New Restaurants to Try in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., is an evergreen family travel favorite, with plenty of ways to learn about America’s history in the heart of its political center. But you can’t get through a vacation without feeding the family, and one of the best ways to get to know a city is through its food. Luckily, there are some great new restaurants in town you’ll want to put on our radar for your next trip to the country’s capital.

The city’s waterfront neighborhood, the Wharf, is now home to Fish Shop, a sustainably sourced seafood restaurant open daily for lunch and dinner, along with brunch on the weekends. The menu heavily emphasizes fresh seafood sourced from the Potomac River, and also includes meats and vegetables from local producers.

If you’ve visited previously, you might have enjoyed Lucky Danger take-out from its original pop-up location opened during the pandemic in 2020. Since then, the popular eatery has finally opened a permanent flagship location offering full-service dining in the Penn Quarter/Chinatown area. Open Tuesday–Saturday, it offers a creative menu of American Chinese food along with the only public mahjong bar in the D.C. area.

One of the best things about the D.C. dining scene is it is constantly evolving and reinventing itself, so while this list gives you great places to grab a meal, you’ll want to keep your eyes open for highly anticipated eateries like Chai Pani, a James Beard Award-winning Indian street food restaurant expanding from its Asheville, North Carolina, location, with a new spot in D.C.’s Union Market this summer.