A friend of mine was leaving for a while and wanted a good steak dinner before he left. I was thinking about going to J&G Steakhouse , but I had just been there the week before. I had noticed the District Chop House many times, so we decided to check it out.

The District Chop House is smack dab in the middle of Chinatown and it is quite different from most of the restaurants in the area. DCH is an old school steak place in the middle of a bunch of ultra modern restaurants. When you walk into the place it is full of wood and brass, just like you would expect.

We were eating around 9pm on a Sunday night and surprise surprise there was no wait. We were seated promptly by the hostess and got a nice booth. It actually took a little bit of time before our waiter greeted us, but I was enjoying the conversation anyways. We had been checking out their beer list and ordered them along with their sesame calamari and a crab cake. When our beers came out the waiter also brought us some of their pretty infamous cornbread. I read how good it was on Yelp and it did not disappoint me at all. Shortly after we feasted on the cornbread the appetizers arrived. The crabcakes were pretty good, they had tons of crab and a nice flavor.  The sesame calamari was just OK, it was overly fried and battered, it also did not have much taste.

My entrée was a pretty similar experience in that it had some highlights, but overall there is a lot of room for improvement. At the District Chop House all of the steaks come with a salad and you get to choose from Ceaser or house. Our waiter was raving about the Ceaser salad, so I decided on it as a compliment to my filet mignon.  The salad was well not good, it was wet and had very little flavor.  It was a little disappointing to be honest. My filet however was a great piece of meet that was cooked correctly. It was tender and juicy with just the right amount of grillmarks. It did not have the best seasoning in the world and I think it should have for 36 dollars. We decided against dessert since it was a gigantic meal and we were pretty full.

Overall the food is OK at the District Chop House.  There are definitely some highlights, but there are also some clear pitfalls.  If I am ever in the mood to spend 36 dollars on a steak, I would probably go to J&G, Capital Grille, or Rays.

District Chop House
509 7th St NW
Washington, DC 20004
www.chophouse.com