A recent conference downtown left me and a few coworkers at Smith & Wollenksy, a timeless place that has been around since the late 1970′s.  Located on 19th st, Smith & Wollensky caters to the higher end crowd with their formal dining room, but their grille provides a nice bar for after work drinks and eats.  A traditional American steakhouse, Smith & Wollensky has long been one of the higher end restaurants in the city.

When my party and I arrived we were greeted promptly and seated even faster.  Our waiter was extremely knowledgeable and professional, he gave us a pretty impressive speech about the specials that day. Our party was hungry so we decided to go ahead and order some appetizers right away.  We decided on the Baby Heirloom tomatoes & Bufala Mozzarella which turned out to be quite flavorful.  Most people ordered a steak  for their entree, but I ended up getting the Mustard Crusted Ahi Tuna.  The tuna was flavorful and pretty tasty. The only issue I had was that they managed to turn a seemingly light meal into something heavy, the mustard crust was almost a half an inch think.  I also got a chance to try the everyone’s steak and they were all pretty good.  Smith & Wollensky doesn’t season their steaks to much as they are more about the natural flavor, which for me leaves a little to be desired.  I normally go for something more along the lines of what J&G serves.

Overall Smith & Wollensky was a good classic steak house that would be great to take the whole family too.  However if I was going out with friends, I would probably go elsewhere.

Smith & Wollensky

1112 19th St NW
Washington, DC 20036
www.smithandwollensky.com