Kathmandu U Street Leads 12 D.C.-Area May Openings

Kathmandu U Street is the May opening to book first if you want a new D.C. bar with a clear reason to exist: 35 seats, Himalayan-influenced cocktails, momos, and a Barmini alum running drinks at 1342 U Street NW. The wider D.C.-area list runs from Georgetown steak and downtown sushi to Old Town wine, Arlington cafes, McLean bistro cooking, and Maryland gyros. Do not try to hit all of it. Start with the places that solve a specific night out.

Kathmandu U Street (U Street)

The draw is the pairing of José Cox, a Barmini alum, with chef Shiva Nepal, whose background includes the Willard and Art & Soul. Cox’s list includes a clarified mango lassi, the Lychee Phool martini, and a spiced Himalayan Old Fashioned. Nepal’s food gives you masala crabcakes, duck choila tacos, and momos, enough structure for a drinks-first date or a two-person pre-dinner stop.

Kathmandu comes from the owner of Tempo Shack on H Street, but this is not a copy-paste second address. Read it as a compact U Street bar built around Nepali and Himalayan flavors, with enough food to keep you from treating it as a one-cocktail stop. Kathmandu is the better bar booking than Boulevard if you care more about the cocktail list than a rooftop scene.

Details:

• Address: 1342 U St NW, Washington

DCanter (Old Town Alexandria)

DCanter is built for buyers who would rather leave with bottles than chase another table. The Capitol Hill wine shop expanded into Old Town Alexandria on April 4, 2026 with a cellar-style store at 1101 King Street, Suite 112^#, giving Northern Virginia a more convenient address for small-producer wines and guided tastings.

The design matters because it supports the way you should use the place. Wood ceilings resemble wine racks, and a communal tasting table makes this more useful than a grab-and-go retail shelf. If you are in Old Town for dinner, stop before your reservation and ask for two bottles: one to drink that week, one to hold for a specific meal. That is the best way to use the shop.

Classes launched at $47^# with wine tasting included, and weekend tastings were set at $5 per person on Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m.^# That makes DCanter a low-commitment stop for people who want to learn a region without turning the afternoon into a seminar. Bring one curious friend, not a large group that wants cocktails.

Details:

• Address: 1101 King Street, Suite 112, Alexandria
• Price: $$

Constellation (National Landing)

Around National Landing, Constellation is the practical all-day opening, and that is not faint praise. It debuted May 21 near Amazon’s National Landing headquarters at 2011 Crystal Drive in Arlington^#, with pastries, single-origin roasts from D.C.’s Small Planes Coffee, craft beers, and a market selling local goods and snacks for the office or home.

The ordering plan is simple: start with coffee and breakfast if you work nearby, or use it as a late-day market stop when you need something better than a chain cafe. The opening menu starts the morning with French toast, egg scrambles, smoked salmon on a locally made bagel, and a breakfast burrito with house-made chorizo. Those details make it more useful for weekday routines than a once-a-month destination meal.

Food obsessives should track it for another reason. Constellation and the planned follow-up Altitude come from fast-growing Episcope Hospitality, and the kitchens are led by two alums from Michelin-starred Pineapple & Pearls. Altitude is slated as a wine bar, Italian-leaning restaurant, and vinyl listening lounge, so Constellation may be the first step in a broader National Landing food cluster.

Details:

• Address: 2011 Crystal Drive, Arlington
• Price: $

Boulevard (Arlington)

The names are the trust signal. Antonis Karagounis, the D.C. nightlife operator behind Mayflower, Zebbie’s Garden, and Decades, is behind the first project across the Potomac. Olivera consulted on the menu, and the actual executive chefs are Homero Gonzalez and Bayron Navarro. That combination points toward a restaurant built for volume and social use rather than hushed tasting-menu energy.

Order across the menu instead of trying to force a single identity onto it: bao bun sliders, king mushroom cavatelli pasta, steak frites, beetroot risotto, and sushi rolls all appear in the opening lineup. This is the move for birthdays, mixed-diet groups, and people who want the rooftop component before or after dinner. If you are chasing a focused chef counter, this is not the cleanest fit.

Marathon Deli & Grill (Kensington)

For casual Greek food with a built-in following, Marathon Deli & Grill is the most useful Maryland opening in the May set. The restaurant opened May 8 in Kensington’s Crossroads^#, bringing dishes from its College Park original into a new market.

The order is not complicated, which is the appeal. Look at moussaka, grilled octopus, spanakopita, and gyros, then add one of the carryover favorites such as chicken Parm or a meatball sub if the table wants something outside the Greek lane. The new location also has a full-service bar with Greek wine and beers, which turns it into a more flexible dinner stop than a strict counter-service run.

This is not the May opening to cross town for if you already have a favorite neighborhood Greek spot. It is the one to remember when you are in Kensington, need a reliable group meal, and do not want to spend the night decoding a menu. Families, post-work dinners, and low-pressure weekend meals are the right use cases.

Rosa’s Diner (Downtown)

Rosa’s Diner brings all-day comfort food downtown, with enough Latin detail to avoid the hotel-filler trap. It debuted May 22 at 1011 K Street NW in the Victorian row house attached to the Moxy hotel, in the space that previously held Parlor Victoria.

Executive chef Francisco Pomalaza is the menu’s draw. Eggs “Benedict” arrives as a pupusa with beef birria and aji amarillo hollandaise, while the breakfast burrito uses Salvadorian chorizo. Churro French toast and a guava, brie, and candied pecan Pop Tart pastry cover the sweeter side. Later in the day, salads and bowls sit next to blue plate specials including mushroom Bolognese and roasted chicken in a citrus marinade with Peruvian yellow potatoes.

Use Rosa’s when timing is the problem. The 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily hours make it practical for downtown breakfasts, pre-theater meals, and hotel-area meetups where a tasting menu would be the wrong answer. The opening has more personality than the usual lobby-adjacent diner format because the Latin details show up in specific dishes rather than vague menu language.

Details:

• Address: 1011 K St NW, Washington

Uchi (Downtown)

A downtown night built around a 14-seat sushi counter, an 18-seat entryway bar, and a dining room with over 100 seats is why Uchi is the highest-profile sushi opening in the May group and deserves a reservation. The Austin-born restaurant from Hai Hospitality opened its D.C. outpost May 12 at 1700 M Street NW^#, bringing sushi and Japanese-influenced cooking from James Beard award-winning chef Tyson Cole.

The room is built for multiple kinds of spend: over 100 seats, a 14-seat sushi counter, and an 18-seat entryway bar. That size makes it more accessible than a tiny omakase room, but you still need to be deliberate about where you sit. The sushi counter is the better call if your night is about fish; the bar works if you want to test cocktails and a shorter order.

Uchi is known for sushi topped with yakumi, Japanese garnishes meant to support the fish, and for sashimi such as hama chili with yellowtail, orange supremes, ponzu, and Thai chiles. The bar launched happy hour daily from 4 to 6 p.m. with $10 cocktails^#, nigiri sets under $10, and a nine-course tasting menu for two at $120. If those opening prices are available when you go, happy hour is the smarter first visit than a full dinner.

Ox & Olive (Georgetown)

Because Ryan Ratino is not a generic steakhouse operator, Ox & Olive is the May steakhouse opening to take seriously. Ratino’s D.C. credentials include Michelin-starred Jônt and Bresca, and Ox & Olive opened May 7 in Georgetown in the former Reverie space at 3201 Cherry Hill Lane NW.^#

The concept is direct: beef-focused dining in a redesigned room, with Ratino handling butchering and dry aging for the beef program in the restaurant’s basement. At opening, mainstays from Maryland’s Roseda Farms started at $44 for a wagyu flank steak, while a pound of rotating specialty cuts was listed at $74 to $115^#. That tells you the value proposition: not cheap, but more specific than another expense-account filet.

The smart order is to mix steakhouse references with the new-format bites: mini hot dogs made with brisket and leftover beef ends, steak tartare bites built on mini eclairs, then a beef cut that justifies the trip. Up to eight diners can book the chef’s table setup by the open kitchen, with pricing starting at $95 for a curated menu^#. The bar and lounge launched a $16 martini hour on weekdays from 5 to 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. to close^#, which is the lower-risk test before committing to dinner.

Details:

• Address: 3201 Cherry Hill Lane NW, Washington
• Price: $$

Salty Donut (Georgetown)

Salty Donut is not a dinner plan, but Georgetown needed this kind of easy sweets stop. The Wynwood (Miami) doughnut shop, which dates to 2015, made its D.C. debut May 8 at 3299 M Street NW.^#

The appeal is narrow but real: morning pastry run, afternoon sugar stop, or a low-effort add-on before walking Georgetown. Because the opening details do not pin down specific D.C. flavors, do not plan around it as a destination meal. Treat it as a quick stop when you are already near M Street, especially if your day includes shopping, coffee, or a Georgetown lunch elsewhere.

For visitors, the appeal is convenience. Georgetown has plenty of full-service restaurants that require timing, reservation discipline, or a bar-seat strategy. Salty Donut asks for none of that. It gives the neighborhood a casual stop that works for one person, a family, or a group that refuses to commit to dessert at dinner.

Café Monet (McLean)

If you want bistro food tied to an arts institution rather than a standard shopping-center meal, Café Monet in McLean is worth tracking. D.C.-based Knead Hospitality opened it May 6 inside the McLean Project for the Arts’ new Berlage Arts & Education Center at 6910 Fleetwood Road.^#

The setting does useful work: the cafe sits beneath a glass rotunda next to contemporary art galleries and a working ceramics studio, with screen-printed Claude Monet paintings around the chandeliers. Chef Mario Pineda’s menu starts with lemon-ricotta pancakes and croissant sandwiches in the morning, then moves into croquettes, tuna crudo, steak frites, and beef Bourguignon later in the day.

Order based on time of day. Breakfast and brunch are the low-friction choice if you want the building and cafe without a full dinner commitment. Dinner is the better test if you want to see whether Knead can make the arts-center setting feel like an actual restaurant, not just a cafe attached to a cultural venue. A large spritz menu and gin-based cocktails give it more use than coffee alone, and proceeds support MPA’s nonprofit programs, including exhibitions and community art classes.

Details:

• Price: $$

Catahoula (Navy Yard)

Catahoula is the Navy Yard opening to watch if you miss having a fuller waterfront dining option in the former All-Purpose pizzeria site. The restaurant brings a New Orleans-styled format to the waterfront, with rustic Louisiana cooking shaped by French technique and a dining room reworked with old-school Parisian brasserie cues.

The practical reason to track it is location. Navy Yard waterfront restaurants can become default group choices quickly, especially when patios are involved, and Catahoula adds multiple patios to the former All-Purpose address. That makes it more relevant for warm-weather dinners, pre-game meals, and groups that want the water nearby without building the entire night around cocktails.

The name refers to the state dog of Louisiana, known for leopard-like spots, but do not reduce the concept to crawfish boils. The opening framing points to a broader Louisiana menu, so the first visit should be dinner rather than a snack stop. Go with four people, order across the categories, and decide whether it becomes a repeat Navy Yard option after the room settles.

What’s Next

The May D.C.-area openings are not one story; they are a prioritization problem. Kathmandu U Street is the bar to book first, Uchi is the big downtown sushi play, Ox & Olive is the chef-driven steak reservation, DCanter is the bottle stop, and Constellation is the weekday National Landing utility piece. The rest fill in specific gaps: Greek food in Kensington, Latin-accented diner food downtown, doughnuts in Georgetown, bistro cooking in McLean, and New Orleans flavors on the Navy Yard waterfront.

Watch the Virginia side next. Constellation’s arrival near Amazon’s National Landing headquarters, DCanter’s Old Town expansion, Boulevard’s Arlington rooftop format, and Café Monet’s McLean arts-center setting show how much of the region’s dining energy now sits outside the District line. For summer planning, keep your first wave tight: Kathmandu U Street for cocktails, Uchi for sushi, Ox & Olive for beef, and DCanter when the smarter souvenir is a bottle.

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