The Pembroke

The Restaurant

The Pembroke is the signature restaurant of the Dupont Circle Hotel — Doyle Collection's five-star property on the eastern arc of the roundabout — and the room that anchors the hotel's renovation completed in 2019. Interior designer Martin Brudnizki, whose Manhattan work includes The Beekman and Soho Beach House, built the Pembroke around plush velvet coral-toned banquettes, glossy marble tables, cream-panelled walls hung with playful contemporary artwork, and a seasonal terrace that opens directly onto New Hampshire Avenue with a clear sight line to the Dupont Circle fountain.

The kitchen serves a contemporary American menu inflected by the global rotation of an embassy-quarter clientele: a beef carpaccio with smoked-soy aioli and crispy capers, a hand-cut tagliatelle with short-rib ragu and cured egg yolk, a market-fish ceviche with Florida citrus and aji amarillo, a Pennsylvania duck breast with sour cherry and crispy farro, and a Wagyu burger at lunch that has held its place as the Embassy-Row power-lunch order since the renovation reopened the dining room. The wine list runs to about a hundred and seventy labels with a deliberately international spread — France, Italy, California, Argentina, Spain, Lebanon, Greece — that mirrors the Pembroke's diplomatic-clientele expectation.

Service is at the level the Dupont Circle Hotel's five-star rating implies: career captains, multilingual hosts, sommelier rounds, and a willingness to extend a quiet two-and-a-half-hour dinner without ever rushing a check. Brunch on Saturdays and Sundays is one of the most-booked formats on Embassy Row — a long table of friends and family inside the seasonal terrace doors, with the fountain twenty paces from the booth. The room is MICHELIN Guide recommended in the current Washington DC Guide. For a Dupont Circle dinner that needs to feel like the city's grown-up living room, this is the address.