100 Very Best Restaurants: #24 – St. Anselm

About St. Anselm

cuisines
American
Location(s)
1250 5th St NE
Washington, DC 20002

There’s punk rock blaring from a speaker outside and taxidermy shelved above the bar. The wine list is heavy on Madeira and sherry. In other words, this is a steakhouse unlike any other steakhouse in Washington. And while the meat here is very good—especially the ax-handle rib eye that will feed a party of four—our favorite dishes lie elsewhere. There are fat buttermilk biscuits with dreamy pimiento cheese, clams steamed with Chartreuse, and a grilled salmon collar that comes alive with a spritz of lemon. For dessert, it’s all about the ice-cream cake. Expensive.