Zaytinya
Zaytinya built its name on mezze before hummus was a category on every menu in the city, and the saganaki and lamb keftedes still carry the room. Reservations move fast and the space skews toward date night and special occasions rather than a quick plate of dip. Come for the full mezze spread, not a single dish.
What to orderSaganakiLamb keftedesSpanakopita Book a table Call DirectionsFull review & visiting detailsRead the full review & visiting details
Small plates that book out weeks ahead
Fried cheese arrives table side for the flame moment, order it as the starter that gets the table talking.
Ground lamb formed into small spiced patties, built for sharing across a mezze spread rather than eating alone.
Layers of phyllo around spinach and cheese, the steady vegetarian order on a menu built around small plates.
Zaytinya runs on reputation and reservations, and both are earned. This is a mezze restaurant in the Jose Andres portfolio, built around shared Mediterranean small plates rather than entrees, and the format is the first thing to understand before booking. Saganaki, the flaming cheese, shows up early and often as the dish people order on repeat; it is simple and it works, which is the point of a good mezze menu. Lamb keftedes bring the same logic, spiced ground lamb formed into something that reads as a bar snack but eats like a main course when three or four plates land on the table.
Spanakopita rounds out the core trio, the spinach and feta pastry that anchors Greek and Eastern Mediterranean menus across the region, done here with enough care that it holds its own against dishes with more obvious spectacle. None of these are unfamiliar. What the kitchen is being judged on, over two decades of operation, is consistency: whether the saganaki tastes the same in year twenty as it did in year one. The record says it largely does.
The room sits in the upscale tier, priced for a special occasion rather than a weeknight stop, and it draws a date night and celebration crowd accordingly. Small plates mean the check adds up fast once a table starts ordering broadly, which is standard for this format but worth knowing going in. Service has stayed a strength across the years, and the room itself gets credit for matching the polish of the food. The catch is access.
Reservations are the bottleneck here, not the kitchen. Walk-ins should not expect much on a weekend, and the wait for a table on short notice is real. Within the Jose Andres group locally, some regulars rank it a notch below the flagship rooms, but that is a comparison against very high company, not a knock on the food itself.
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Washington, DC, DC, 20001
Book ahead, not day-of. Order saganaki and keftedes first, then let the table fill in with two or three more plates rather than committing early to a full spread.
