Until you’re standing inside, Mar de Plata is an enigma. The restaurant’s website is oddly reticent, and in the DC restaurant buzz, the name doesn’t surface often. It’s a shame, because Mar de Plata is a cozy, sweet, family-owned pair of restaurants that are touchingly unpretentious yet professional enough to offer great service and consistent cooking. The interior is the Iberian equivalent of a family trattoria: romantically lit red brick, low ceilings, and close-set tables that reflect the tinkle of… [More]

What a great concept! Old Town’s King Street, which is too often a mixture of tourist traps and fusion-furious showcase restaurants, really needed this: a simple, honest eatery that’s both laid-back and food-obsessed. No wonder—it’s from the same chef who brought us the noble Restaurant Eve. It’s an elegant Irish pub—with such an attention to thematic detail that it feels like Disney’s Epcot—with a playfully snarky attitude.

The menu is unbelievably simple: fish and chips, basically. Really spectacular fish and chips.

What’s… [More]