DC Winter Restaurant Week: a Procrastinator’s Guide

DC’s Winter Restaurant Week officially kicks off this Monday, January 19 and runs through January 25 (though many places are extending the promotion through February 1). No reservation? No problem—at least right now—at these 13 spots:

All-Purpose

1250 Ninth St., NW

Restaurant Week offerings at All-Purpose. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.

The original Shaw location of this Jersey-style pizza spot is offering $40 dinners and $35 brunches through February 1 (the Navy Yard offshoot is closed for the winter). Go for focaccia breadsticks with truffle fondue, the olive-and-mozz’-laden house salad, and pies such as the white Sedgewick or spicy Godfather. 

Beloved BBQ and Dear Sushi

200 Massachusetts Ave., NW

Searing cuts of beef on the tabletop grills at Beloved BBQ. Photo courtesy of the restaurant.

At this swank Japanese barbecue room in the back of Love, Makoto food hall, the $68 omakase—Wagyu bone broth, thinly sliced meats for the tabletop grill, plus dessert—is discounted to $55 through February 1. Up front, sister restaurant Dear Sushi is offering its express omakase lunch for $35, instead of the usual $42. 

Caruso’s Grocery  

11820 Trade St., North Bethesda

Shrimp scampi at Caruso’s Grocery. Photograph by John Rorapaugh.

Matt Adler’s easy-to-love Italian/American dining room at Pike & Rose is doing its RW deals—$25 for a three course lunch or brunch, $40 for dinner—through February 1. On the menu: a great chicken parm, cheesy garlic bread, one of the best Caesars in town, extra-lemony scampi, and a blood-orange-scented creme brûlée. 

Del Mar

791 Wharf St., SW

Del Mar at the Wharf. Photo by Scott Suchman.

If you’ve ever been to Fabio Trabocchi’s Wharf seafood room, you know that $25 for a three course lunch is a crazy-good deal. Trabocchi makes some of the best soups in the city, so I’d gravitate towards the kabocha-squash version, plus one of the paellas. There’s also a $35 brunch menu and a $55 dinner menu. 

Kayu

1633 17th St., NW

Kayu’s mushroom dumplings in mushroom tea are also on its Restaurant Week menu. Photograph by Marjanne Suarez.

Last summer, Paolo Dungca moved his mod-Filipino restaurant from H Street to a cozy, intimate space in Dupont. Through January 31, you can choose either a three-course menu for $65 or a seven-course tasting for $105. Don’t miss the chorizo sliders on purple-tinted ube buns. 

Laos in Town 

250 K St., NE

The bar at Laos in Town. Photograph by Wannaret Tangtaeng.

There are three tiers of pricing at this beloved NoMa spot: $40, $55, and $65. Each dinner menu is short, but progressively more luxe. It’s $40 option sounds good to me, with Lao-style pate, egg noodles with barbecue pork, and a banana cake with salted-caramel ice cream. 

Lucky Danger

709 D St., NW

Mapo tofu at Lucky Danger. Photograph by Rachel Paraoan.

In December, we named the crab rangoon at Tim Ma’s Penn Quarter Chinese newcomer of our top dishes of 2025. Give it a try on the $25 three-course lunch menu or $55 dinner, where you’ll also find the fabulous crab lo mein and a seriously spicy mapo tofu.  

Ris 

2275 L St., NW

I love when places offer two things during Restaurant Week: flexibility and a long list of choices. You get both at Ris Lacoste’s comfy West End dining room. The $35 lunch menu either buys you three courses, or two courses and a beer or glass of wine. Several of Lacoste’s long-running hits are available, including the cheeseburger, onion soup, mussels, butterscotch pudding, and the scallop margarita (worth the $5 upcharge). At night, three dinner menus range from $40 to $65.

The Royal

501 Florida Ave., NW

The slaw-topped burger at the Royal. Photo courtesy of Julep PR.

This all-day LeDroit Park cafe/restaurant is one of my favorite underrated spots. There are $25 breakfast and lunch menus, but the best deal is at dinner, when two courses plus a boozy drink will run you $40. Go for the arepas, the burger, and the ace cocktails.

St. James

2017 14th St., NW

I’ve got my eye on the deep-fried whole snapper with coconut rice and roasted-coconut chutney at this sleek Caribbean dining room. That’s one option on the $55 dinner menu, which also offers crab fritters and slow-cooked duck. 

Tapori

600 H St., NE

A dosa at Tapori. Photo by Deb Lindsey.

At this street-food-focused sibling to Indian hit Daru, $55 gets you a four course dinner. Graze on a masala dosa, salmon kebab, Wagyu momo, and more. 

Zaytinya

701 Ninth St., NW

Ímam Bayildi, stuffed eggplant, is on the Restaurant Week menu at Zaytinya. Photograph courtesy of Katherine Hurd.

It’s hard to believe José Andrés’s Mediterranean spot near Gallery Place has been around for 24 years. If it’s been awhile, a $35 lunch menu is hard to beat. It includes three small plates plus dessert, and favorites like baba gannoush, spiced meatballs, and Greek yogurt with muscat-scented apricots. The $55 dinner gets you five courses; make one of them the lemony shrimp with dill.

These places are booked, but try your luck on the waitlist: 

The Dabney

122 Blagden Alley, NW

This cozy Shaw destination is doing Restaurant Week for the first time. Its $65 menu sounds lovely—a cauliflower veloute with poached lobster, hearth-roasted trout with sorghum/cider beurre blanc—and you should definitely throw in a catfish slider for $10 extra. 

Dogon

1330 Maryland Ave., SW

Kwame Onwuachi’s Southwest DC dining room is also making its Restaurant Week debut. And while there are several upcharges on the $65 dinner menu, it would be an excellent time to try one of my favorite dishes—branzino with coconut/mussel curry—which you won’t have to pay extra for (it’s usually $83). 

Moon Rabbit

927 F St., NW

There are three tiers of dinner menus at Kevin Tien’s Vietnamese hit in Penn Quarter—$55 for three courses, $85 for five, and $105 for seven. Given that this is one of DC’s tippy-top restaurants, even the splurgiest seems like a relative steal. 

The post DC Winter Restaurant Week: a Procrastinator’s Guide first appeared on Washingtonian.

Espace publicitaire · 300×250