If you’re craving a taste of Europe in Northern Virginia, we’ve got you covered. From Mediterranean spreads to French bistro classics, our curated list of the 14 best European restaurants brings you the finest flavors from across the continent. Whether you’re planning a romantic evening, a lively gathering, or a simple meal out, these spots from our 50 Best Restaurants list will transport your taste buds.
By Alice Levitt, Olga Boikess, Dawn Klavon, and Alyssa Langer
Price Key: Entrées = $ 15 and under | $$ 16–25 | $$$ 26–40 | $$$$ 41 and over | * = prix fixe only
Agora
Tysons | Mediterranean | $$
Most of us have learned to expect exactly what’s in the name at small-plates restaurants. Agora is a refreshing anomaly where four or five of those dishes can be enough to feed two.
That’s not to say that guests shouldn’t ask for more — one can’t overestimate the pleasures of tasting their way through the Turkish and pan-Mediterranean selections on offer — but when it comes to satiety, this is one small-plates spot that doesn’t skimp.
A sampler of spreads, paired with hot, sandal-shaped flatbreads, includes six favorites. Whether it’s Greek htipiti or mint-speckled Turkish cacik, it’s all worth dipping in. Grilled rings of squid are garlicky and bright with citrus but also sizzle with heat thanks to Maras chiles. Finish with the cheese stretch of the sweet künefe. The plates are larger than you’d think, and the size of the satisfaction is even greater.
Eat This:
Spread sampler, grilled kalamar, künefe
Ambar
Arlington | Balkan | $$$$*
All-you-can-eat buffets are not for everyone — but what if you could have all the benefits of a buffet without the inconvenient shortcomings? Ambar is the perfect hybrid, where diners can order as many dishes as they desire, while remaining seated.
The $54.99 all-you-can-eat dinner (or $42.99 brunch) starts with a bounty of spreads, mezze, charcuterie, and breads. Small plates is the name of the game here; some are very small, while others are shareable.
Beef short rib goulash — tender meat, rich broth, and orzo — is a rustic, stick-to-your-ribs dish not to miss. On the lighter side, grilled shrimp are complemented by a delicate corn purée. Flash-fried cauliflower with spinach tahini pesto is another favorite. The abundance of plates arriving at your table is an impressive sight.
The stylish, floral space is well-suited for larger parties — just make sure everyone arrives hungry. They’re about to have a buffet delivered straight to the table, after all.
Café Colline
Arlington | French | $$$
Time-honored Gallic favorites are crafted here with precision and panache. But this Parisian-style bistro isn’t all business; diners are treated as welcome guests.
They’ll find themselves compulsively spreading a classic chicken liver mousse on one crouton after another, savoring each creamy, crunchy bite. Another French staple — tuna Niçoise — is just as compelling. It’s offered in a stacked presentation that literally elevates each mouthful.
Roast chicken is a bistro standby that the kitchen nails. Moist and flavorful, it falls off the bone. What’s more, the burger and fries are crafted with the same concern for top-level sourcing and cooking as the rest of the menu.
Don’t even think about just eating a spoonful or two of dessert, such as the pots de crème or Basque cheesecake. The staff takes its mission of offering a French fantasy seriously — it’s just up to you to indulge.
Eat This:
Foie de volaille, tuna Niçoise, pots de crème
Carbonara
Arlington | Italian | $$
The Rat Pack fills the room at this new Italian restaurant with their music — and their spirits. Frank, Dino, and Sammy would all feel right at home in the always packed dining room here, watching a server set a cheese wheel ablaze to add salty Parmesan to the restaurant’s namesake bucatini.
The show doesn’t end there. Watch the team roll out everything from pappardelle to gnocchi in the open kitchen. For a sampling of their efforts, order the prime short rib lasagna, so packed with melting meat that the cheeses and even pasta piled within are almost an afterthought. Watch a server slide a layer of mozzarella cheese onto the chicken parmigiana tableside.
Just like the souls on the stereo, Carbonara knows that all the world’s a stage.
Eat This:
Italian long hot peppers, famous chicken parmigiana alla vodka, prime short rib lasagna
Carmello’s
Manassas | Mediterranean | $$$$
This warhorse of a bistro has been serving Italian and Portuguese fare for nearly 40 years.
Don’t expect anything but a lively scene while eating at the bar, or caring service in the white-tablecloth dining room. Appetizers are hearty. They include arancini (crunchy, cheesy rice balls), flavor-packed tips of filet mignon, and most notably, tender, grilled octopus spiked with lime.
While it’s hard to resist ordering the Flintstone-sized bone-in prime rib, opt for the meaty pork chop, known for its intense, umami flavor. Meltingly tender agnolotti are sauced with sizable bites of lobster. The bright and springy limoncello sponge cake with a rich mascarpone mousse offers a refreshing finish to an indulgent meal.
With a final bite of made-to-order zabaglione, it’s easy to see how this charmer has delighted diners for decades.
Eat This:
Picadas de bife, pernil de porco, limoncello cake
L’Auberge Chez François (No. 3)
Great Falls | French | $$$$*
Generosity doesn’t even begin to describe the hospitality at this old-school French restaurant. Appetizers like the tomatoes grown in the restaurant’s garden plated with roasted corn, cabbage, carrots, and micro greens as well as a fragrant bouillabaisse, chock-full of seafood, could be a satisfying meal. But that won’t stop diners from devouring the classic sole with mushrooms, tomatoes, and new potatoes. Each fresh bite leads to another until the bountiful serving disappears.
Even if you’re not hungry when dessert time arrives, a camera-ready kugelhopf-shaped meringue drizzled with crunchy caramel and bathed in crème anglaise is too enticing to skip.
One meal here leads to fantasies of the next — perhaps featuring the Roquefort cheese tart or the mussels with garlic-herb butter, to be followed by an entrée of duck, veal, or beef tournedos. There will definitely be a traditional Alsatian plum tart, all served with a generous spirit and plenty of panache.
Eat This:
Bouillabaisse, La Sole de la Manche, plum tart
Nostos (No. 6)
Vienna | Mediterranean | $$$
You won’t even know what hit you; this charming Greek restaurant comes to Hellenic life from the moment you hear the strains of the bouzouki. Diners are ushered through the white-walled dining room, adorned with nostalgic black-and-white photos of Zorba the Greek himself, Anthony Quinn, and opera grande dame Maria Callas. Memories of a Mykonos adventure come to mind as parties converse over freshly prepared tzatziki and fava Santorinis.
Kefalograviera cheese is pan-flamed tableside for a saganaki that merits a shout of “Opa!” The simply prepared but supremely tasty grilled swordfish, steak, and chicken souvlakis are memorable for their quality and flavor.
Dessert takes the meal to the next level. Varieties of baklava abound, but our money is on the traditional version, brimming with coarsely chopped walnuts and a divine honey drizzle.
A meal at Nostos is an inspired event from the moment you step foot inside the door. Enjoy every outstanding morsel as if you’d paid for a flight to Greece to enjoy it.
Eat This:
Saganaki, swordfish souvlaki, traditional baklava
Roberto’s Ristorante Italiano
Vienna | Italian | $$$$
When a chef and restaurateur has gained Roberto Donna’s level of fame, it would be easy to sit on one’s laurels. But while James Beard Foundation Award– and Iron Chef–winner Donna may have decamped to quieter Vienna from DC, he’s not shy about continuing to challenge himself.
The menu is approachable to suburban diners, but Donna adheres to seasonality with fervor, making additions and subtractions almost daily. The results can be lip-smackingly creative. Diners shouldn’t be afraid to try a dessert of fried ravioli stuffed with tomato jam and drizzled with creamy dots of pistachio sauce. After all, it’s an appealing way to prolong the lives of summer tomatoes.
Guests feel like valued friends as they dine beneath a candy-colored Chihuly chandelier. As comfortable as they are, their chef is never one to sit still, and the meal is all the better for it.
Eat This:
Culatello e fichi, pappardelle al cinghiale, tiramisu
Sabores Tapas Bar
Arlington | Tapas | $$
Going bottomless for a meal sounds like the stuff of nightmares, but at this merry tapas purveyor, it’s a brunchtime delight — and you can keep your pants on. For $32.99, diners are treated to everything on the broad menu of Spanish and Latin American small plates.
It’s easy to graze through a dozen or more without even taking notice. There’s no shame in ordering both versions of the Spanish pan con tomate — tomato-topped bread with either Manchego cheese or Serrano ham. Chilaquiles, tortilla chips sautéed in guajillo chile sauce, are served with scrambled eggs and earn their place on the Chef’s Favorites section of the menu.
Lunch and dinner are à la carte and well worth your attention, but there are times that even the most conservative among us just has to try every bite.
Eat This:
Pan con tomate y queso Manchego, Chuleton Vasco, la maceta de chocolate
Semifreddo Italian Cuisine
Manassas | Italian | $$$
Chef Franklin Hernandez’s celebrated eatery in an everyday shopping center hides a pleasant surprise — sharp white tablecloths and simple elegance. Knowledgeable staffers are supremely attentive, offering enticing menu descriptions and frequent check-ins.
Hernandez creates unexpected pleasures like grilled Romana salad — his version of a Caesar — with value-added char to the lettuce’s exterior. Classic calamari fritti balances delicate crispness with zesty marinara, achieving exceptional results.
Housemade pastas prevail here, with plenty of choices; ravioli polpa di granchio (crab ravioli) is bathed in lobster bisque for a rich, hearty plate. Diverse entrées like pan-seared barramundi filet or vitello marsala provide consistently noteworthy options. Don’t leave without sampling the restaurant’s namesake semifreddo to end your experience on a sweet note. The strip-mall location may not be able to boast of its beauty, but Semifreddo’s other assets make it amply clear what diners find attractive about this Italian eatery.
Eat This:
Grilled Romana salad, ravioli polpa di granchio, semifreddo
SER
Arlington | Spanish | $$$
The joys of crispy rice, from bibimbap to arancini, know no national borders. And when Spanish gastronomy is among the most sought-after on the planet (just look at the Barcelona location of the current World’s Best Restaurant, Disfrutar), there are no crunchy grains with a following as devoted as paella.
The giant pans at SER are intended to sear as much rice as possible. They come to the table sizzling, sized for at least two to three diners. Options include seafood, vegetarian, and meaty iterations. The last of those might include crisp-skinned chicken legs, bites of rabbit, and sausage melded with a mix of vegetables that includes green beans and chunks of artichoke.
One might call the one-pot dish simple, but the collection of flavors here is anything but. Score one more point for the crispy rice dishes of the world.
Eat This:
Paella, croquetas, goxua
Sfoglina
Arlington | Italian | $$$
Food lovers hail chef and restaurateur Fabio Trabocchi as a gastronomic alchemist turning flour and water into satisfying pasta dishes. At his Rosslyn paean to the noodle, this magic is on full display.
A flexible menu that invites sampling and sharing offers a range of regional recipes. Whether it’s goat cheese–filled ravioli or spaghetti with zucchini, the thinly rolled noodles have a bit of a bite. The sauces blossom with flavor. Zucchini coins entwined in spaghetti are a testament to a less-is-more approach to fine dining. Roman-style rigatoni with pecorino cheese and black pepper is another minimalist winner.
Edgy art, unusual light fixtures, marble-topped tables, and café-style chairs establish a chic atmosphere that adds a further dimension to an outstanding meal. But the true magic is on each plate that features an unforgettable bite of pasta.
Eat This:
Fabio’s ravioli San Leo, spaghetti alla Nerano, parmigiana di melanzane
Thompson Italian
Alexandria & Falls Church | Italian | $$$
What swam in the ocean hours ago is now memorialized in a sea of garlic. Onyx-colored tendrils of linguine twist and curl around scallops that taste of a briny sweetness that tells you one thing: Thompson Italian is a restaurant more obsessed with fresh, seasonal ingredients than it is with the dogma of classic cuisine.
Leave it to chef-owners Gabe and Katherine Thompson to upgrade tried-and-true recipes with Virginia’s bounty. The fritto misto centers around meltingly tooth-friendly calamari but also zucchini and chunky peppadew peppers. The coating is tempura-light with nary a hint of grease.
Seasonality extends to desserts, where coconut tapioca pudding is bathed in blueberries or tiramisu is flavored not with coffee, but with bright, bursting berries. With every bite, the Thompsons pay tribute to tradition, but best it with their of-the-moment flavors.
Eat This:
Fritto misto, squid ink linguine, berry tiramisu
Trattoria Villagio
Clifton | Italian | $$$
A festive vibe seasons the hearty pastas at this welcoming, celebratory spot. Whether you sit at a cozy indoor table or on the enchanting patio, there’s sure to be something on the wide-ranging menu to satisfy your party’s lust for Italian American fare.
Dunking the perfectly cooked crustaceans of the Shrimp Badda-Bing in tangy tomato sauce is a delightful, hands-on experience.
Pastas are a must-order, and there are lots of tempting choices. The supple noodles in the tagliatelle Bolognese are bathed in a fresh-tasting meat sauce. It’s a classic that never gets old in the hands of the expert chefs here. The towering, multilayered chocolate cake is the ideal end to your occasion; not too rich or too sweet, it’s bound to please your crowd.
Eat This:
Shrimp Bada-Bing, tagliatelle Bolognese, chocolate cake
Feature image of L’Auberge Chez François by Rey Lopez
This story originally ran in our November issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
