The accolades just keep piling up for the D.C. restaurant scene. The Michelin Guide recently added three Washington, D.C. eateries to its guide, and Bon Appetit named Mount Pleasant Italian eatery Bar Del Monte among the country's best new restaurants. Now The New York Times is chiming in: the paper included two Washington, D.C. restaurants on its annual list of the 50 best restaurants in America.
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Two major culinary hotspots, Moon Rabbit and Pascual, made the list. Here are the Washington, D.C. restaurants named to the paper's 2024 list of America's Best Restaurants:
Moon Rabbit
This modern Vietnamese eatery opened in January 2024 in Penn Quarter, just blocks from the White House. Chefs Kevin Tien and Judy Beltrano co-own the spot, and Susan Bae is on pastry. In his writeup, Times contributor Brett Anderson calls Tien and Baltrano's food "playfully creative, but their cooking chops are serious, as evidenced by dishes as varied as boudin-stuffed quail, luscious green curry sponge cake and pâté chaud worthy of Antonin Carême. That this collective is showcasing such excellence so close to the Capitol somehow makes everything all the more delicious."
Pascual
This collaboration between chefs and (partners) Isabel Coss and Matt Conroy also made it onto the Michelin Guide this year. Since opening in February 2024, this cozy Capitol Hill eatery has served in-demand and inventive takes on Mexican cuisine. In her dispatch, Times reporter and video host Priya Krishna writes that the best dishes call back to Coss's childhood in Mexico. "You’ll stuff the fatty, pull-apart strands of meat into homemade tortillas and understand why these chefs are in a league of their own — not just for Mexican cooking, but all cooking," she writes, describing the lamb-neck barbacoa.
The list also included some standouts from nearby Virginia and Maryland: Joon, the celebrated Persian restaurant at Tyson's, and Sumac, the tiny kitchen serving wood-fired fare in a field in Sperryville, Va. Ammoora, an opulent eatery serving Levantine cuisine in Baltimore, was the sole selection from Maryland.
To compile the list, reporters and editors spent a year visiting nearly every state in the U.S. to review and report. Of the selections, 32 have opened in the past year. Check out the full list here and below to see all of the spots named in The New York Times' America's Best Restaurants 2024.
The New York Times' America's Best Restaurants 2024:
- Mr. Baan's Bar and Mookata - Phoenix, AZ
- Quince - San Francisco, CA
- Four Kings - San Francisco, CA
- Fikscue - Alameda, CA
- Camélia - Los Angeles, CA
- Azizam - Los Angeles, CA
- Yuan Wonton - Denver, CO
- Sap Sua - Denver, CO
- Meander Eatery - Pagosa Springs, CO
- The Shipwright's Daughter - Mystic, CT
- Walrus Rodeo - Miami, FL
- La Camaronera - Miami, FL
- Bread & Butterfly - Atlanta, GA
- Nàdair - Atlanta, GA
- Asador Bastian - Chicago, IL
- North of Bourbon - Louisville, KY
- Acamaya - New Orleans, LA
- Zeeland Street - Baton Rouge, LA
- The Alna Store - Alna, ME
- Ammoora - Baltimore, MD
- Somaek - Boston, MA
- Noori Pocha - Clawson, MI
- Oro by Nixta - Minneapolis, MN
- Vinai - Minneapolis, MN
- Sweet Amalia Market & Kitchen - Newfield, NJ
- Blanca - Brooklyn, NY
- Penny - Manhattan, NY
- Shaw-naé’s House - Staten Island, NY
- Bungalow - Manhattan, NY
- Good Hot Fish - Asheville, NC
- The Aperture - Cincinnati, OH
- Noche Woodfired Grill and Agave Bar - Tulsa, OK
- L'Orange - Portland, OR
- Yaowarat - Portland, OR
- Fet-Fisk - Pittsburgh, PA
- Little Walter's - Philadelphia, PA
- Passerine - Lancaster, PA
- Gift Horse - Providence, RI
- Lost Isle - Johns Island, SC
- City Limits Barbeque - Columbia, SC
- Bad Idea - Nashville, TN
- Edessa - Nashville, TN
- Simply South - Irving, TX
- Bars B Q - Lockhart, TX
- Viola and Agnes' Neo Soul Cafe - Seabrook, TX
- Joon - Vienna, VA
- Sumac - Sperryville, VA
- Familyfriend - Seattle, WA
- Moon Rabbit - Washington, D.C.
- Pascual - Washington, D.C.
An earlier version of this story said that Pascual is located in Dupont Circle and opened in January 2024. The restaurant is located in Capitol Hill and opened in February 2024. The story has been updated.