12 places I recommend•4 in the Michelin guide
These are the 12 restaurants, bars and ice cream shops in Washington DC I have eaten at myself and would recommend.
Where a section has more than one place, they are numbered from my favourite downwards. 
marks the ones not to be missed.
Don't forget you can take the map with you
Chef David Deshaies's modern take on the American diner, near the convention centre, where comfort-food classics get a creative twist from breakfast right through to dinner. Deshaies spent twelve years with Michel Richard, rising from line cook to head chef at Citronelle, and the idea came out of the late-night diner stops the two of them made driving to charity events. The crab cake is an homage to him. A Michelin Bib Gourmand.
Address: 1207 9th St NW, Washington, DC 20001, United States
The restaurant at the Park Hyatt in the West End, with an open kitchen and a wood-burning oven, serves American dishes built around ingredients from farms in the region. It held a Michelin star in the early years of the DC guide and is still listed; the marrow bones from the wood oven are what people go for, and there's a dessert station and a tea list with nearly thirty teas.
Address: 1201 24th St NW, Washington, DC 20037, United States
Stephen Starr's Parisian-style brasserie on 14th Street, built in 2013 out of a derelict shirt laundry on the corner of 14th and Q, with a zinc bar, mosaic floors, and a busy pavement terrace, serves French brasserie classics from breakfast through to dinner. It's modelled on his Parc in Philadelphia and named after a bistro he'd been to in Paris.
Address: 1601 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20009, United States
The restaurant at the Dupont Circle Hotel opened in 2019 in what had been Cafe Dupont, with tall windows looking out over Dupont Circle and a French-leaning menu that also nods to the Irish group that owns the hotel. In the Michelin Guide.
Address: 1500 New Hampshire Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036, United States
The Van Ness branch of Fabio and Maria Trabocchi's pasta restaurant is named after the women in Emilia-Romagna who roll out fresh pasta by hand, with a pasta station making it fresh every day. The downtown room closed in 2024, but this one serves the same fresh pasta. Was the best penne alla vodka I've ever had.
Address: 4445 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008, United States
A long-running Italian restaurant on Prospect Street in Georgetown opened on the day Bill Clinton was first elected in 1992 and is well known as the place where politicians, diplomats, and visiting celebrities go to eat. Franco Nuschese, who runs it, is from Minori on the Amalfi Coast and ran restaurants for Caesars Palace before this; there's a second Cafe Milano at the Four Seasons in Abu Dhabi.
Address: 3251 Prospect St NW, Washington, DC 20007, United States
The Washington branch of a Persian restaurant named after the thirteenth-century poet, which Ali Mesghali started outside Atlanta around 2005. A big, colourful room in Mount Vernon Triangle with a tandoor in the open kitchen, serving kebabs, stews, and rice dishes.
Address: 640 L St NW, Washington, DC 20001, United States
An Italian pizzeria in Mount Vernon Triangle making Neapolitan-style pizza in a wood-fired oven, alongside panini, pasta, and Italian street food. It's in a 1950s Waffle Shop diner that a developer moved to this corner and rebuilt, complete with the neon sign, so they've leaned in and serve waffles too, including some with an Italian twist. The original branch in Union Market has a Michelin Bib Gourmand, and there are others at Shirlington and Tysons.
Address: 508 K St NW, Washington, DC 20001, United States
Michael Mina's steakhouse at the Four Seasons in Georgetown has been open since 2008 in what used to be the hotel's Garden Terrace, where the steaks are poached in butter before they go on the grill. The lounge next door has its own menu and was done over completely in 2026.
Address: 2800 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20007, United States
The indoor cocktail bar at the Pendry on The Wharf, the brand's first Washington hotel, serves cocktails and small plates, with a private room off it called the Velvet Room.
Address: 655 Water St SW, Washington, DC 20024, United States
The Georgetown branch of the ice cream shop that started out as a yellow truck in New York in 2008, making French-style ice cream with egg yolks alongside a big range of vegan flavours. Ben Van Leeuwen had driven a Good Humor truck for two summers before starting it with his brother and Laura O'Neill. Whole Foods approached them on the first day the truck went out, and they were on its shelves within six months.
Address: 3245 Prospect St NW, Washington, DC 20007, United States
Washington's first Japanese food hall, at Capitol Crossing near Union Station, opened in 2023 by Makoto Okuwa, who cooked at Sushi Taro here earlier in his career. It's 20,000 square feet, holding an omakase counter, a yakiniku grill called Beloved BBQ that's in the Michelin Guide, and a fast-casual side called Love on the Run, where you order on touch screens and collect from the counter. Its menu includes a matcha coconut soft-serve.
Address: 200 Massachusetts Ave NW Ste 150, Washington, DC 20001, United States
