Our Year of Living Steakishly: June, The Palm

If we're wandering far afield - and Washington is far enough - then Our Year of Living Steakishly is going along for the ride.

It took us some decent research, but we came to the conclusion that The Palm was going to be our best bet to find the best steakhouse in the District of Columbia.

The Palm is a few blocks northwest of the Farragut North Metro stop on the red line, but it's not too bad a walk, two blocks over and two up. The interior walls are covered with cartoons and characatures: Hagar the Horrible from its original artist and sketches of patrons both famous and unknown (at least by us). We elected to sit in the front, glass-walled room, however, as the weather was nice and the sky clear as a bell as we sat down.

The Palm at we departed. Our table was the second from the right.
Our waitress was very friendly without being overly casual or officious. She offered us a description of the special - 4lb lobster for two, which we of course declined as we are Living Steakishly.

The Palm's assorted breadish options.
After each of us ordered a drink - since we were going via Metro, there was no need for either of us to designate - we made our dinner choices:

• The Girl's choices
  - half of a mozzarella, tomato, basil salad
  - half of a New York Strip, medium rare
  - string beans, sauteed in garlic
  - three-cheese potatoes
• ChemGuy's choices
  - half of a mozzarella, tomato, basil salad
  - the other half of the New York Strip, medium rare
  - split of the side dishes (both served for two, so we split everything)

While we waited for the red meat to come, we were delivered The Palm's bread assortment - two slices each of sourdough, dark rye (with raisins), and simple white bread. The raisin rye was a very nice, moist change from the usual sourdough and rye that we'd gotten at pretty much every steakhouse so far. All the breads were, in fact, quite fresh and tasty, offering a nice assortment for every taste.

Oddly, we found none of the appetizers to our liking, they being nothing but seafood, something we find that many steak houses seem to offer. So we took a pass and opted instead to save some room for a dessert.

Half of the tomato salad. The waiter had it split for us.
The waitress brought us our split salad - on two plates, that's solid service - which was still enough for the two of us. The mozzarella was fresh and creamy, the basil high quality and without a touch of licorice flavor, the tomatoes surprisingly fresh and not watery - not quite high summer tomato but close. The balsamic vinaigrette was nicely flavored, and the fresh cracked pepper on top was appreciated. The salad was certainly a good choice.

The Girl's steak half
Our New York Strip was sixteen ounces, meaning that even a half was still technically two servings a piece. The steak arrived split, as well, and the sides were in individual plates each, from which we served ourselves.

At this point in our Steakish year, we've become rather jaded in what we're looking for in a steak. My half was nicely red in the center; The Girl's was a bit less so being the thinner end of the steak and cooked through a bit more thoroughly. A bit of seasoning had been lightly applied to the steak but not much crust was developed on the steak, and the steak had an oddly tangy off flavor - nothing bad enough to send back but just off.

ChemGuy's steak half

The sides were the better part of the main meal. The potatoes showed up in a small ceramic dish with the cheese still bubbling and nicely browned. They were full of flavor and richness, thoroughly excellent. The string beans were lightly sauteed in olive oil with pieces of garlic throughout. The beans could have used a bit of salt, but we each fixed that fairly quickly.

The sides - string beans up top, three cheese potatoes down low
With no appetizer, we were happy to peruse the dessert menu, and in what I am sure is a shocking development, The Girl leaned us toward crème brûlée. As many restaurants do, The Palm offered up this dessert with three raspberries topping it. The top was pleasantly crusty and browned and fully absent of any burned spots. We were a bit surprised with the lemon flavor of the custard beneath the crust, but the flavor turned out to be a pleasant surprise instead of the assumed vanilla.

The shocking dessert choice of crème brûlée
As we finished our crème brûlée, The Palm's manager stopped by our table to ask how our meal had been and to inform us that - as it was our first visit to The Palm - the dessert would be on them. He chatted to us about our visit to Washington, and we told him about our trek around the steakhouses of the Cincinnati area and mentioned that we were headed to a couple of Jeff Ruby restaurants in the next few months.

He hadn't heard of Jeff Ruby but hoped and felt fairly confident that The Palm's steaks would hold up well against any that we tried. We didn't feel that theirs did, but we didn't tell him that.

So, where does the The Palm rank against the best of Cincinnati?

• Salad/Dessert - 8.5 - Good if imperfect tomato in the salad. Lemon was a nice touch with the dessert.
• Steak - 6 - Tangy and without a good crust, but the meat was rich and moist without a visible fat run.
• Side dishes - 9 - The string beans were lesser than those at Carlo & Johnny's - but not by much. The potatoes were outstanding.
• Atmosphere - 6 - Meh.
• Cost - 3 - With alcohol and splitting everything, we were at $113. $28 of that was booze, so we're down to $85, but if we'd each gotten a steak, we would have been up in the range of $120 or so with tax (which is a healthy 10% at restaurants in DC).
• Service - 9 - Things were a little slow coming out initially, but the waitress and manager were very friendly and helpful.
• Total score - 41.5 (out of 60)

The Palm wasn't better than what we've had in Cincinnati. It won't be our reason to get back to DC.

Summarizing things so far...

• Embers - 45 (of 60)
• Carlo & Johnny's - 44.5
• Celestial - 44.5
• Mitchell's - 44.5
• The Palm - 41.5
• Oakwood Club - 40
• Jag's - 38.4
• Red - 38
• Pine Club - 37.5
• Boi na Braza - 35
• Guenther's - 30

Comments on the rankings:

• The best steaks we've had so far have come from Ember's and Carlo & Johnny's.
• The best value has come from Mitchell's.
• We actually liked Boi na Braza more than their ranking suggests, but we wouldn't go there if we were looking for a steak.
• We would be hard pressed to choose between Carlo & Johnny's, Embers, and the Celestial for a good night out. Personally, I'd probably choose Embers. The Girl, however, might take Carlo & Johnny's.

The places left are Jeff Ruby's (July), Morton's (August), and the Precinct (September). Two from Ruby and the one that Cincinnati Magazine nicknamed The Expense Account.