With this peaceful eating room, surrounded by a cheerful personnel in all-white uniforms, it may appear as if Yess were the headquarters for an arcane Southern Californian cult. But no, this isn’t that kind of good-dining restaurant! Junya Yamasaki’s cooking is as exact and controlled as his menu is inviting and flexible: Set collectively exactly the supper you really feel like taking in, whether or not that’s a cold beer and warm, crispy katsu doused in Worcestershire sauce, or a lengthy and luxurious sequence of mesmerizing dishes, much like the rockfish with citrus ponzu as well as vegetable-packed “monk’s chirashi sushi.” Tejal Rao

At last, wine-bar food feels intriguing again. This community location in the restaurant veterans Bethany and Daniel Heinze serves Lowcountry components with finesse and exciting: rabbit campanelli tastes like cacio e pepe having a clever plot twist.

The piquant borscht is created with dehydrated sour cherries. The spelt pelmeni dumplings are perfectly tender and stuffed with an alluring pork pâté. A vermouth sauce subtly leavens the meaty enterprise in the elk sauerbraten. Provided the proximity of fellow diners and The range of infused vodkas, it’s commonplace to become quick mates since the night progresses. Brian Gallagher

This cozy, everyday banchan store spills out right into a courtyard where you can feast on warm seasoned rice, sweet pepper muchim, marinated okra, great spirals of rolled omelets and more of whatever Jihee Kim has cooked in her very small open up kitchen area that day.

Grilled turbot with salsa verde shines even brighter that has a loaded slick of hummus on The underside. Hazelnuts and brown butter enliven the salsa macha in the grilled squid. “You wouldn’t locate it in Mexico,” Mr. Nuñez said of his cooking. “But it is Mexican.” Priya Krishna

The chef Salvador Alamilla, who runs the restaurant together with his spouse, Rebecca, was born inside the Mexican state Michoacan and raised in Orange County, Calif. He delivers the spirit of the two of Those people destinations to your menu. The corn is nixtamalized and manufactured into tortillas in house (by Mr. Alamilla’s aunts), and dishes much like the tartare tostada and chile Colorado are very well complemented by a cocktail of mezcal, ancho verde and coconut.

Imagine if the pasta savant Mike Easton up and moved his acclaimed lunch-only place, Il Corvo, 275 miles east, from the grittier fringe of downtown Seattle to Major Road in tiny Waitsburg, Wash.? Perfectly, at this image-fantastic storefront Room that seats only 12 at a time and offers only a few antipasti and three pastas an evening — an ever-changing lineup That may consist of tagliarini which has a sauce of squid ink and black garlic, or rainbow chard gnudi — you’d be remiss not to buy the whole menu.

Ms. Ziskin’s daily dessert specials and seasonal layered cakes could well be reason plenty of to affix the compact, faithful group that tends to assemble outside the house to the cracked sidewalk just the moment the restaurant opens its doors. These slices — each savory and sweet — are always definitely worth the wait around. Tejal Rao

Minimal Donna’s encapsulates the sensation of coming property. Even though the restaurant is motivated with the tavern-model pizzas popularized in Chicago, the place the chef Robbie Tutlewski attended culinary school, by far the most desirable dishes are Individuals motivated by his Yugoslavian grandmother “Tiny Donna” and the city of Baltimore.

Among the their classics previous and new: Fats chow funn, noodles as chewy as mochi, by using a veneer of crisp; honey walnut shrimp in fluffy, shattery clouds of batter, slaked with candy mayo; crackly edged “Spam” comprised of Duroc pork; and, for dessert, pale blushing lychee granita, using a cache of hot pink dragon fruit waiting around to become spooned from its depths. Ligaya Mishan

There, they’re proving that suburbanites are as hungry for imaginative cooking as any city denizen. Assume Vietnamese French onion soup with braised oxtail, cacio e pepe crossed with elote, and fried oyster larb gai. It’s properly well worth the brief vacation exterior the District, even though You need to hold out slightly more time for an Uber driver willing to cross the Potomac. Nikita Richardson

Right after a long time working in upscale restaurant kitchens, Ms. Wiggins was drawn to your social mission of Reconcile, and that is staffed partly by college students Finding out everyday living expertise on The work. So, your lunch assists assistance an honorable enterprise. When you’re more info arranging a go to close to day by day specials, listen to Thursday’s shrimp with white beans and Friday’s smothered turkey necks. Brett Anderson

The menu alterations weekly and includes fleeting components much like the black trumpet mushrooms decorating blue corn chochoyotes (masa dumplings) and marigold petals plucked within the chef’s backyard. A previous chef de Delicacies at Portland’s beloved República restaurant, Mr. Gomez combines specialized savvy with flavors from his mom’s kitchen, all served in a peaceful and welcoming placing. Melissa Clark

The simplest way to knowledge the twists, turns and surprises of their seasonal menu is the “Let us Prepare dinner to suit your needs!” alternative, which could go from a seafood platter to some incredibly hot-cold crab condition (large crab satisfies Significant Mac) to the meaty primary, just like a pork chop with peaches. Sure, All those have been Teddy Grahams climbing the swirled smooth-provide peak at food’s close. Sara Bonisteel