These eateries are among our critics’ favorites in the region.
Heading to the “Little City” of Falls Church? Make time to visit these top-tier restaurants, serving top-grade Korean barbecue, modern American bites, and beyond. Our critics selected these nine Falls Church restaurants as part of our 2025 Best Restaurants list.
By Alice Levitt, Dawn Klavon, and Monica Saigal
Price Key: Entrées = $ 15 and under | $$ 16–25 | $$$ 26–40 | $$$$ 41 and over | * = prix fixe only
Falls Church | Modern American | $$$$
Quarter-life crisis? Not this hallowed culinary ground, which first served guests in 2002. Chef Bertrand Chemel, who has himself been in the kitchen since 2008, keeps his restaurant fresh with monthly menu updates that course the planet for both the best ingredients and the most creative techniques.
Tasting menus include vegetarian and meaty options, and diners can exercise their right to choose for all five courses. A celebration of the summer harvest might include a buttery kampachi crudo swimming in marbled tomato-tarragon sauce with cherry tomatoes and chive blossoms, then move along to creamy corn espuma dotted with kernels and pickled chanterelles. It’s topped with peanuts and popcorn for an elevated take on summer snacking.
Prefer to sink your teeth into a simple steak? The rib-eye here is the best you’ll find — raised humanely, cooked to your liking, expertly sauced, and accompanied by crispy potatoes.
After nearly two decades in the kitchen at this art-filled icon, Chemel isn’t even close to running out of tricks up his sleeve. And we won’t ever stop eating it up.
Eat This: Yellow corn-chanterelles, grilled Braveheart Farm rib-eye, Amaretto & Chocolate
Falls Church | Modern American | $$$
There’s a Michelin man quietly standing on a shelf near Ellie Bird’s open kitchen. That is the only nod to the star that Yuan and Carey Tang’s other restaurant, Rooster & Owl in DC, has held onto for years in the famed guide.
But there’s evidence at every turn: The unfalteringly friendly yet professional service. The attention to detail in the avian-themed environment that even extends to the restrooms. But especially the creative cuisine.
Yuan Tang’s fusion of pho and cheesy French onion soup has quietly been the best version of either in NoVA since its debut in 2023.
The chef and his team never seem to stop coming up with dishes you won’t find anywhere else. A claw-on presentation of grilled Amish chicken fuses the ends of Asia with flavors of sesame oil and spiced yogurt that elevate the bird to new heights of flavor.
Executive pastry chef Corey Jamison, a newer addition, thrills with toasted marshmallow ice cream atop an almost impossibly light chocolate tart with peanut butter crunch.
And every mouthful is Michelin-worthy.
Eat This: Vietnamese French onion soup, grilled Amish chicken, chocolate tart
Falls Church | American | $$$
Look past the plastic tablecloths and directly to the fire blazing in the oven at the back of the restaurant. You are here for flame-caressed vittles, not ambience. However, sit down for a meal at casual Harvey’s and expect the kind of ingredient-obsessed service you’ll find at a fine-dining restaurant.
Focus your attention on the fire-roasted duck breast — the skin is blistered into buttery chicharrónes atop blushingly tender flesh. Salt would be enough, but you’re treated instead to pineapple–ancho chile glaze that levels up the experience with not-too-sweet spice. The peach risotto beneath, with its al dente grains, also sidesteps the sugary mess it could have been with gooey, cheesy flair.
“How is the bread pudding?” you ask the server. His answer, “Intimidating,” is accurate. There’s plenty of the flaky peach-bourbon dessert to share.
With its locavore ethos and creative scratch cooking, Harvey’s is a date night for diners who appreciate stellar cuisine, no need for frills.
Eat This: Fried calamari, fire-roasted duck breast, bread pudding
Falls Church | Vietnamese | $$$
Slip past the main doorway and you’re swallowed by violet — plush chairs, floral murals, even the napkins glow purple. It is as if Monet had opened a supper club on Saigon’s edge.
The menu is equally kaleidoscopic. Every dish has its own suggested cocktail, and the kitchen leans into seasonal whimsy.
Begin with chile oil wontons, silk-thin parcels of Gulf shrimp and pork that bob in a sweet-heat pool so addictive you’ll want a second round. The golden soft-shell lands next. The crab, cloaked in banh xeo batter, is flash-fried and then doused tableside with a tamarind sauce that makes the herbs beneath sing. Save just enough room for the ca phe tres leches cake, a Vietnamese-coffee sponge crowned with salted-egg buttercream that tastes like tiramisu took a trip to Hanoi.
Nue is pure, playful poetry like a garden party for the senses that leaves you plotting your next violet-hued escape even before the check arrives.
Eat This: Chile oil wontons, golden soft-shell crab, ca phe tres leches
Arlington | Lao | $$
The first thing you notice at Padaek is the mural of hibiscus and orchids tumbling across the wall like a Laotian garden in full bloom. The second is the energy from tables packed with diners.
Chef Seng Luangrath builds her menu around comfort and memory. Crispy Lao chive cakes arrive warm and herb-packed, sharpened by tamarind sauce. Garlic chicken wings, sticky and crackling, are impossible to resist. Kao pad brings fried rice studded with basil and peppers, while the crispy blue catfish, bathed in a chile-herb sauce, anchors the table. Service is quick and gracious, the kind that keeps the evening moving without ever rushing you.
Then comes dessert: Mango sticky rice draped in coconut cream, sesame seeds glinting on top. Like the mural at the door, it leaves you with brightness, warmth, and a reason to come back.
Eat This: Lao chive cakes, catfish stir-fry, mango sticky rice
Falls Church | Vietnamese | $$
You’ll spot the line before the sign. Tucked inside Eden Center, Rice Paper rarely has an empty table — and for good reason. For more than a decade, this casual spot has been dishing out fresh, flavorful Vietnamese fare to loyal diners.
Start with the coconut salad, a tangle of young palm, shrimp, pork, and herbs that eats like the hottest season on a plate. The coconut curry, layered with tofu, pineapple, and a peanut crunch, balances sweetness and spice with each bite. And the sizzling stir-fried chicken in lemongrass and chile sauce packs just enough heat to keep things interesting, especially when chased by spoonfuls of fragrant jasmine rice. When the seasonal mango sticky rice shows up on the menu, trust that dessert isn’t optional.
The servers are swift, and the vibe is unpretentious. At Rice Paper, the line outside is simply proof you’re in the right place.
Eat This: Coconut salad with shrimp and pork, tofu coconut curry, lemongrass chile chicken
Falls Church | Modern Korean | $$$$
We can all agree: Korean barbecue is delicious. But from bulgogi to soybean stew, it’s not the most creative or varied of cuisines. Unless you get your ’cue at Seoul Prime.
There, the team behind Honest Grill kicks the Korean steakhouse concept up several notches with original creations that taste every bit as fantastic as they sound. Try the heirloom tomato and burrata salad. Dressed in kimchi vinaigrette, tiger-striped tomatoes share space with creamy, oozy cheese and pickled biquinho peppers.
But the beef is still the centerpiece. There are three “tours” and à la carte options. Pick the mid-range prime steak tour that starts with a hulking, dry-aged rib-eye. The four-meat assault of ideally caramelized protein cooked at your table culminates in marinated prime short ribs that melt in sweet delight.
End the meal with a croffle — a buttery, flaky croissant cooked in a waffle iron and topped with vanilla ice cream and berry coulis. There’s no question that this is fine-dining Korean barbecue that stands out in the increasingly crowded field.
Eat This: Heirloom tomato and burrata, prime steak tour, croffle
Alexandria & Falls Church | Italian | $$$
You’ll admit it without hesitation or embarrassment: You made a reservation at Thompson Italian for the carbs. Before the freshly made pasta, there’s the free focaccia, so indulgently oily that it leaves a rectangular print on your plate when it’s gone.
But have you tried the salad? Chef-owners Gabe and Katherine Thompson are masters of flavor, and while many of their greatest works are noodle-based, their medium is local produce.
It stands to reason that a summer melon salad would be memorable. Balled honeydew, cantaloupe, and watermelon, along with slices of cucumber, a honey-lime vinaigrette, whipped feta, jalapeños, mint, and crumbly olive “granola” conspire to make you salivate even after it’s gone.
Fruity desserts like mixed berry tiramisu and blackberry upside down cake are Katherine’s domain, and they’re just as fresh, seasonal, and intensely flavored.
Yes, order a bowl or three of creamy, truffled mushroom mafaldine. But don’t skimp on salad — or sweets.
Eat This: Summer melon salad, mafaldine, mixed berry tiramisu
Falls Church | Modern American | $$$
Mouthwatering cuisine and noteworthy hospitality in a tranquil setting? Sounds like the restaurant triple crown.
Gems like zesty garlic shrimp bathed in citrus and white-wine butter, served with rustic grilled bread, impress right out of the gate. Dreamy dayboat scallops atop sweet corn with roasted mushrooms, tender filet mignon enriched by Chianti jus, and soy-glazed Chilean sea bass paired with silky carrot-ginger purée are all noteworthy entrée options.
Bourbon peach cobbler, generously partnered with vanilla ice cream, is brought by attentive servers to end an enchanting evening that’s accompanied by live piano music. With its triptych of outstanding service, exceptional cuisine, and inviting ambience, Trio Grill is a winner.
Eat This: French onion soup gratinée, pan-seared dayboat scallops, Bourbon peach cobbler
Feature image of Ellie Bird by Albert Ting
This story originally ran in our November issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
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