Home » Special Features » The World’s Best » Best Sizzling Steakhouses D.C.
Say goodbye to your grandfather’s steakhouse, and say hello to see-and-be-seen buzz, Russian novel–sized wine lists, and molecular mixology. These sizzlin’ steakhouses also deliver prime cuts in a thousand permutations of meaty perfection—from grass-fed and dry-aged to adobo-rubbed and pepper-crusted. Chophouses have never paired porterhouses and panache so well.
The Draw: The Four Seasons Hotel’s in-house restaurant buzzes with big names and an ever-present happy hour ambience, but is known as well for respectfully collegial service and mouthwatering dishes, like the butter-poached New York strip and the lobster pot pie. The Scene: Just about every evening, a good crowd of the capital’s moneyed, glamorous, and most powerful—many from Bourbon Steak’s Georgetown neighborhood, in fact—rendezvous with their counterparts from out of town, hanging out in the lounge and breaking bread in the dining room.
Sun–Thu 11:30am–2:30pm and 5:30–10pm, Fri–Sat 11:30am–2:30pm and 5:30–10:30pm. $$$ Hot Tip: If you’re here on a Thursday and the restaurant’s booked, consider dining in the lounge; from 8pm to midnight, “Bourbon and Blues” features live jazz, 32 varieties of bourbon, and a menu of special tastes, such as lobster corn dogs, barbecue pork baby ribs, and chopped chicken lettuce cups with coconut curry and fried shallots.
BLT Steak 1625 I St. NW, White House, 202-689-8999 bltsteak.com
The Draw: Power lunch spot at midday, power dinner spot and buzzing social scene every evening, BLT boasts proximity to the White House and the K Street corridor, as well as a killer menu of raw-bar specials, strong cocktails, and big steaks, which guarantees a full house of hotshot lawyers and lobbyists any night that Congress is in session. The Scene: The spacious, minimalist dining room and lively bar are a tidal wave of forceful personalities in business-suited armor, pushing agendas upon one another with forks raised, eyebrows raised, and voices raised—until, at last, martini glasses are raised and a temporary truce is reached. Civilization, as Washington knows it, is saved. Mon–Fri 11:30am–2:30pm, Mon–Thu 5:30–11pm, Fri–Sat 5:30–11:30pm. $$$ Hot Tip: The best nights are Thursdays when Congress is in session—the closer to the weekend, the more freewheeling the atmosphere. FYI: If it’s political celebrity sightings you’re after, head instead to Charlie Palmer Steak on Capitol Hill, any weeknight Congress is in.
The Draw: Diners rave as much about the sweet-corn ravioli and the slow-cooked salmon as they do about the porterhouse at this stylish steakhouse across the street from the White House. Located within the happening W Hotel—a destination in itself for locals hitting the rooftop terrace, the lobby bar, and the wine bar below—J&G captures a prime seat on every hipster front. The Scene: Anyone invited to the White House who is not a head of state (kings and prime ministers tend to bunk at the Willard or the Hay Adams hotels) will likely be staying here at the W, which means if it’s Fiesta Latina week at the White House, it’s J-Lo at the steakhouse. Otherwise, J&G’s high-ceilinged, sumptuously comfortable room is an eclectic mix of the city’s foodies, urbanistas, powerbrokers, and baskers-in-the-limelight. Daily 11:45am–2:30pm, Mon–Thu 7–10:30am and 5–10pm, Fri 7–10:30am and 5–11pm, Sat 8–10:30am and 5–11pm, Sun 8–10:30am and 5–10pm. $$$ Hot Tip: For best seats in the house, ask for windowfront tables # 42 or #43, which overlook the Washington Monument, Pershing Park, and a sliver of the White House lawn.
