Restaurants & Bars
4 VA, DC Restaurants Among America's Top 50, NYT Ranking Says
Of the 50 restaurants highlighted by the New York Times as 2024 favorites, 32 are newly opened. Two each in Virginia and D.C. made the cut.
VIRGINIA — The New York Times recently announced its 50 favorite restaurants in America for 2024, with two from Virginia and two from Washington, D.C., making the cut.
“Over the last 12 months, reporters and editors traveled to nearly every state scouting restaurants for our annual list,” according to the newspaper. “As always, there were no-brainers and tough choices — the United States has a vast, diverse spread of great restaurants these days — but these are our 50 favorites for 2024.”
The Virginia restaurants named are Joon (8045 Leesburg Pike Suite 120, Vienna, VA) and Sumac (Pen Druid Brewing, 3863 Sperryville Pike, Sperryville, VA). From D.C., Moon Rabbit (927 F St NW, Washington, DC) and Pascual (732 Maryland Ave NE, Washington, DC) made the cut.
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Joon is a Persian restaurant run by Executive Chef Najmieh Batmanglij, Michelin-Starred Chef-Owner Christopher Morgan and co-founder Reza Farahani. The New York Times notes that Batmanglij has made award-winning cookbooks focused on Persian and Iranian cuisine. Morgan earned a Michelin star for his former association with D.C.'s Maydan.
"Bring a crowd to savor heaping platters of lamb shoulder with fava beans and dill, duck fesenjoon with pomegranate and fried onions, and a stunning pistachio soup laced with sour orange that’s both creamy and tart," critic Melissa Clark writes.
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Sumac, located within Pen Druid Brewing in the Rappahannock Piedmont region, offers local ingredients cooked on a wood-fired grill in a trailer. Clark called the food "one of the best, most elegant bites I’ve eaten all year" and has ingredients grown locally.
"The setting may be rustic, but Abigail and Dan Gleason’s cuisine is fiercely refined, with a menu that changes as the hyperlocal ingredients come into season, like the black walnuts paired with rabbit or the wild persimmons strewed over masa cake for dessert," said Clark.
D.C.'s Moon Rabbit, a restaurant by Kevin Tien that has earned local praise and a James Beard semifinalist nomination, is a take on modern Vietnamese. Moon Rabbit had reopened in early 2024 in D.C.'s Penn Quarter after it closed abruptly at The Wharf in 2023.
"The food is 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," writes critic Brett Anderson. "That this collective is showcasing such excellence so close to the Capitol somehow makes everything all the more delicious."
The other D.C. restaurant on the list is Mexican eatery Pascual. Opened by Isabel Coss and Matt Conroy in early 2024, it draws from the former's life growing up in Mexico.
"No table is complete without the lamb-neck barbacoa, brined in salt and orange juice, marinated in adobo, seared over the wood fire, cooked overnight and served over creamy ayocote beans," critic Priya Krishna writes. "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. "
Of the 50 restaurants highlighted by the Times, 32 are newly opened.
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