There are top-tier dining opportunities all around you in Northern Virginia. If you’re looking for a great bite in Manassas, check out these three restaurants, selected by our critics among the 50 Best Restaurants of 2025.
By Alice Levitt, Dawn Klavon, and Monica Saigal
Price Key: Entrées = $ 15 and under | $$ 16–25 | $$$ 26–40 | $$$$ 41 and over | * = prix fixe only
The Black Sheep
Manassas | American | $$$
At NOVA Live in Manassas, a dynamic outdoor music venue, craft brewery, distillery, and casual food trucks come together to create a family-friendly hot spot.
But this beautifully restored vintage barn that blends rustic charm with elevated dining is the property’s crowning glory. Here, the eclectic menu and curated cocktails deliver a whole other level of grown-up fun.
Beneath chandeliers, grilled octopus — charred and drizzled with red-pepper romesco sauce and chimichurri — is a suitable starter. Entrées like dry-aged New York strip are complemented by tangy harissa butter and optional upgrades such as béarnaise sauce. Follow it with espresso-stuffed beignets.
This is a difficult reservation to get, so be sure to book ahead for special occasions. They’ll be made truly singular when you explore NOVA Live after your meal. You’ll find dinner and a show to be eminently chic.
Eat This: Grilled octopus, Caribbean Bibb salad, espresso-stuffed beignets
Carmello’s
Manassas | Mediterranean | $$$$
It could be said that this 38-year-old restaurant’s greatest asset is consistency. Locals return time and again for upscale cuisine from both Italy and the owners’ native Portugal.
What draws them back? Calamari fritti that arrives lightly battered and accompanied by a tangy marinara. Grilled chicken, jumbo lump crabmeat, and broccolini are partnered with mozzarella-sprinkled, housemade pappardelle. Accented by fresh herbs grown right in the restaurant’s garden, it’s known as pollo princiola (the main chicken).
Another main event is the vieiras — not just buttery scallops as the Portuguese name indicates, but a decadent seafood mixture that also includes plump shrimp, crab, and tender lobster with artichokes. All this maritime magic is piled atop a mountain of housemade capellini flavored by a garlicky white-wine elixir.
Carmello’s delivers it all with aplomb, year in and year out. After meal number one, you’ll plan a return, whether you’re already in the neighborhood or not.
Eat This: Calamari fritti, vieiras, Italian tiramisu
Semifreddo Italian Cuisine
Manassas | Italian | $$$
The signature dessert may be in the name here, but diners are rewarded with far more than sweets if they visit this workaday Manassas strip center in search of savory Italian fare. Here, chef-owner Franklin Hernandez plies his trade in the open kitchen with equal skill given to every course.
The grilled Caesar, known as the Romana salad, features lightly blackened leaves that have kissed fire. The heads of romaine are accompanied by unusually light Caesar dressing, oversized grill-marked croutons, more than its share of Parmesan, and sweet biquinho peppers.
Housemade pasta is a natural choice, but don’t overlook meat and seafood dishes. The bistecchina con funghi features a New York strip flavored with wild mushrooms and paired with garlicky spinach and cheesy polenta.
If you’ve already had your fill of the eponymous semifreddo, the chocolate cake (torta di cioccolato) boasts layers of both milk and dark chocolate. Yes, the sweet stuff is worth a visit, but you may not have room for it after a meal full of Hernandez’s other delights.
Eat This: Grilled Romana salad, bistecchina con funghi, torta di cioccolato
Feature image of The Black Sheep by Rey Lopez
This story originally ran in our November issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
