Ottoman Taverna

Ottoman Taverna works the small-plates format the way it should work: order too much, share all of it, and let the table sort out favorites. The room helps — floor-to-ceiling windows flood the Mount Vernon Triangle space with light, and it's built for groups rather than a quiet two-top. The brunch program gets the balance right too, treating bottomless tea as seriously as bottomless mimosas and bloody marys, which is rarer than it should be.

The kitchen's strongest cards are simple and well-made. The patates köfte and the tavuk köfte, a spicy chicken patty, are the dishes worth building an order around, and they're the kind of food that holds up whether you're two plates in or eight. Nothing here is trying to be a spectacle. It's Turkish comfort food executed with enough consistency that a large group never has an off dish.

That consistency is the case. Michelin gave it Bib Gourmand recognition in back-to-back years, then kept selecting it in the years after — a sustained nod, not a one-time discovery. This is a restaurant that earns repeat visits rather than a single big occasion.