DC’s Summer Restaurant Week is upon us—it runs Monday, August 12 through Sunday, August 18. And while the promotion has expanded quite a bit from its beginnings as a $35 dinner (dinner menus now range from $40 to $65 and often have mandatory service charges), it’s a great opportunity to try out a new spot you’ve had your eye on. Especially during lunch and brunch, menus range from $25 to $35.

1520 14th Street, NW

In June, this chic French-Japanese izakaya took over the long-vacant space of the Estadio at Logan Circle. The chic, understated dining room serves a $55 four-course dinner, with various sashimi dishes and salads for starters, mains like chicken katsu or a teriyaki bavette steak, and chocolate mousse or ginger crème brûlée for dessert.

919 19th Street, NW

Ruben Garcia’s traditional Spanish restaurant in the Square’s food hall excels at family-style feasts. And that’s exactly what Restaurant Week guests get for their $65-per-person dinner. Pass around hits like homemade tomato bread, creamy croquetas and gazpacho before tucking into grilled fish or Iberian pork. Wine pairings cost $35 more.

901 Fourth St., NW

This boisterous dining room in the Mount Vernon Triangle offers Sicilian cuisine, courtesy of Matt Adler, executive chef of Caruso’s Grocery. At dinner, for $40 per person, you can choose from burrata with caponata, spaghetti with clams and saffron, and seared char with roasted fennel. At the $25 three-course brunch, you can get “something light” (smoked salmon with chili cream, caprese salad) and “something hearty” (omelet with truffled prosciutto, ricotta pancakes). Finish with house-baked pastries filled with custard and jam or a round of bomboloni. For us, one thing is always on the menu for every occasion: the herb-scented house martini.

1250 H St., NE

Paolo Dungca’s popular Filipino restaurant is split between a cafe downstairs and a dining room upstairs. In the more casual space, a $25 brunch menu includes an appetizer (such as calamansi/ricotta toast or garlic rice bowls with sausage), a soft drink and a pastry. Upstairs, Dungca gets creative, offering a $65 dinner menu (plus 22% service charge) that includes dishes like banana leaf-wrapped cod with kale and caramelized coconut, corn ravioli with curry emulsion and a ribeye steak with “adobordelaise.”

804 V St., NW

Curious about this plant-based Latin American tasting room in Shaw? During Restaurant Week, it’s offering a three-course prix fixe menu for $65 (plus a four percent surcharge)—slightly less than the usual four-course $75 menu. The menu includes plantain ceviche with mango and pumpkin seeds, a version of hallaca, a traditional tamale-like Venezuelan dish, and a dessert of po’e cake—a pudding served on Easter Island—with coconut ice cream and miso/pineapple jam. You can order a round of arepas to go with it for $21 (and you should).

927 F St., NW

Kevin Tien’s revamped modern Vietnamese restaurant – now in Penn Quarter – is one of the year’s most exciting newcomers. The $65 dinner menu (plus a 22 percent service charge) starts with Parker House Rolls and then offers options like smoked trout rillettes with wonton crackers, a flatiron steak with marinated tomatoes and toast in beef fat, and shaved ice with summer melon and condensed milk foam.

1813 Columbia Rd., NW

Adams Morgan’s lovely Mediterranean/Middle Eastern dining room offers a three-course menu for $45 (plus 20% service charge). Among the many vegetarian-friendly appetizers, we opt for an olive salad with herbs, silky hummus or eggplant dip, and zucchini fritters with garlic yogurt. The larger plates are mostly kebabs, apart from a roasted cauliflower with turmeric and tahini.

1640 Capital One Dr., N. Tysons

This sprawling Tex-Mex spot on the Capital One campus is offering specials: In addition to $40 and $55 dinner menus, $35 lunch and $25 brunch, there are discounted margaritas (guava, hot and lime) and wine deals. We’d go for the lavish fajita platter for two, paired with a bold seafood cocktail or tuna aguachile.

1323 Fourth St., NE

Our favorite dish at the New York brasserie’s bustling Union Market branch is spaghetti al limone with bottarga—and you’ll find it on all of the eatery’s RW menus: $35 lunch and brunch, and $55 dinner. The burger, escargot, and scallop crudo are pretty tasty, too.

931 H St., NW

Enrique Limardo’s modern Latin American restaurant, which moved from 14th Street to CityCenterDC last year, is participating in Restaurant Week for the first time. The $35 lunch menu includes ceviche with crispy quinoa, tuna carpaccio with aji amarillo and comté cheese, and a smashburger with pineapple-plum mayonnaise. For dinner, the $65 menu features Limardo’s take on a beet salad and halibut with jalapeño syrup and green coconut curry.

360 Water St., SE

This regional-cuisine-style dining room at the Navy Yard isn’t new—but it just made a pretty groundbreaking new hire in the kitchen: former Minibar executive chef Sarah Ravitz. The $65 dinner menu (plus a 22 percent service charge) features late-summer ingredients in a tempura salad of tomatoes, roasted eggplant, and zucchini, or a dish of squash blossoms with whipped ricotta. Main courses include dirty rice duck with foie gras and wood-fired red snapper with carrot consommé ($40 comes with a wine pairing). The $35 brunch menu features a pastry, cocktail, and main course. And a $25 lunch is powered by Ampersandwich, the spot’s lunchtime offshoot. Choose any sandwich and get fries, dessert, and a soda or water.

507 Seventh Street, NW

Gordon Ramsay’s two-story Penn Quarter Pizzeria (the concept’s first U.S. location) is offering a $35 lunch special. Choose a sourdough pizza—with toppings like spicy chorizo, creamy mumbo sauce, and fried chicken, or carbonara-inspired bacon and peas—and you’ll also get a Caesar salad or a round of cheese and chicken fries and soft serve ice cream.

Senior Food Editor/Critic

Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian End of 2003. Before that she was editorial assistant at Weekly entertainment and cook in New York restaurant kitchens. She is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.