May D.C. openings: 9 New Places to Prioritize Now

May D.C. openings gave the region a useful spread: a 35-seat Himalayan cocktail bar on U Street, a downtown Uchi with a 14-seat sushi counter, and Ryan Ratino’s beef-focused Ox & Olive in Georgetown. Prioritize Kathmandu for drinks, Uchi for sushi-counter energy, and Ox & Olive for a higher-spend steakhouse night; not every new arrival needs your calendar, but these nine do.

Kathmandu (U Street)

Kathmandu is the bar to book first if you want the month’s most specific point of view: Himalayan-influenced cocktails, a compact 35-seat room, and tapas from chef Shiva Nepal, whose résumé includes the Willard and Art & Soul. Barmini alum José Cox is behind cocktails including a clarified mango lassi, the Lychee Phool martini, and a spiced Himalayan Old Fashioned, which gives this opening more technical bar credibility than the average new neighborhood lounge.

The bar opened May 6 at 1342 U Street NW^#, with bamboo stools, exposed brick, Nepali artifacts, and a copper bar. The owner also runs Tempo Shack on H Street, but this is a more drinks-led move, built for two-person bar seats and early group check-ins rather than a long dinner.

Order around the cocktails, not the other way around. Pair the mango lassi drink or Himalayan Old Fashioned with masala crabcakes, duck choila tacos, and momos. The smart move is happy hour: Tuesday to Thursday from 4 to 6 p.m., plus Sunday from 9 to 11 p.m., with a free second cocktail and $1 bites. For this round of May D.C. openings, Kathmandu is the easiest yes if you care about cocktail technique and a bar format that still has food worth planning around.

Details:

• Address: 1342 U St NW, Washington
• Price: $$

DCanter (Old Town Alexandria)

For a low-commitment wine stop with a real education angle, DCanter is the pick. The Capitol Hill wine shop expanded to Old Town Alexandria in early April 2026^#, just ahead of the May wave, with a cellar-style store, wood ceilings designed to resemble wine racks, and a communal tasting table, so it reads more like a wine clubhouse than a grab-and-go bottle shop.

The useful detail is the programming. Classes cost $47 and include wine tasting, while weekend tastings run Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. for $5 per person. That makes DCanter one of the more practical May D.C. openings for buyers who want to taste before stocking a home fridge or building a dinner-party case.

Look for approachable, small-producer wines rather than prestige-label trophy hunting. This is not the place to flex a cellar budget; it is better for finding bottles to open soon, sharpening a region-specific blind spot, or doing a Saturday tasting before dinner in Old Town. If you are choosing between DCanter and a restaurant reservation, DCanter wins for a casual pre-dinner stop or a host-gift mission, while Uchi and Ox & Olive are the better actual evening plans.

Details:

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

Constellation (National Landing)

During the day in National Landing, Constellation is the opening to use, especially if you are near Amazon’s headquarters and need something more flexible than another office-adjacent lunch counter. The all-day cafe debuted May 20^# with pastries, single-origin roasts from D.C.’s Small Planes Coffee, craft beers, and a market selling local goods and snacks for home or office.

The food is strongest on utility. Breakfast brings French toast, egg scrambles, smoked salmon on a locally made bagel, and a breakfast burrito with house-made chorizo. That makes it a better fit for a workday breakfast, laptop coffee, or pre-meeting bite than for a destination dinner.

The credential signal is behind the scenes: two alums from Michelin-starred Pineapple & Pearls lead the kitchens, and Episcope Hospitality is behind both Constellation and the planned Altitude, a wine bar, Italian-leaning restaurant, and vinyl listening lounge expected to follow. Track Constellation now, but keep more attention on what Episcope does next in the same orbit. For now, use it for coffee, pastry, and a market stop, not a big-night booking.

Details:

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

Boulevard (Arlington)

Boulevard is Arlington’s new drinks-and-dinner room with the clearest nightlife DNA. D.C. nightlife veteran Antonis Karagounis, whose background includes Mayflower, Zebbie’s Garden, and Decades, opened the American restaurant in early May along Wilson Boulevard with a separate rooftop bar.^#

The kitchen has a stronger reference point than the average rooftop-adjacent restaurant because Karagounis brought in Juan “Nacho” Olivera, chef-owner of Adams Morgan’s Eater 38-designated South American restaurant Ceibo, to consult. The menu ranges widely: bao bun sliders, king mushroom cavatelli, steak frites, beetroot risotto, and sushi rolls. That breadth can be a warning sign, but it also makes Boulevard useful for mixed groups where one person wants pasta, one wants steak, and someone else wants the rooftop.

Book Boulevard when the bar matters as much as the food. It is a better call for a birthday, a client drink that may turn into dinner, or a group that wants options without committing to a tasting menu. If you are chasing a tighter culinary identity, Kathmandu and Uchi give you more focus; Boulevard gives you Wilson Boulevard convenience, a rooftop, and a menu built to keep a group from splintering.

Details:

• Address: 2915 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia

Rosa’s Diner (Downtown)

Rosa’s Diner is the downtown opening to use when you want all-day comfort food with enough Latin detail to avoid the usual hotel-adjacent diner autopilot. It debuted May 22 in the Victorian row house attached to the Moxy hotel, in the former Parlour Victoria space, with executive chef Francisco Pomalaza in charge.

The menu is built around Americana classics with Latin twists. The eggs “Benedict” is actually a pupusa topped with beef birria and aji amarillo hollandaise. The breakfast burrito uses Salvadorian chorizo. Churro French toast, a Pop Tart pastry with guava, brie, and candied pecan dust, salads, bowls, mushroom Bolognese, and roasted chicken in a citrus marinade with Peruvian yellow potatoes fill out the day.

This is not the most rarefied opening downtown, but it solves a real downtown problem: where to go when you need breakfast, lunch, or an unfussy early dinner that still gives you something to talk about. Consider Rosa’s for a pre-theater meal, a hotel meeting, or a weekday lunch that can handle people with different appetites. Skip it for a special-occasion dinner; Uchi and Ox & Olive are doing more work at that level.

Details:

• Address: 1011 K St NW, Washington
• Price: $$

Uchi (Downtown)

In this May class, the major sushi arrival is Uchi, and it is the one to book if you want a full restaurant experience rather than a quick look-in. The Austin-born restaurant from Hai Hospitality and James Beard award-winning chef Tyson Cole opened its D.C. outpost on May 12^# with sushi and Japanese-influenced fare.

The downtown dining room gives you options: over 100 seats, a 14-seat sushi counter, and an 18-seat entryway bar. If you care about the format, aim for the sushi counter. Uchi is known for sushi topped with yakumi, Japanese garnishes meant to complement raw fish, and dishes such as hama chili, with yellowtail, orange supremes, ponzu, and Thai chiles.

The price hack is the bar. Daily happy hour runs from 4 to 6 p.m. with $10 cocktails, nigiri sets under $10, and a nine-course tasting menu for two for $120. Cocktails riff on classics like the Old Fashioned and margarita, with sake, lychee, and yuzu in the mix. If you are choosing one splurge among the May D.C. openings, Uchi is the sushi-counter choice; Ox & Olive is the beef-and-martini choice. For date night, Uchi has the broader range.

Details:

• Address: 1700 M Street NW
• Price: Happy hour includes $10 cocktails, nigiri sets under $10, and a nine-course tasting menu for two for $120

Ox & Olive (Georgetown)

For a high-spend Georgetown opening to take seriously, look to Ox & Olive. Chef Ryan Ratino of Michelin-starred Jônt and Bresca opened the steakhouse on May 7^# in the former Reverie space, redesigned into a gothic, self-described “temple of beef.” If you were tired of steakhouse reruns, this is the version with enough chef authorship to justify attention.

The beef program is the point. Ratino keeps costs in check by butchering and dry aging every cut in the restaurant’s basement. Mainstays start at $44 for wagyu flank steak, while a pound of rotating specialty cuts runs $74 to $115.¹ The steakhouse starters are more playful than the standard shrimp-cocktail route: mini hot dogs made with brisket and leftover beef ends, plus steak tartare bites on mini eclairs.

For access, watch the chef’s table and the bar. A couch in front of the open kitchen works as a chef’s table for up to eight diners, starting at $95^#, with a curated menu covering dishes on and off the main menu. Martini hour runs weekdays from 5 to 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. to close at the bar and lounge, with $16 martinis. Book Ox & Olive for four people who want beef, martinis, and a chef-driven room, not for a light dinner.

Details:

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

Café Monet (McLean)

Café Monet is the suburban opening with the strongest daytime-to-dinner range. D.C.-based Knead Hospitality opened the European-style bistro on May 6^# inside the McLean Project for the Arts’ new Berlage Arts & Education Center, next to contemporary art galleries and a working ceramics studio.

The setting matters because it changes the use case. This is not just a cafe counter inside a cultural building; it is an all-day restaurant under a glass rotunda with screen-printed Claude Monet paintings around the chandeliers. Chef Mario Pineda’s menu starts with lemon-ricotta pancakes and croissant sandwiches, then moves into croquettes, tuna crudo, steak frites, and beef Bourguignon later in the day. Drinks lean into a spritz menu and gin-based cocktails.

Book Café Monet for brunch before the galleries, a McLean lunch that does not feel like a compromise, or an early dinner with someone who wants a calmer room than D.C. proper. Proceeds support the McLean Project for the Arts’ nonprofit programs, including exhibitions and community art classes, which gives the restaurant a civic function without making that the only reason to go.

Details:

• Address: 6910 Fleetwood Road, McLean, VA
• Price: $$

Catahoula (Navy Yard)

Catahoula is the Navy Yard opening to track if your D.C. dining map has too many seafood towers and not enough Louisiana cooking. The New Orleans-styled restaurant opened May 14^# on the waterfront site that housed All-Purpose pizzeria, with a dining room reworked to resemble an old-school Parisian brasserie and multiple patios.

The food direction is rustic Louisiana cooking married with French techniques. That phrasing matters: it suggests a broader kitchen than a crawfish-boil-only operation. The name comes from the state dog of Louisiana, known for its leopard-like spots, and the restaurant has more planned than crawfish boils.

Use Catahoula for groups that want the Navy Yard waterfront without defaulting to the most predictable patio reservation. It is too early to treat it as a sure thing, but the premise is useful: New Orleans flavor, French technique, patios, and a waterfront address. Put it on the watch list for warm-weather dinners and larger groups where the room and outdoor space matter as much as the menu.

What's Next for May D.C. openings

The useful read on this month is range, not volume. Kathmandu gives U Street a compact cocktail bar with Himalayan food, Uchi brings a 14-seat sushi counter downtown, Ox & Olive gives Georgetown a chef-led steakhouse, and DCanter adds a wine-education stop across the river. That is a better spread than a month filled with copycat dining rooms.

For your next reservations, match the venue to the occasion: Kathmandu for cocktails and snacks, Uchi for sushi, Ox & Olive for steak and martinis, Café Monet for arts-adjacent daytime dining, and Catahoula for the waterfront. The next thing to watch is whether Episcope’s planned Altitude gives National Landing a stronger evening draw after Constellation’s daytime debut.