Northern Virginia Magazine published its list of the 50 best restaurants in Northern Virginia for 2026 on Oct. 21. Three of the 50 sit in Reston and Herndon: Clarity at Reston Town Center, La Bonne Vie on Pine Street in downtown Herndon, and Maharani Palace on Elden Street.
The editors ranked their top 10 and listed the other 40 alphabetically. All three of our local picks fall in the alphabetical group. The top 10 went to restaurants in Middleburg, Leesburg, Vienna, Fairfax, Paris, Falls Church, Arlington and Ashburn, and FFXnow counted 24 restaurants in Fairfax across the full list.
One is a three-month-old second location of a Vienna restaurant. One is a French bistro run by a couple who has cooked at the same Herndon address since 1992. The third is an Indian restaurant that took over a former pizza chain and rebuilt the room as a palace.
Clarity opened in Reston Town Center in July and made the list in its first year
Clarity opened its second location at 1996 Opportunity Way on July 24, 2026, in the RTC Next blocks near the Reston Town Center Metro station. The original Clarity is in Vienna, and the magazine’s entry covers both locations.
The Reston space covers about 4,500 square feet, with roughly 175 seats inside and 40 on the patio. Owner Viswanath Vasireddy brought over Vienna favorites such as the halibut, the steaks and chops, and the French onion soup, and added a smoked wagyu cheeseburger and a six-course tasting menu. Clarity serves lunch, happy hour and dinner.
Northern Virginia Magazine files Clarity under New American and gives it three dollar signs, with entrées in the $26 to $40 range. The editors wrote that seafood leads the menu and singled out the yellowfin tuna with tiger shrimp, then praised the five-spice braised short rib and the banana bread pudding.
La Bonne Vie has cooked French food on Pine Street since 2024, and Russian food there for 32 years before that
La Bonne Vie sits at 724 Pine Street, a short walk from the Herndon Town Green and the W&OD Trail. The building housed Russia House, which Ali and Homeyra Darugar opened in July 1992. The couple closed Russia House on July 9, 2024, and reopened two days later as La Bonne Vie, French for “the good life,” with the same owners, the same hours and a revised menu. Homeyra Darugar is the head chef.
The magazine lists La Bonne Vie as French and gives it four dollar signs, with entrées at $41 and over, the top price tier on the list. The editors described a family-run bistro serving hearty, traditional food with warm service. They singled out the French onion soup, the magret de canard (seared duck breast) and the chocolate mousse, and noted the beef stroganoff and the pâté.
La Bonne Vie serves dinner, starting at 5:30 p.m.
Maharani Palace turned a former Mellow Mushroom on Elden Street into a gilded dining room
Maharani Palace took over the former Mellow Mushroom at 1030 Elden Street in 2024. Chef and owner Neel Kamal designed the room himself: burgundy and gold umbrellas hanging from the ceiling, a gilded coach, and leather chairs built like thrones.
Northern Virginia Magazine says everything in the room begs to be photographed until the breads arrive. The editors recommended the kadak roti with butter, the chile habanero naan and the nardana aloo kulcha, a stuffed bread filled with spiced potato, onion and dried pomegranate seed. From the mains they named the Goan shrimp curry and the zafrani murg biryani, a saffron chicken biryani.
Maharani Palace is the most affordable of the three, at two dollar signs with entrées from $16 to $25. Lunch is a daily buffet.
Maharani Palace’s next-door neighbor at 1050 Elden Street is Chaatwala, which The Washington Post put on its own list of the area’s 40 best restaurants this month, and Kinnera Indian Bar & Grill just opened at nearby Worldgate. Two regional lists in one October now include Herndon Indian kitchens.
Two of the three are inside the Town of Herndon, a short drive from most of Reston
La Bonne Vie and Maharani Palace both sit inside Herndon’s town limits, within about a mile of each other. From Reston Town Center, either one is a 10- to 15-minute drive out Baron Cameron Avenue, which becomes Elden Street at the town line.
Downtown Herndon’s older street grid puts La Bonne Vie, the Town Green and the W&OD Trail within walking distance of the single-family homes and townhouses on the surrounding blocks. The condos and apartments around Reston Town Center sit a short walk from Clarity.
Entrées run from $16 at Maharani Palace to $41 and up at La Bonne Vie
- Clarity, 1996 Opportunity Way, Reston Town Center. New American. Entrées $26 to $40. Order the yellowfin tuna with tiger shrimp or the braised short rib.
- La Bonne Vie, 724 Pine Street, downtown Herndon. French. Entrées $41 and up. Order the French onion soup and the duck breast.
- Maharani Palace, 1030 Elden Street, Herndon. Indian. Entrées $16 to $25. Order the breads first, then the Goan shrimp curry.
The full list from Northern Virginia Magazine covers the rest of the region if a longer drive is in the plans.
Featured photo courtesy of Clarity.
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