These restaurants offer the tastiest cuisines in the county.
Good news, Fairfax foodies. Fairfax County is home to 21 of Northern Virginia Magazine’s 50 Best Restaurants of 2025 — including four of the Top 10. Some are returning favorites and others are new to the list, but they’re all sure to make your mouth water.
Price Key: Entrées = $ 15 and under | $$ 16–25 | $$$ 26–40 | $$$$ 41 and over | * = prix fixe only
Quarter-life crisis? Not this hallowed culinary ground, which first served guests in 2002. Chef Bertrand Chemel, who has himself been in the kitchen since 2008, keeps his restaurant fresh with monthly menu updates that course the planet for both the best ingredients and the most creative techniques.
Tasting menus include vegetarian and meaty options, and diners can exercise their right to choose for all five courses. A celebration of the summer harvest might include a buttery kampachi crudo swimming in marbled tomato-tarragon sauce with cherry tomatoes and chive blossoms, then move along to creamy corn espuma dotted with kernels and pickled chanterelles. It’s topped with peanuts and popcorn for an elevated take on summer snacking.
Prefer to sink your teeth into a simple steak? The rib-eye here is the best you’ll find — raised humanely, cooked to your liking, expertly sauced, and accompanied by crispy potatoes.
After nearly two decades in the kitchen at this art-filled icon, Chemel isn’t even close to running out of tricks up his sleeve. And we won’t ever stop eating it up.
Eat This: Yellow corn-chanterelles, grilled Braveheart Farm rib-eye, Amaretto & Chocolate
Tysons’ glinting glass towers melt away the moment the mosaic lanterns of Agora come into view. Inside, the hum is constant as servers dash, plates clatter, and every table races a strict two-hour clock.
Start the countdown with mezzes. Among them are twin cylinders of chilled watermelon, capped with feta, that rest beside peppery arugula, a bite of July no matter the season. Next, a boat-shaped pide sails in, oozing goat and mozzarella cheeses around bursts of cherry tomato and sticky date. Don’t skip the fried cauliflower tossed with Turkish dried figs and swooshes of tahini.