City: Washington, DC

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (202) 296-7700

Address: 2000 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Description: Seafood is the specialty of imaginative Robert Kinkead, one of Washington’s premier chefs, and a Boston transplant. His casual restaurant serves lunch Monday through Saturday, Sunday brunch, and dinner nightly. Just 4 blocks from the White House, Kinkead’s is always packed, and the wooden booths and floors make for some noisy rooms. The atmosphere, however, is beside the point in a place that transforms seafood into such a melting, rich, heavenly experience. Kinkead runs this restaurant with military precision, as you can see through the open kitchen. The kitchen staff wear headphones to communicate above the clatter, turning out seafood timed to perfection. Try the skate wing if they have it or, in season, the soft-shell crab. The seasonings are bold and exotic, and the appetizers are almost too pretty to eat.