The Best Steakhouses in Washington DC

After a nearly two-year hiatus during the pandemic, BLT Steak is back and looking pretty thanks to some renovations that helped lighten up the space. There are more than half a dozen different cuts available at BLT, but for over-the-top extravagance, the steakhouse offers a sampler of American wagyu beef. It’s not just the steaks that make this place great, the menu features essential dishes like jumbo shrimp cocktail, classic wedge salads, and truffle mashed potatoes, and it’s a known spot in the nation’s capital to overhear a politico rumor or two.

Chef Robert Curtis offers one of the most extensive selections of steak in The District, including dry-aged, grass-fed, corn-fed, and Japanese wagyu beef. Bourbon Steak is destination dining inside the Four Seasons Hotel. Alongside lofty seafood towers, black truffle mac ‘n cheese, and other luxurious sides, you’re practically required to tack on an order of duck-fat fries—which come served in a sampling of three dipping sauces, including a pickle-brine ketchup that you won’t soon forget.

At Charlie Palmer Steak the team goes to great lengths for farm-to-table freshness. That includes a private garden for growing vegetables and ingredients for other sides that accompany more than a half-dozen cuts of steak available. Charlie Palmer also is where you’re most likely to find lobbyists lunching. It has an eye-sight view of the US Capitol Building that makes the dining room feel truly monumental.

This outpost of Wolfgang Puck’s empire exudes celebrity both in the kitchen and the main dining room—it’s a typical hangout for Georgetown elites with just enough privacy, tucked into the Rosewood Washington hotel. Diners will get a classic yet opulent steakhouse experience, with a 19-ounce New York strip that’s been aged for 28 days as the menu’s main star. Along with traditional dishes, Executive Chef Andrew Skala’s menu also highlights Mid-Atlantic seafood selections in main courses and an impressive seafood bar.

With a waterfront view along The Wharf’s prime real estate, this restaurant’s charm goes far beyond the menu. Chef Roberto Santibañez’s steakhouse offers a menu focused on grilling over charcoal and pecan with a heavy emphasis on steak. Alongside cuts like a petit filet mignon and New York strip, the chef pays homage to his Mexican roots with a chimichurri sauce that’s an essential accompaniment to any steak order.

This spot isn’t just for stone crabs on South Beach. In 2014, Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab opened in our nation’s capital just steps from the White House. It’s a buzzy and sleek steakhouse with excellent cuts and a deal-driven happy hour menu. During the week from 2:30 to 6 pm, get half-priced oysters, signature cocktails, and heavily discounted wines and beer by the glass. Stay for dinner and order the surf & turf. It’s a filet Oscar stuffed with Alaskan king crab, asparagus, and bearnaise sauce—aka a delightful old-school classic.

Mastro’s Steakhouse brings an impressive size and scale to the steakhouse scene. From the group behind ultra-popular spots like Morton’s and McCormick & Schmick, Mastro’s Steakhouse mixes luxurious dishes like lobster mashed potatoes and lobster cocktail with traditional steakhouse fare and dozens of cuts to choose from.

The steakhouse for an any-day kind of occasion, Medium Rare offers a prix-fixe menu that can’t be beat. For just $26 per person, you’ll get bread and a mixed greens salad to start, plus culotte steak and a smattering of hand-cut fries with the option to top it off with the restaurant’s “secret sauce,” a mustardy, peppery sauce that you certainly don’t want to skip out on. The deals continue on for brunch, when bottomless mimosas, screwdrivers, and bloody marys come with bread, your choice of green or fruit salad, and an entree for just $28.

This upscale steakhouse chain prides itself on excellent service, and the fact that it’s served a number of politicians and celebrities over its 50 years in DC. The walls are plastered with cartooned caricatures of regular guests to check out while enjoying a bone-in rib eye with peppercorn sauce or the prime double-cut New York strip, sliced tableside.

With dark corners, dramatic mood lighting, staff in tuxedos, and a piano that is actually played by a human, The Prime Rib is a decidedly old-school steakhouse. The menu covers raw bar classics, potatoes prepared five ways, and entrees from both the land and the sea, but if you’re here, you’re ordering one thing: the prime rib, which will take up the entire plate.

After coming to DC by way of Wisconsin, this steakhouse combines familiar classics with ritzy additions. The space has two restaurant concepts in one. On the first floor is a casual tavern popular for its happy hour menu with dry-aged sliders and fried cheese curds. Upstairs, you’ll find a swanky dining room with tableside carving service and steaks options like wet-aged, dry-aged, and wagyu beef cuts.

From ax handles to filets, you’re pretty much in meat-eater heaven at St. Anselm in Union Market. But from wood-fired vegetables like charred okra to a salmon collar that has been on the menu since day one, there’s plenty to enjoy beyond the beef as well. No order here is complete without the restaurant’s butter-flakey biscuits that come served with a side of Southern-style pimento cheese.

For a cozy neighborhood spot with the history to back it up, book a reservation at Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse. Open for more than seven decades, this family-run business is known as a landmark restaurant for DC’s LGBTQ community. Annie’s delivers affordable mouth-watering steaks like London Broils and T-Bones, and it’s also a lively place for brunch where, you guessed it, steak-and-eggs is the star of the menu.