Smith & Wollensky

Smith & Wollensky
1112 19th Street, NW
Washington, DC

Type of Cuisine: Steakhouse
Price: Expensive

My next adventure was a guys' night at a real New York steakhouse. I always like to try a steakhouse during restaurant week because I feel that I get my money's worth. It's located right in the middle of the steakhouse district (two doors down from the Palm and Sam & Harry's), but really near a lot of the mid-town bars and Farragut North/West metros. I'm noticing a common theme that a lot of the good DC restaurants seem to be located there. I guess it's good to know where you want to be when you want good food in the city. For the record, we sat down with one particular rule: If you got your steak cooked any more than medium, you would be throttled and then kicked out of the table (I assumed that the chef would probably do the throttling). The restaurant week menu wasn't very exhaustive, but it was a pretty good example of their cuisine (one filet mignon, one shrimp and one chicken dish). There wasn't much of a choice in the group of guys.

Menu:
Appetizers: Me - Baby Argula Salad, tear drop tomatoes with raspberry vinaigrette and manchego cheese (not on the regular menu)
One Friend: Wollensky Salad - romaine lettuce, honey dijon dressing, mushroom caps, fresh smoked bacon, potato crutons and teardrop tomatoes ($9)
Two other friends: The soup of the day - Seafood gumbo (shrimp, crab? scallop?) ($8)

Entrees: All four of us had the filet mignon - served in a cabernet demiglaze, mine and one friend's were rare (the true steak lover's way to get a steak), the other two friends had medium rare ($42)

We also got a side of "steak" fries, which was not included in the restaurant week menu ($10)

Drinks: I had a ginger ale ($4), but my friend had their recommended wine pairing, a Pico Cabernet from California.

Desserts: All four of us had the New York style cheesecake, shunning the fresh fruit and apple streudel ($8.50)

Sweet:
Filet Mignon - The filet mignon was what you would expect from a top notch steak house. It was moist, perfectly tender, cooked to a perfect rare with a slight char on the edges. The first bite absolutely melted in my mouth (friends said that about the medium rare too, but I don't believe them). The cabernet sauce was a little bit sweeter than I would have liked, but it worked pretty well with the steak.

Cheesecake - The cheesecake was a true NY Cheesecake in the mold of Lindy's of Times Square and Junior's. It had a slightly grainy texture that is often absent in a lot of cheesecakes that pretend to be good. It showed that there was something added to a more ricotta style of cheese. The crust was moist and fit well with the grain of the cheesecake. It was pretty sweet, but not overly so, and surprisingly light for how heavy it was (I know that doesn't make much sense, but you have to try it to know what I mean). It's almost worth going to S&W just for the cheesecake and avoid dinner if you can't afford it.

Argula salad - I really liked the argula salad with the raspberry vinaigrette. The teardrop tomato was a little disappointing as it wasn't quite ripe, but they put the right amount of vinaigrette (more tangy than sweet) and shaved cheese onto the salad. The lettuce was also very fresh with the perfect slight shades of red and green.

Wine List - S&W has a very patriotic wine list. I really I wasn't sick so I could have tried some of it. All of their wines are American wines, nothing from anywhere else. They had a decent number of varietals from several regions in the country (focused mostly on California), and a good price range. The problem with the wine list is that the mark up was significantly more than a lot of other restaurants for similar wines (generally marked up an extra 20% beyond normal). That said, I still wanted to take on some of their California Red Zinfandels (i've been told by a friend in Sacramento that I really need to try them). I'm not a true wine connosieur by the way, I'd consider myself no more than average on knowledge of wine; but I feel the need to comment on the wine list anyway.

Bland (Yes I changed the word):
Gumbo Soup: I didn't hear much about the gumbo good or bad. They mentioned it was a good first bite and then pretty much ceased speaking about it. No one was quite able to figure out everything that was in it, and pretty much only spoke about shrimp. The reactions were not that it was bad, but they didn't have much to say.

"Steak" Fries: I think the steak fries were more disappointing than not good. They were julienne fries, not steak fries and I was hoping for steak fries. They give you a good amount of the fries for $10, but it's still probably not as many fries as I would want for that price (family style). They were a nice golden brown and not very greasy, but there was nothing special about them, particularly because the waitress recommended them. I would say that while they are good, they are not better than the fries at Five Guys, and the ones at Five Guys are much cheaper.

Service: The service moved itself up from the "bitter" section to the bland section with a late run of personality from our server. Our server started off pretty rocky. She forgot to bring out my friend's wine up front (but as she brought it out she asked "Do you still want the wine? It's on us). So that saved her a bit. She didn't have much of a personality up front and she wasn't overly attentive in the beginning of the meal. I was at a steakhouse and I really wanted the traditional old man in a tux. I think she was overwhelmed (which is a problem b/c that means they didn't staff well). She did, however, give us plenty of time to eat and didn't pressure us at all. Once she was not overwhelmed, she showed a bit of personality, although still a little bit guarded. I was a server for several years, so I'm quite particular about service.

Decor: It was a standard steakhouse decor, nothing overly pleasing, surprising or intriguing. It had the look of the local elk's club or something like that. Wood panelling, a couple of animal heads mounted. The bathroom was nice with some marble. The restaurant was crowded and our table was a little cramped, but I think that was because the table next to us was accidentally pushed a little too far towards us and farther from the other table. The seats weren't overwhelmingly comfortable.

Friend's Wine: My friend seemed to like it alright so I put it on the bland list. I tasted a small bit of it and I thought that it was far too sweet for my liking and it didn't complement the steak very well. It was definitely worth the price because it was free.

Bitter:
Ginger Ale: It kind of fit the prices of some of the stuff there. I don't like when my ginger ale comes in a 10 ounce bottle. I particularly dislike when my 10 ounce bottle of ginger ale is $4 and they don't even tell me that it's going to be a 10 ounce bottle ahead of time.

Wollensky Salad: It has their name on it, so you'd expect it to be good. According to my friend, the only thing that redeemed it was the bacon (which I don't eat). The honey dijon dressing was a bit plain, but a little better than normal, but not what you'd expect at S&W.

Recommendation:
Quality: ****
Value: $$

Four stars. It was a very good meal and I suppose, as far as steakhouses go, good for the price. I recommend that everyone try one of the elite steakhouses on restaurant week (Bobby Van's, Sam & Harry's, The Palm, Charlie Palmer's, J. Gilbert's, Shula's, S&W, ). It's the definite time that you'll get your money's worth at a steak house because they'll always do a 9 or 10 ounce filet. Everyone has their own ranking for these places (note I don't include Morton's or Ruth's in that list. I put them a step below because of the large chain status. I also don't like Ruth's garlic butter frying method of cooking steak). I haven't been to all of those, but I want to try J. Gilbert's really badly.

The differentiator at S&W is the cheesecake if you're in the mood for an expensive steak (particularly business outing). Most places do a similar steak and it's a slight matter of taste. Once in a while, you have to treat yourself.

I gave it a two $ value rating. As for value, you're not going to get value at a steakhouse unless you go to Ray's the Steaks (good value, I'll write it up later). I didn't like their value for drinks (wines, sodas or sides), but the food was good. Definitely go for R-week, otherwise, it's a business lunch or real steak lovers' night.