Food

100 Best Restaurants 2012: Bourbon Steak

From soulful bistros to high-gloss steakhouses, there's lots of good eating in DC, Maryland, and Virginia

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Steak is almost beside the point at Michael Mina’s Georgetown eatery. (The San Francisco-based chef has 19 other restaurants around the US.) Mina’s executive chef, Adam Sobel, cuts a wide swath across cultures, making for more eclectic eating than typical steakhouse fare. The main dining room is bright and noisy, the smaller annex cozier. Tables are covered in leather, and there’s the whiff of money in the crowd of politicos, Georgetown old guard, and flashy singles at the bar.

What to get: Free truffle rolls; ahi-tuna tartare with ancho chili; foie gras spaetzle with chicken liver and fried egg; veal schnitzel with brown butter; lobster pot pie; the lounge’s pork “cupcake,” smoked pork embedded in a cheddar-scallion biscuit; prime-steak burger; cheeses, such as robiola fresca and Le Brenton Blu, made in-house by pastry chef Brenton Balika; butterscotch pot de crème; chocolate-coconut candy bar.

Open Monday through Friday for lunch and dinner, Saturday and Sunday for dinner. Very expensive.

Ann Limpert
Executive Food Editor/Critic

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.