Food

100 Best Restaurants 2012: BLT Steak

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

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Part bistro, part steakhouse, this high-energy dining room–one of ten BLT Steaks around the country–is thriving under chef Victor Albisu, who continually ups the culinary ante with morsels, such as house-smoked Kobe brisket, that could become a daily habit. Everything is larger than life, from the floral arrangements to the blackboard listing the day’s specials to popovers the size of softballs. Midday is especially busy, with lawyers and lobbyists sinking into the pale-suede banquettes, but at night the action shifts to the raw bar, where oysters, shrimp, and lobsters glisten in snowy mounds of ice.

What to get: Kobe brisket sandwich with tobacco onions at lunch; brisket plate at dinner; tuna tartare in a soy-lime vinaigrette; hanger steak; haricots verts with gremolata; strawberry sundae with house-made ice cream and whipped cream; warm chocolate-fudge tart with pistachio ice cream; citrusy crepe soufflé.

Open Monday through Friday for lunch and dinner, Saturday 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.