If you're staying at the Washington Terrace, the hotel in which this restaurant is located, you will want to dine here, but even if you're not an overnight guest, the restaurant is a good choice. Fifteen Ria (the acronym for the address: Rhode Island Avenue) serves dressed up comfort food: sirloin crusted in blue cheese, a burger on brioche, Caesar salad alternating layers of romaine with bacon and cherry tomatoes, and the beef short ribs sweetened with molasses. The restaurant is known for its nightly specials and for its bar, where drinks are concocted with fresh fruit and juices and the bar menu features some of the best onion rings, popcorn shrimp, and calamari in town.

701 is known for its vodka selections and sophisticated American fare. For starters, try the foie gras raviolis. Other recommendable dishes are the medallions of venison with sweet potatoes, gala apples, and lemon-orange whiskey sauce, and the crabmeat-stuffed, Serrano-ham wrapped cod. Artful presentation makes the food all the more enticing. Portions are generous and service is marvelous. This restaurant is literally steps away from the Archives-Navy Memorial Metro stop and a short walk from several theaters. Its plate-glass windows allow you to watch commuters, theatergoers, and tourists scurrying along Pennsylvania Avenue. Walls, glass partitions, and columns in the dining room create pockets of privacy throughout. Live jazz plays nightly.

The good food and festive atmosphere make this a great place for the kids, a date, or a group of friends. Austin Grill is loud; as the night progresses, conversation eventually drowns out the sound of the recorded music (everything from Ry Cooder to Yellow Card). Fresh ingredients are used to create outstanding crabmeat quesadillas, "Lake Travis" nachos (with red onion, refried beans, and cheese), a daily fish special (like rockfish fajitas), Key lime pie, and excellent versions of standard fare (chicken enchiladas, guacamole, pico de gallo, and so on). The margaritas are awesome. Austin Grill's upstairs overlooks the abbreviated bar area below. An upbeat decor includes walls washed in shades of teal and clay and adorned with whimsical coyotes, cowboys, Indians, and cacti. Arrive by 6pm weekends if you don't want to wait; weekdays are less crowded.

This is one of the few upscale restaurants on Capitol Hill, and the only one in Union Station, and even if the restaurant isn't on your route, it's worth coming here -- for the food, of course, but also to admire the restaurant's amazing interior. The dramatic dining room once served as a presidential reception room hall, and now its 30-foot-high ceilings, white marble floors, and towering Ionic columns make it a fitting place for lobbyists, senators, and other well-paid Washingtonians to discuss serious business. On weekends, the ambience lightens up and romantic couples and Southern food-loving families dine here. Background music is always mellow (Nat King Cole, Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughan). The restaurant features live jazz on Friday and Saturday evenings and at Sunday brunch. The restaurant's Southern/Cajun/Creole cuisine and its quality seldom change. On offer are appetizers such as jambalaya or red beans and rice studded with andouille sausage and tasso (spicy smoked pork). Standouts among the main dishes are the Southern fried chicken with buttermilk mashed potatoes and something called "Swamp Thing" (seafood served over greens with a mustard sauce). A basket of mini-biscuits, corn and citrus poppy-seed muffins, and sourdough rolls accompanies all dishes. For dessert, try either pecan sweet-potato pie or coconut cake. The wine list features many by-the-glass selections.

The chic Hotel George is the home of this excellent French restaurant, whose owner-chef, Jeff Buben, and his wife, Sallie, also run Vidalia. You can sit at tables in the bar area (which always seem loud, even when it's not that crowded), on the balcony overlooking the bar, or at leather banquettes in the main dining room, where you can watch Buben and staff at work in the glass-fronted kitchen. (In warm weather, there's a sidewalk cafe.) The menu covers French classics like bouillabaisse, pistou, steak frites, as well as Buben's own take on grilled salmon (with oyster mushrooms and braised lentils), pan-seared red snapper, and seared scallops provencale with tomatoes, garlic, olives, and an eggplant custard. Many items, including the salmon and the steak frites, appear on both the lunch and dinner menus but are considerably cheaper at lunch. The restaurant has been popular from the day it opened, with hungry movers and shakers intermingling with ordinary folk who just love good food. The wine list is mostly French and American.

The Bombay Club is a pleasure, sure to please patrons who know their Indian food as well as those who've never tried it: dishes present an easy introduction to Indian food for the uninitiated, and are sensitive to varying tolerances for spiciness. I'm a wimp in the "heat" department, my wife's the opposite, and we're both happy here.

The Bombay Club is a pleasure, sure to please patrons who know their Indian food as well as those who've never tried it: dishes present an easy introduction to Indian food for the uninitiated, and are sensitive to varying tolerances for spiciness. I'm a wimp in the "heat" department, my wife's the opposite, and we're both happy here.

The decor and menu both stand out in really interesting ways. The restaurant has three levels to it, set within an atrium. From street level, walk downstairs to the main dining room, where furniture looks made for child's play, meaning it comes in circular and rectangular shapes and colors of orange, yellow, and white, and these pieces are set closer to the ground than normal. My friend Bill, who is a little over 6 feet, said he was not uncomfortable, though. Upstairs is more of a lounge area, overlooking the lower level; one more flight up is reserved mostly for private parties. The menu here is pan Asian: Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, Thai. Our waitress steered my 12-year-old to the Indonesian fried rice, which she said was "more interesting than Chinese, " which turned out to mean spicier (it's got chili in it, for one thing). So if you like Americanized, or tamed down, Asian food, you might be happy with the teriyaki and satays. You have many more choices if you want to sample exotic food. I tried the nasi uduk, an Indonesian dish which is an Indonesian coconut rice platter with spicy beef, crispy anchovies, pickled vegetables, emping (acorn chips), chicken satay, and spicy prawn sauce; I enjoyed it very much, though I was reaching for the water glass after every swallow. My husband and Bill were crazy about the ikan pepes, which is Indonesian grilled fish filet with spicy turmeric sauce, fresh basil, and lemon grass, wrapped in banana leaves. Café Asia also serves delicious sushi.

Cashion's has all the pleasures of a neighborhood restaurant -- easy, warm, comfortable -- combined with cuisine that is out of this world. The menu changes daily, always featuring about eight entrees, split between seafood and meat: rabbit stuffed with ham and truffles, fritto misto of whole jumbo shrimp and black sea bass filet, served with onion rings and house-made tartar sauce, or pork loin with garlic sauce, fried sweetbreads on a bed of sautéed spinach, and so on. The side dishes that accompany each entree, such as lemon cannelloni bean purée or radish and sprout salad, are equally as appealing. Desserts, like coconut layer cake with huckleberries, or chocolate cinnamon mousse, are worth saving room for. Sunday brunch is popular, too; you can choose from breakfast fare (challah French toast, spinach and Gruyère omelets) or heartier items (grilled rainbow trout, croque-monsieurs). The charming dining room curves around a slightly raised bar. In warm weather, the glass-fronted Cashion's opens invitingly to the sidewalk, where you can also dine. Tables at the back offer a view of the small kitchen, where Cashion and her staff work away. In winter, ask for a table away from the front door, which lets in a blast of cold air with each new arrival.

The dining room is sensational: two stories high, with glass-walled balcony, immense oval mirrors hanging over the bar, and a full-bodied stone mermaid poised to greet you at the entrance. Gather at the bar first to feel a part of the loud and trendy scene; while you're there, why not nosh on something from the bar menu, perhaps the crispy fried calamari or maybe a luscious pork spring roll? This continues to be one of the city's most popular restaurants, so call way ahead to book a reservation. Chef Jeff Tunks is famous for his Chinese-style smoked lobster with crispy fried spinach -- you'll almost always find it on the menu here. Other entrees that I recommend include the pan-seared sea scallops, and the fish filet encrusted with portobello paste and served with truffled potatoes and porcini broth. Seafood is a big part of the menu, but there are a handful of meat dishes, too. TenPenh is another popular Tunks restaurant.

Talk about retro. In the case of the Daily Grill, retro means revisiting the food favorites of decades past (though the restaurant itself is only a few years old). Step right in and get your Cobb salad, chicken potpie, fresh fruit cobbler, and meat and potatoes -- all made with high-quality ingredients (and high caloric value). It's a big space, with a nice bar at the front and windows on three sides. The winding bar offers an extensive selection: good wines, lots of single malts, tequilas, and small-batch bourbons. The Daily Grill is a favorite lunchtime spot -- where else can you order eggs Benedict at noon on a weekday? The Daily Grill rightfully claims a reputation for good service and large portions of grilled meats and fish. (The lunch menu boasts a BLT made with "half a pound of bacon.") You might find it hard to choose from the more than 40 menu items, but favorite orders are the short ribs, the chicken potpie, the meatloaf, and the onion rings. If you have a small appetite, look for the half and half combo options, like the $8.95 sandwich and salad entree that my 12-year-old and I both enjoyed recently: Each of us ordered a half sandwich of a BLT, and a Caesar salad. This BLT is not the "half pound of bacon" version that you normally get, which means it's actually the right size, and so is the salad.

Everyone seems to love Equinox. It's not splashy in any way, just a pretty, comfortable restaurant that serves creatively delicious American food. Even if you aren't vegetarian, you'll eat all your vegetables here, because as much care is taken with these garnishes as with the entree itself. And every entree comes with a garnish or two, like the leek fondue or the forest mushrooms with applewood bacon, or the white bean ragout. You can order additional side dishes; consider the macaroni and cheese: Vermont cheddar, Parmesan, and black truffle reduction. The home runs, of course, are the entrees, and the menu is short and to the point: crab cakes made with lump crab mixed with capers, brioche bread crumbs, mayonnaise, and lemon-butter sauce; barbequed wild King salmon with roasted sweet corn; and two or three other dishes, that's it. Equinox has two tasting menus, a $65 four-course and $85 six-course, available at dinner most nights.

Food critics mention Galileo as one of the best Italian restaurants in the country and Roberto Donna as one of the nation's best chefs. The likable Donna opened the white-walled grottolike Galileo in 1984; since then, he has opened other restaurants in the area, including Il Radicchio on Capitol Hill. He's also written a cookbook, and has established himself as an integral part of Washington culture. Donna cures his own ham for salami and prosciutto, and his sausages, pastas, mozzarella, marmalades, and breads are all made in-house. Galileo has long featured the cuisine of Donna's native Piedmont region, an area in northern Italy influenced by neighboring France and Switzerland -- think truffles, hazelnuts, porcini mushrooms, and veal. But at the time of my research, spring of 2004, Donna was preparing Neapolitan cuisine. Some examples: roasted rack of lamb served with a porcini mushroom tart in a black olive sauce; homemade raviolis filled with buffalo ricotta, ham, and mozzarella in a meat ragu; Mediterranean dorade fish baked in foil with mussels. Whether your menu features Neapolitan or Piedmontese dishes, you will have the choice of ordering a la carte, or from three fixed price menus, $65 for four courses, $75 for five courses, and $85 for six courses. The cellar boasts more than 400 vintages of Italian wine. The atmosphere is relaxed; some diners are dressed in jeans, others in suits. Waiters can be supercilious, though.

In Washington restaurants, seldom do you find such a racially diverse crowd. The harmony may stem from the waiters, whose obvious rapport results in gracious service, and certainly extends from the open kitchen, where the chef directs his multicultural staff. But in this large, handsome room, whose arched windows overlook McPherson Square, the food might capture all of your attention. A plate of corn bread and biscuits arrives, to be slathered with butter that's been whipped with diced peaches and honey. The menu is heavily Southern, with the emphasis on the Low Country cooking of South Carolina and Savannah: collards, grits, and lots of seafood, especially shrimp dishes. The Charleston perlau is a stewlike mix of duck, spicy sausage, jumbo shrimp, and rice, topped with toasted crumbs and scallions. It has bite but isn't terribly spicy. For something totally decadent, try the buttermilk batter-fried chicken. Georgia Brown's is famous for its Sunday brunch, lively with the sounds of jazz and conversation, and luscious with the tastes of country sausage, omelets made to order, creamy grits, and many other dishes.

Now in its 16th year, I Ricchi remains a popular and convivial place to enjoy Italian food a la Tuscany. An open kitchen with a blazing wood-burning grill creates a warming bustle in the large room. The daily specials are great, especially if you're into fish. Those of hearty appetite will be happy with minestrone; the quill pasta with Tuscan meat sauce; the rolled medallions of pork loin, turkey breast, and veal, each medallion stuffed with spinach and prosciutto; or stuffed baby quail. Start with grilled radicchio.

What a great idea: Order a replenishable bowl of spaghetti for the table at a set price of $6.95, and each of you chooses your own sauce from a long list, at prices that range from $1.95 to $4. Most are standards, like the puttanesca with black olives, capers, garlic, anchovies, and tomato. My favorite is the radicchio, sausage, red wine, and tomato sauce. The kitchen prepares daily specials, like a sautéed fresh trout with sautéed green beans, and garlic and tomato sauce, as well as sandwiches, and an assortment of wood-baked pizzas, with a choice of at least 20 toppings. Ingredients are fresh and flavorful, the service quick and solicitous.

In theater season, Jaleo's dining room fills and empties each evening according to the performance schedule of the Shakespeare Theater, right next door. Lunchtime always draws a crowd from nearby office buildings and the Hill. This restaurant, which opened in 1993, may be credited with initiating the tapas craze in Washington. Though the menu offers a handful of entrees, you really want to consider the tapas, of which there are about 55. These include a very simple but not-to-be-missed grilled bread layered with a paste of fresh tomatoes and topped with anchovies; savory warm goat cheese served with toast points; a skewer of grilled chorizo sausage atop garlic mashed potatoes; a delicious mushroom tart served with roasted red-pepper sauce; and gazpacho. Paella is among the few heartier entrees (it feeds four). Spanish wines, sangrias, and sherries are available by the glass. Finish with a rum-and-butter-soaked apple charlotte in bread pastry or a plate of Spanish cheeses. The casual-chic interior focuses on a large mural of a flamenco dancer inspired by John Singer Sargent's painting Jaleo. On Wednesday at 7:45pm and 8:45pm, flamenco dancers perform. A second and even prettier Jaleo is located in the suburbs, at 7271 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda, Maryland (tel. 301/913-0003). Though this branch is within walking distance of my house, I prefer the ambience of the original D.C. location.

Whenever a friend visits from out of town and I haven't gotten around to making a restaurant reservation, we usually end up at Johnny's. It's easy, fun, and comfortable; it's open continuously from lunch through the afternoon to closing, and it takes no reservations, so you can usually walk right in and get something fresh from the sea (though weekend nights after 8:30pm, you'll probably have at least a 20-min. wait); and it feels like a hometown restaurant, a rare thing in a city whose residents tend to originate from many other hometowns. Johnny's owners, Ann Cashion and John Fulchino, own another very popular restaurant, Cashion's Eat Place in Adams-Morgan. The restaurant is small, with a decor that features an aquarium behind the long bar, booths along one paneled wall, a tile floor, and a partly open kitchen. The professional yet friendly waiters seem to enjoy themselves. It's reassuring, too, that the menu seldom changes, since everything is reliably good, from the farm-raised chicken with old-fashioned Eastern Shore slippery dumplings, garden peas, and button mushrooms, to the crab meat imperial with a salad of haricots verts (young green beans), tomatoes, and shallots. I recently opted for that crab imperial, which was almost as good as the one my mom used to make. On another visit, I enjoyed the delicious fried oyster po'boy sandwich, while my friend Sue went for the Maryland crab cakes with coleslaw and french fries; we both devoured every morsel. If the sautéed soft-shell crabs with Old Bay and basil beurre blanc and corn pudding are on the menu, get them. My daughter Cait likes the barbecued shrimp appetizer with Asiago cheese grits. Oysters and Wellfleet clams on the half shell are always available, of course. The short wine list includes a few selections by the glass; there are four beers on tap. Desserts are simple but perfect, including homemade ice cream, a choice of hazelnut, almond, pecan, or chocolate tart, and chocolate angel food cake with caramel sauce.

When a restaurant has been as roundly praised as Kinkead's, you start to think no place can be that good -- but Kinkead's really is. After a brief closure in early 2004 for a remodeling of the dining room (purple walls, but otherwise nothing drastic) and a revamping of the menu, Kinkead's re-opened with even more pleasing items on the menu, like the lobster potpie. But most of the favorite dishes are still here: the fried Ipswich clams, cod topped with crab imperial, clam chowder, and pepita-crusted salmon with shrimp, crab, and chiles. And chef Kinkead continues to pile on appetizing garnishes -- that crab-crowned cod, for instance, comes with sweet potato purée and ham-laced spoon bread. Award-winning chef/owner Bob Kinkead is the star at this three-tier, 220-seat restaurant. He orchestrates his kitchen staff in full view of the upstairs dining room, where booths and tables neatly fill the nooks and alcoves of the town house. At street level is a scattering of tables overlooking the restaurant's lower level, the more casual bar and cafe, where a jazz group or pianist performs nearly every evening. Beware: If the waiter tries to seat you in the "atrium, " you'll be stuck at a table mall-side just outside the doors of the restaurant. Kinkead's menu (which changes daily for lunch and again for dinner) features primarily seafood, but always includes at least one beef and one poultry entree. The wine list comprises more than 300 selections, and you can trust expert sommelier Michael Flynn to lead you to one you'll enjoy. You can't go wrong with the desserts either, like the chocolate dacquoise with cappuccino sauce. If you're hungry but not ravenous in the late afternoon, stop in for some delicious light fare: fish and chips, lobster roll, soups, and salads.

This family-owned restaurant gives you a taste of Lebanese culture -- its cuisine, decor, and music. It's very popular on weekends, so expect to stand in line (reservations are accepted for seating before 6:30pm only). Diners, once seated in the courtyardlike dining room, where music plays and prayer rugs hang on the walls, hate to leave. The wood-burning oven in the back bakes the pita breads and several appetizers. Order mezza dishes for the table: hummus, tabbouleh, baba ghanoush, stuffed grape leaves, cheese pastries, couscous, and pastry-wrapped spinach pies (fatayer bi sabanikh), enough for dinner for a couple or as hors d'oeuvres for a table of you. Or consider entrees, such as the roasted half chicken wrapped in bread and served with garlic purée. The wealth of meatless dishes will delight vegetarians, while rotisserie items, especially the chicken and the chargrilled kabobs of chicken and shrimp, will please all others.