The best restaurants in Washington, D.C. include gems at every level of dining, from high to low and in-between.

With Memorial Day in the rearview, summer has finally descended on the District. It’s not quite swampy yet for mosquitoes, but we’ve already had our first thunderstorms, and the oddly cold weather has abated and given way to that sweet steaminess that marks the warmest season here. It’s not quite dire enough to hide inside the shelter of air-conditioned buildings, so I’m doing all the outdoor dining I can handle before heat and bugs chase me inside.

Part of what makes me love this city is the sense of togetherness and community, which permeates the restaurant scene. We’re a city of curious people who celebrate diverse cultures and take pride in doing so. The best restaurants in D.C. evoke this feeling of home and are safe spaces for you to be yourself around the people you love—all of which is especially grounding in chaotic times.

The new additions to this list offer homey atmospheres. They’re celebrations of cultural cuisine that double as really great spots to make new memories with your loved ones. They include one longtime favorite and one newcomer that feels like it’s destined to become a beloved staple. This June, make it your mission to eat at restaurants that make you feel like you belong. Read on for the 21 best restaurants in Washington, D.C. right now.

June 2025: In this latest update, which highlights the best D.C. restaurants this month, we have added Mélange Food, Inc. and El Tamarindo.

This guide was updated by D.C.-based writer Helen Carefoot. At Time Out, all our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate and review restaurants, see our editorial guidelines.

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Lyon is a born-and-bred gourmand and deciding where to dine in the city that has been lauded as France’s gastronomic capital for decades can be challenging. Be it earthy street market or food truck, on-trend millennial neo-bistro or Michelin-starred haute-cuisine restaurant, the choice is rich. All budgets are well catered for too – most restaurants serve a cheaper lunchtime formule or menu (fixed two- or three-course meal), making midi (midday) a prime time to indulge in an excellent-value meal.

Sampling an iconic andouillette (tripe sausage), tablier de sapeur (“fireman’s apron” or panse, breaded and pan-fried) or other old-timer offal dish in a Lyonnais bouchon (bistro) is a Lyonnais rite of passage. French cuisine is no longer the only option, Lyon’s world table is notably rich, and a delightfully burgeoning vegetarian dining scene buzzes with creativity.

All our recommendations below have been hand selected and tested by our resident destination expert to help you discover the best restaurants in Lyon. Find out more below, or for more Lyon inspiration, see our guides to the city’s best hotels, bars and things to do.

Le Grand Réfectoire

With its soul-soaring vaulted stone ceiling, wood panelling and stained-glass windows, there is no mistaking where you are: in the cavernous heart and soul of Lyon’s historic Grand Hôtel Dieu. Sit at the central zinc bar for a God-like view of the medieval hospital’s entire refectory. Chef Marcel Ravin woos urban gourmets with a contemporary bistronomique cuisine that never quite forgets Lyon’s extraordinary culinary roots: rigatoni with cheesy cervelle de canut that Lyonnais silk weavers ate for breakfast in the 19th century, the ritual end-of-meal espresso with a one-bite meringue slicked in pea-green Elixir de Chartreuse liqueur. Fixed two- and three-course lunch menus are particularly good-value.

Neighbourhood: Presqu’île

Nearest metro: Bellecour

Contact: legrandrefectoire.com

Prices: ££

Reservations: Recommended

The joy of Palma’s burgeoning restaurant scene is the sensational choice and diversity on offer. Jogging alongside traditional and quirky bars serving tapas and pinchos are feted Michelin-starred establishments and edgy sushi and Asian food joints. And let’s not forget vermuterias, snazzy vegetarian bistros and classy international dining emporiums. Inspired and innovative menús del día (lunchtime set menus), accompanied by superb local and Spanish wines, abound, providing exceptional value, even from Palma’s leading gastronomic maestros.

This may be a bijou capital, but it packs a punch when it comes to food, effortlessly holding its own on the world’s culinary stage. Here’s our pick of the best restaurants.

For further inspiration, see our guide to spending the weekend in Palma, plus the best hotels, nightlife and things to do in the city.

Tast Club

Tast Club in Carrer de Sant Jaume is one of the city’s best kept secrets. It’s almost undetectable and there’s no sign, but a discreet, cobbled patio hints at your arrival. This intimate and chic temple of discretion has the comfy feel of an old English club with its leather stools, wood panelling and graceful chandeliers. It exudes confidence and charm as do the waiters who smoothly patter about the warren of rooms wielding shared platters of rich and intense jamón Ibérico, refined tapas, tortillas, ceviches and the wispiest cristal bread. There’s an excellent wine selection too.

Neighbourhood: Sant Jaume

Contact: tast.com

Price: ££

Reservations: Essential

Zakarian grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts, and didn’t go far when it was time for him to go off to college. He attended Worcester State University, now known as the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, where he studied economics. After graduating from college, he took a post-grad trip to France where he found joy in cooking and decided to change paths. “I was so moved by the food and the culture and the beautiful way they treat product and how everything is just about that, I decided to come back and change direction. I saw that whole world of chefs and restaurants and all that glamor struck me,” Zakarian said in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

France’s appreciation for food and the culture in the region was Zakarian’s first inspiration to be a chef. Everything was freshly made and people took time to create their meals which inspired him to learn how to do the same. Growing up in a household that revolved around food, he saw that it was more than just his family who spent time on what they were making. In an interview with reason, the celebrity chef said “It resonated with me. For lunch, they took two hours and they made it themselves. They don’t just have a sandwich and sit on a bench. This is the way life should be.”

Perhaps this is when and where Zakarian found the one ingredient he can’t live without.

Lebanese chef Maroun Chedid and top chefs from across the globe rustled up a mouth-watering lesson in Mediterranean cuisine on Saturday, at a pow-wow for 240 food stars hosted in Monaco by France’s culinary “godfather” Alain Ducasse.

Ducasse was feting a quarter century at his first three-star eatery, the Louis XV in Monaco, by hosting a three-day chefs’ summit in the principality, with a local producers’ market on Saturday a highlight of the event.

Boasting a combined 300 Michelin stars among them, the chefs from 28 countries headed down to the market, specially convened in the waterside Sporting Monte Carlo complex — where 14 of them set to work for lunch.

Chedid conjured up a risotto of olive oil-poached seabass — putting a new twist on a classic Lebanese dish called Syadieh.

The two-star Californian Daniel Patterson grated generous slivers of Italian white truffle onto an oyster-flavored einkorn risotto — as fellow chefs eagerly snapped pictures and jotted down notes.

The Korean-American David Chang — named one of the world’s 100 most influential figures by Time Magazine in 2010 — drew crowds for his miso soup of fermented green French lentils, with black truffle.

“We don’t cook lamb in Japan, so I wanted to try it with a sake-soy sauce and cane sugar. It’s crunchy on the skin side, but juicy inside,” explained Hiroyuki Kanda, who holds three stars in Tokyo.

And Scotland’s one-star chef Tom Kitchin — whose specialty in Edinburgh is rolled pigs head with crispy ear salad — wrestled a Mediterranean octopus into a carpaccio with fennel compote and tomato confit.

His one-time mentor Guy Savoy warmly approved: “The octopus is beautifully tender, there’s a very nice balance of textures and complex flavors — just a little acidity from the Menton lemon.”

Around the corner, the Japanese-born Australian Tetsuya Wakuda marvelled at a stall of orange-capped Caesar’s Mushrooms, a Mediterranean delicacy: “I’ve never tasted these, I’d just heard about them.”

“It’s unbelievable,” said the American Franck Decarlo, before a glistening display of red mullet, octopus, squid and shellfish fished that morning just offshore.

Further along, the pastry chef Pierre Herme bit into a selection of local almonds, approving with a connoisseur’s nod.

“Mindsets have changed, chefs used to be jealous of one another — now they share what they know,” summed up the Neapolitan Gennaro Esposito, whose apron was covered with his fellow chefs’ autographs — “as a souvenir”.

Ducasse arrived at the Louis XV in 1987, earning three stars in 1990. He arrived in Paris in 1996, and clinched three stars there too the following year.

In 2005 he became the first chef to hold three stars in three different places by adding New York, a triumph all the sweeter since the restaurant had been panned by critics when it opened five years earlier.

Today, aged 56, he sits at the helm of a global empire with 21 Michelin stars to his name, and fingers in dozens of pies: from space flights to the Eiffel Tower’s eatery, all under the umbrella of Alain Ducasse Entreprise (ADE).

His Louis XV has trained hundreds of chefs in the Ducasse style, acting like an incubator to create what France’s top food critic Francois Simon dubs “an extraordinary network”.