Daily dispatches on the Washington, DC area's food, restaurant and dining scene.

An Early Look at J&G Steakhouse

By Kate Nerenberg

A rendering of J&G Steakhouse, which opens today.

A rendering of the more intimate downstairs wine bar.

J&G’s main dining room is a 96-seat, beige-and-brown space accented by lipstick-red booths. Atop the 20-foot-high walls sits a silvery-gray ceiling mural whose circular images are meant to evoke the US Treasury, which is across the street, as well as cherry blossoms.

On the basement level, there’s a tiny, narrow wine bar. The long, windowless space feels more intimate—it has only 33 seats—and sexy than its buttoned-down counterpart upstairs. It’s equal parts modern (bright-orange barstools) and rustic (a 20-seat wooden communal table).

Philippe Reininger, a chef who has opened six restaurants for Vongerichten across the world, will oversee the menu; J&G won’t release it in full until July 16. In addition to the usual steaks (eight-ounce filet mignon, 10- and 16-ounce New York strips), there are dishes that speak more to Vongerechten’s light, Asian-influenced cooking style: a frisée-and-goat-cheese salad over pickled peaches and crystalized wasabi; barbecue lamb chops over potato purée with sweet peas; slowly cooked salmon over mashed potatoes with truffle vinaigrette; and crabcakes with Champagne mangoes and ginger-lime vinaigrette.

And forget creamed spinach: On the side are Champagne-fried onion rings.

J&G Steakhouse, W Washington, D.C., 515 15th St., NW; 202-661-2440; jgsteakhousewashingtondc.com. Open Monday through Friday for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, Saturday and Sunday for brunch and dinner. Reservations will be taken starting July 13; until then it’s walk-in only. The wine bar is open daily for lunch and dinner.

 

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Comments

I was at J&G for Restaurant Week, and will not be back. It was, in most ways, a disappointment. First off, the service is at once both attentive and invisible. When we sat our table was a beehive of activity - water, menus, bread, wine list, refills, etc. But then it took 20 minutes to get our order taken, and we waited almost 30 minutes after the appetizers were finished to get our main course (and the restaurant was not crowded). Execution also was a mixed bag. The pea soup was wonderful, partially spoiled by having been mishandled to the point of almost spilling out of the bowls. The mains were not worth the 30 minute wait, which bizarrely was bread-free because the momentarily attentive wait-staff cleared everything as soon as we finished our soup.

As for the mains, we should have left immediately after the soup. Had the halibut not been overcooked (My guess is, from sitting for far too long), it would have been very good. The parmesan crusted chicken, however, would have been an embarrassment at many lesser restaurants. It was flavorless, save for the overpowering dose of coarse cracked pepper drowning out everything else. It was nice, however, to see that the accompanying asparagus was perfectly peeled.

Sadly, dessert offered little solace. The chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream offered a wonderfully liquid cake that was, sadly, flat on flavor, with a grainy, flavorless ice cream with a texture approaching granita. Of the sorbet trio, the coconut was phenomenal. Sadly, the apple suffered the same fate as the ice cream.

Posted by: David, Aug 25, 2010 09:21:22 AM

I was at the wine bar at J&G yesterday, and it does have windows (as opposed to Ms. Nerenberg’s assertion above that the space is windowless). In fact, there is an aspect to the wine bar which I really like. Along the outside wall there is a long marble counter. Patrons can sit on the outside of the bar looking in, while their friends sit on the inside of the bar looking out. A very novel concept! They really did a nice job of renovating the Hotel Washington, and the J&G Steakhouse is beautiful!

Posted by: Kay Decker, Jul 21, 2009 09:37:10 AM