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Start a Top 5 for JapaneseEditor’s picks
Press picks, until locals rank their own Top 5s. Sourced from the local food press. As seen in Washingtonian. Updated September 2026.
Perry's Restaurant · Adams Morgan
Perry’s has long been an Adams Morgan sushi standby. Chef Masako Morishita gives its Japanese comfort-food menu fresh range, with dishes such as edamame dumplings and a shrimp-katsu burger alongside the familiar sushi.
Rakuya · Dupont Circle
Rakuya brings Japanese cooking to Dupont Circle, with a menu that ranges beyond sushi. Its Q Street dining room is the neighborhood counterpart to the Raku restaurants in Cathedral Heights and Bethesda.
Izakaya Seki · U Street
A two-story Japanese rowhouse pub run by a father-daughter team, built on simple, precise small plates: a fluffy unagi omelet, grilled Hokkaido sardine, and a mushroom dish in butter and garlic the New York Times named one of its favorite dishes of 2022. Word-of-mouth built this one over neighbors and blog posts rather than marketing.
DAIKAYA · Penn Quarter
A Sapporo-style ramen shop downstairs, springy Hokkaido-made noodles in soulful stocks, with a slinkier upstairs izakaya pouring Japanese whiskey alongside plates like Wagyu donburi and okonomiyaki-style pork. Two distinct experiences stacked in one building depending on the mood, from the group behind several downtown noodle spots.