D.C.’s 38 Best Restaurants | Eater DC
"Dante Datta and Suresh Sundas, a respective drink expert and chef who met while working together at Rasika West End, reunited under one roof with an Indian restaurant and cocktail bar at a corner just south of H Street NE. At Daru, which landed on New York Times’s coveted top 50 restaurants list in 2022, Sundas likes to combine Northern and Southern Indian cooking styles with some unorthodox touches. That includes za’atar olive naan, chicken tikka tacos, chimichurri chutneys, or a malai paneer lasagna spiced with white pepper and cardamom. Datta, an alum of now-closed Columbia Room, creates inventive riffs on classic drinks, like a Pisco cocktail with blueberry and coconut or a nonalcoholic pear and cinnamon lassi. The successful duo recently opened an Indian and Nepali street food place, Tapori, further up in the H Street Corridor that’s serving more casual bites in a transformed terracotta space covered in original art. Know before you go: This small neighborhood favorite fills up fast, look for reservations far in advance or prepare to settle in at the wood-carved bar Datta made himself." - Tierney Plumb
