If you want to see what separates the good from the great, book a table at this coolly elegant restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and get a master class in the good life.
What links the many courses at this modern Greek restaurant is a reverence for great ingredients and superb taste.
Rasika in Penn Quarter could easily rest on its considerable laurels, but instead improves on what it does by every year adding fresh reasons to drop in.
This underground, 28-seat restaurant specializes in the hot, sour and herby notes of northeastern Thailand, doesn't take reservations and offers only a seven-course, family-style menu.
If you want a taste of tomorrow today, reserve a seat at this futuristic lounge adjoining Minibar, the daring dinner theater from Spanish ambassador Jose Andres.
Handsome quilts create a restful backdrop to the assured, farm-to-table cooking of the Texas-born, French-trained Sebastien Archambault.
You don't have to like meat to warm up to the city's best steakhouse. While grilled beef is the centerpiece, chef John Critchley stocks his menu with all sorts of temptations from field and stream.
The big talent at tiny Etto in Logan Circle is Cagla Onal-Urel, a Turkish native whose Italian small plates underscore the idea that simple can be sublime.
Le Diplomate, under the care of executive chef Adam Schop, executes a perfect omelet, an expert steak au poivre, a divine apple tart, everything delivered by some of the best servers in the city.
Cedric Maupillier is a master of turning familiar recipes into quiet sensations. His menu is French but also American, which means he incorporates ideas from around the world.
"Tastes of the Season," an enticing four-course sonnet from chef-owner Frank Ruta, deserves a big audience.
No restaurant in the city does a more convincing shrimp and grits or pecan pie than this place, a salute to Southern cooking.
Visitors to this cramped but cheery storefront are handed two menus: one lists Thai dishes and the second offers Laotian fare.
Chef Fabio Trabocchi comes from a four-star background -- the late, great Maestro in Tysons Corner -- evinced here by the way he approaches even basic food.
There are two ways to experience this restaurant: Stay on the ground floor to sip the broth and slurp the noodles of Sapporo-style ramen or go upstairs to order from a menu small plates.
Chef Victor Albisu leaves seemingly no dish untorched as he evokes the asados, or barbecues, of South America.
DGS is no standard-issue deli. For starters, the Dupont Circle outpost comes with a bar. Further, the kitchen is more respectful than reverential regarding tradition.
Part Thai, part Vietnamese, Doi Moi is pleasure. Mark Kuller (Proof, Estadio) and chef Haidar Karoum returned from Southeast Asia to create flavors that some foodists compare to Little Serow.
True to its name, this Spanish retreat in Logan Circle can be noisy as a "stadium" at full tilt. But good small plates and sherry cocktails are worth any ruckus.
Every neighborhood deserves an Et Voila!, a source of Belgian steamed mussels and beer-based beef stew that is priced for regular workdays.
Every day feels like Oktoberfest at everyone's favorite beer garden. The fence-enclosed picnic tables on 14th Street NW are some of the most prized seats in the city.
The letters stand for Golden Brown Delicious, three words that apply to two hot dishes here: fried chicken and doughnuts.
With its small plates and fresh fish, this serene Japanese restaurant, just 40 seats on two floors, attracts Japanese speakers in droves.
The latest and perhaps greatest idea (yet) from "Top Chef" veteran Mike Isabella. At this Greek restaurant, the familiar flavors are all accounted for, but the presentations are up to the minute.
The trendiest Korean barbecue around is a group-friendly and thoughtful place to feast on meat that's grilled at your table and comes with a swarm of tasty side dishes.
Introduced in February by the owners of the steady Heritage India above it, the offshoot makes a great compromise for diners who eschew meat and those who embrace it.
The second-most-famous oval room in Washington is the one owned by Ashok Bajaj. Top gun Tony Conte delights in slipping surprises into his cooking.
This Mexican playground from creator Jose Andres is a trailblazer. Thanks to recent expansion next door, it's also more comfortable than ever.
Intriguing wines at user-friendly prices make this bustling newcomer in Bloomingdale worth crossing town for, but so, too, does the relaxed Italian cooking from Michael Friedman.
It would be easy just to drink dinner at this dashing attraction in Cleveland Park, where the sophisticated cocktails and carefully curated wine list elevate Ripple.
Austin Fausett came here in May from the venerated Inn at Little Washington, and the practice shows in much of the food he's serving.
The best restaurant in Baltimore gets to that lofty place by not just meeting, but exceeding, expectations from year to year.
The rustic, two-floor room is no mere novelty act. Influenced by Greece, Turkey, Austria and Hungary, the robust food is good anytime, fall and winter best of all.
Longtime chef Tony Chittum is missed, but his successor, William Morris, is a rising star.
How does chef-owner Patrick O'Connell do it after all these decades at one of the most famous addresses in the food world? I believe in magic.
Roberto Donna cooks dinner for a mere four diners at a kitchen counter at Roberto’s 4, a restaurant-within-a-restaurant inside Al Dente.
