in the stained-glass windows. 

For Tiny Tea Sippers

Ritz-Carlton, Pentagon City

At the hotel restaurant Santé, a kid-friendly Teddy Bear Tea features a hot-chocolate option plus a plush bear to take home. 

For Bridgerton Fans

Scarlet Springs Farm

Meet the Bridgerton clan—or rather, the Highland cows named after them. A classic tea on select dates includes time to hang with the fluffy animals.

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Best Unsung Pizza Neighborhood

Bethesda

Three destination pizzerias sit within a half mile of one another. For 50 years, Vace Italian Deli (4705 Miller Ave.) has been serving thin, crispy pies that flip the script: The cheese is on the bottom, and the bright and tangy tomato sauce sits on top. The Italian American dining room Pines of Rome (4918 Cordell Ave.) is also a half-century institution. The white pizza with fontina and garlic is the must-get, but the pepperoni with red sauce is also a worthy pick. A newer addition to the area, AP Pizza Shop (4747 Bethesda Ave.) —the smaller spin-off of Shaw’s All-Purpose —has an advantage over its sibling: It serves its excellent Jersey-style pizza by the slice at lunch.

This article appears in the July 2026 issue of Washingtonian.