Palates tired of butter, bacon, and cream will find relief at the Washington satellite of famed chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s global empire. The kitchen relies on brighter flavors such as grapefruit, lime, chilies, and miso.
Don’t be put off by the Lewis Carroll-on-acid hotel lounge that fronts the restaurant. With cream-painted walls, soaring windows, and crimson velvet banquettes, J&G is one of the most elegant rooms in town. It couldn’t feel less like the typical boys’-club steakhouse, and cuts of beef are only a small part of the menu.
What to get: Parsnip soup with coconut foam; fried calamari with yuzu mayonnaise; salmon tartare with avocado; rare tuna rolled in crunchy puffs of rice; oversize crabcake with grapefruit and ginger; lobster with green chilies and ginger; Akaushi (a breed of Wagyu) strip steak with soy-miso mustard; molten chocolate cake; salted-caramel sundae.
Open Monday through Friday for lunch and dinner. Expensive.
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
