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Steakhouses in Washington DC: Thirteen Rooms Inside the District

Washington DC Steakhouses, District of Columbia

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The 1500 block of K Street NW, Washington

Thirteen rooms, all of them inside the District, and eight stand within a ten-minute walk of each other downtown. The K Street power-dining corridor and the streets either side of it hold RARE on I Street, Morton's on Connecticut Avenue, Char Bar on L Street, the Palm on 19th, Bobby Van's on 15th, Joe's a block away on 15th, Mastro's on 13th and Fogo de Chão and the Capital Grille on Pennsylvania Avenue. Georgetown holds two more, Bourbon Steak in the Four Seasons on Pennsylvania Avenue and CUT in the Rosewood on 31st Street. The last two are out on their own: St. Anselm at Union Market and Medium Rare up Connecticut Avenue in Cleveland Park. Northern Virginia is a different page and is not this one.

  1. 1595 I Street NW. The most documented dry-aging program on this page, run in the house's own aging rooms.

  2. 1050 Connecticut Avenue NW, in the K Street corridor cluster. Destination DC lists a full bar and group dining beside the private rooms.

  3. 2142 L Street NW. The District's kosher steakhouse; the mixed grill platter is the order to share.

  4. 1225 19th Street NW, near Dupont Circle. Caricatures on the walls and a sommelier who will find the bottle.

  5. 809 15th Street NW. Prime dry-aged steaks a block from McPherson Square; the Grill on New York Avenue is the bigger sister room.

  6. 750 15th Street NW. Order the steak and the stone crab; the Key lime pie came with the name from Miami Beach.

  7. 600 13th Street NW, Penn Quarter. Live music every night, and the wagyu list runs three countries deep.

  8. 1101 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Two floors of rodizio service; start at the market table, not the skewers.

  9. 601 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. The only room the chain runs inside the District, halfway between the Capitol and the White House.

  10. 2800 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, in the Four Seasons. Ask for the walled patio and the fire pits in shoulder season.

  11. 1050 31st Street NW, in the Rosewood. CUT ABOVE on the roof takes the overflow and the drinks.

  12. 1250 Fifth Street NE, Union Market. A tavern with a fire in it rather than a chophouse — the butcher's steak is the plate.

  13. 3500 Connecticut Avenue NW. One set menu, steak frites, and no decision to make.

The K Street corridor and downtown

Nine rooms in the blocks between Farragut Square and Pennsylvania Avenue, and the concentration is the reason this page did not have to leave the District.

RARE Steakhouse is at 1595 I Street NW, and it is the most explicit of them about method: the operator says a great steak is the foundation of the house and that this begins with the craftsmanship of its dry-aging program, run in climate-controlled aging rooms, with the beef butchered in house. USDA Prime dry-aged cuts sit alongside wagyu and a New Frontier bison ribeye, over four hundred wines behind them.

Morton's holds 1050 Connecticut Avenue NW, USDA prime aged beef in a room with a cigar-friendly lounge. Char Bar is at 2142 L Street NW, a kosher steakhouse under the supervision of the VAAD of Greater Washington, and it is the one room here whose menu runs wider than steak — kosher steaks first, then burgers, deli sandwiches and barbecue.

The Palm is at 1225 19th Street NW near Dupont Circle, Italian-inspired steaks and seafood with a sommelier on the floor. Two blocks of 15th Street carry two more: Bobby Van's Steakhouse at 809, prime dry-aged steaks and seafood, and Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab at 750, steps from the White House. Bobby Van's also runs a larger sister room, the Grill, at 1201 New York Avenue NW, renovated in the autumn of 2018 with an atrium; it is not restated as a separate entry here.

Mastro's is at 600 13th Street NW in Penn Quarter, one block from Metro Center, with live music nightly and American, Australian and Japanese A5 wagyu beside bone-in ribeye and Kansas City strip. Fogo de Chão is at 1101 Pennsylvania Avenue NW over two levels, a churrascaria where Brazilian-trained gaucho chefs carve fire-roasted meats at the table. The Capital Grille is a few doors along at 601 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, and the operator's own locations list shows it is the only Capital Grille inside the District.

Georgetown

Two hotel steakhouses, four blocks apart, and both are chef-branded.

Bourbon Steak is at 2800 Pennsylvania Avenue NW inside the Four Seasons. Michael Mina calls it his love letter to the American steakhouse experience, classic Americana with his own flavors worked through it; there is a walled patio with fire pits and gardens behind the dining room, and a separate Bourbon Lounge.

CUT by Wolfgang Puck is at 1050 31st Street NW in the Rosewood, one of seven CUT restaurants worldwide. The room takes its cues from Georgetown around it, and a rooftop called CUT ABOVE sits over the main dining room and bar; Andrew Ho is executive chef.

Union Market and Cleveland Park

Two rooms a long way from K Street, and neither is a chophouse.

St. Anselm is at 1250 Fifth Street NE at Union Market. The operator files it as an American tavern rather than a steakhouse, built on live-fire cooking, with a menu that it says celebrates expertly prepared meats alongside seafood, vegetables and seasonal dishes. It is on this page because the fire and the meat are the center of the room, not a section of it — but it is a tavern with a grill, and reads like one.

Medium Rare is at 3500 Connecticut Avenue NW in Cleveland Park, and it sells one thing: a set menu of steak frites. Serving steak frites since 2011, per its own tagline, and the operator's other rooms are in Arlington, Bethesda, New Orleans and, soon, Baltimore and Columbia. This is the group's only room inside the District.

Frequently asked questions

Is this the District, or the District and Northern Virginia?
The District only. The rule this survey uses is to measure inside the city limits first and to extend outward only if the core cannot sustain a page on its own. Washington's core can: nine rooms sit within a short walk of the K Street corridor, with two more in Georgetown. Northern Virginia's steakhouse corridor through Tysons and Arlington is real and dense — Ruth's Chris, Fleming's, the Capital Grille, Fogo de Chão, Morton's, Eddie V's, 801 Chophouse, Oak Steakhouse and more — and it is dense enough to deserve a page of its own one day. Folding it in here would name the page Washington and then describe a suburb.
What makes a room a steakhouse on this page?
Steak has to be the menu's center of gravity, plus the beef-centric genres — churrascaria, Argentine parrilla, Japanese wagyu counter, Korean-style beef room. In Washington that admits Fogo de Chão as a churrascaria, Medium Rare as a single-cut steak frites room, and St. Anselm as a live-fire meat house, and it admits Char Bar because kosher steaks are what it leads with. It excludes a restaurant that merely serves a good steak on an otherwise broad menu, and it excludes casual national chains entirely.
Which rooms did this survey check and leave off?
Four. The Prime Rib's web address now redirects to an unrelated site and no source could be found placing the 2020 K Street room as trading. Charlie Palmer's own restaurant index lists Charlie Palmer Steak in New York and Reno, with no Washington room. Smith & Wollensky's own locations page lists thirteen restaurants worldwide and none of them is in Washington. And Medium Rare's own locations page gives one address inside the District, Cleveland Park, so the Capitol Hill room the survey counted collapses into it. A room whose status cannot be verified is left off rather than published with a hedge.
How many Bobby Van's rooms are there?
Two in the District, and one of them is published here. Bobby Van's Steakhouse is at 809 15th Street NW, a block from McPherson Square; Bobby Van's Grill is the larger sister room at 1201 New York Avenue NW, with an atrium added in a 2018 renovation and seven private dining spaces. The survey that scoped this page named a single Bobby Van's at the 15th Street address, so the 15th Street room is the place and the Grill is named in the section above rather than repeated as an entry.
Which of these rooms dry-age their own beef?
RARE Steakhouse is the one that documents it: climate-controlled aging rooms, beef butchered in house, USDA Prime dry-aged cuts and specialty cuts including wagyu and bison. Bobby Van's on 15th Street and Bobby Van's Grill on New York Avenue both describe themselves as specializing in prime dry-aged steaks, and Morton's serves USDA prime aged beef. None of them publishes how many days, so this page does not print a number.
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