Food blogger Feast After Famine recommends this ice cream shop’s chocolate and vanilla custard and their seasonal Girl Scout Cookie-inspired Thin Mint Custard.
Todd Thrasher makes the cocktails at this speakeasy (there's no sign outside, just a blue light). It's owned by the team behind the terrific Restaurant Eve.
The best restaurant in Reston Town Center is also one of Washington’s best seafood palaces. The kitchen does well with raw-bar towers, sushi rolls, and an atlas’s worth of appetizers and entrées.
Its all-new massive, wrap-around diamond plate main bar's ringed by 25 flatscreens, dart boards, pool/shuffleboard tables, and arcade rigs like Golden Tee and Big Buck Hunter. Read more.
Cash-only and cafeteria-style, Pho 75 is consistently lauded for the flavors of its beef broth. It's also a lunchtime favorite for nearby office workers. [Eater 38 Member] Read more.
Strictly no-frills, Ray's the Steaks has one focus and that is steak. So what the dining room is lacking in visual interest, it makes up for in red meat, cooked to perfection. [Eater 38 Member] Read more.
Five-course meals begin with canapés such as “the world’s tiniest baked potato” and might end with a visit from a mechanical cow named Faira (aka the cheese cart) and cheese savant Cameron Smith.
The patio is the place to sit in nicer months, but the dining room with dark wainscoting and burnt-orange walls is wonderfully cozy.
Silk-paddle fans and miles of French doors give the dining room a breezy West Coast feel. The tavern-like lower level—a scene most nights—has a more vintage look with its onyx-and-stacked-stone bar.
What to get: Polenta-filled agnolotti; potato-leek soup with smoked cod; beet salad; rib eye with salsa verde; garlic-crusted cod with ham and potato; peanut-butter/chocolate tart.
What to get: Hot pot with pork, prawns, green-bean leaves, and wood-ear mushrooms; wood-ear mushrooms with chili oil and cilantro; pork dumplings; dan-dan noodles; scallion pancake.
The vibe at this Greek newcomer, a spinoff of Rockville’s Mykonos Grill, may be lounge chic, but the food is as soulful as you’ll find on an Aegean isle.
What to get: Shrimp-and-yam patties; bun cha, charred pork meatballs in spicy fish sauce; Hanoi-style sizzling catfish with dill and mint; clay pots of pork or catfish; lemongrass-marinated short rib.
When we crave a thick, bloody steak, this is the place that leaps to mind. We prefer restaurateur Michael Landrum’s for its value, its warmth, and its scale. This is a steakhouse for the common man.
The bustling cafe and bar is a place you can bring the family or come for a casually sophisticated couple’s night out. Plates are huge—you’ll likely take home a doggy bag.
Salads, such as a platter of shredded green papaya, explode with limey tang and chili-fueled heat, while bowls of pho are eminently soothing. Nibbles from the fryer make excellent shares.
Formal old-world service, antique-filled dining rooms, and a prix fixe menu with amuse-bouches and other extras make dinners here special.
This eclectic American cafe, part of Cathal Armstrong’s growing empire, features the same farm-to-table dedication as its higher-end sibling, Restaurant Eve, along with cocktails from Todd Thrasher.
What to get: Gougères, light-as-air cheese puffs; salmon tartare; rich chestnut soup; 72-hour braised short ribs; fried chicken with mustard sauce; roast salmon with lentils and shallot dressing.
Few family-run ethnic restaurants possess this degree of style. With lacquered tables, ceramic floors, and a tinkling fish pond, it’s ideal for a special occasion or a night of catching up w/ friends.
The thick, charred steaks, platters mounded with great fried food, and creamy milkshakes are powerful enticements in a time of tightening wallets.
An open kitchen and a stone waterfall are the focal points of the room; terra-cotta walls and dim lighting lend a cozy feel. Service has been spot-on—attentive and friendly but not hovering.
There's a world of warm cocktails beyond the hot toddy - Order the Gimme S'more, created by Todd Thrasher. Its the best hot drink on the menu! Click More Info for the full recipe. Read more.
