John Howie Steak — Restaurant in Bellevue

A generous one star.

John Howie Steak gets one star, primarily because of our co-server, who was always diligent: he made sure our water glasses were never more than half empty and cleared our plates in a timely manner. We saw more of our co-server than the primary server.

I do not know how John Howie Steak received such great reviews, but I implore you, save your money for another steakhouse, or another restaurant. I made reservations as I knew John Howie Steak would be busy and informed the person that this would be our first time at John Howie Steak. We arrive and are taken to the back of the restaurant near the windows, where we gazed upon the lovely view of the 8th Street offramp of 405. I am also glad that I brought my jacket, as I would need it. Great first impressions. (by the way, as we exited the restaurant, it was much warmer in the middle section)

We ordered the house bread with European whipped butter, the crab cakes for an appetizer, Wagyu, and the golden Yukon gold potato puree, as we were planning on ordering dessert (which we always do when we go out to eat). I felt the server did not know the menu well, or maybe he was new. He couldn’t adequately tell us about the meat itself. Fortunately, we have enough knowledge about steak to know what to order. There are two sizes of the puree: one that is about a cup size (according to the server), and the large size which was a trough (the server said it was “a little more than a cup”).

The first indication of things to go wrong was when we were brought a small tier of salts: Spanish salt, pink salt, and black salt. We were brought the bread, but never told what type of breads they were. The bread was fine, the whipped butter was a nice complement. We were then brought the crab cakes. The expeditor dropped it off at the table and left. I found this weird; normally, at a high-end restaurant, the expeditor/server will tell you the dish and describe it. The crab cake itself was fine, but the sauce was what gave the crab cakes most of its flavor.

Be prepared to wait for the entrée. We waited, maybe 25-30 minutes in between courses. We normally defer to the chef for the temp of the meat, as they should be the experts, right? Different cuts of meat are cooked at different temps for optimal flavor and tenderness. The server seemed to be confused, and said the chef could prepare the meat at whatever temp we wanted… we chose medium to medium rare, where the server said the chef could prepare the steak at a temp somewhere between our request. The meat finally arrives and it is rare. Apparently at John Howie Steak, they have a different metric for their temps. I thought steak temp was universal… but clearly, I was wrong. Not only was the steak raw, it was bland. Clearly, we were supposed to season our own meat with the tier of salts. Who cooks meat without seasoning it first?

We ate the few pieces that were least rare. To add insult to injury, I overheard another server speaking to his table, “medium is more like medium-rare here…” Well, it was good that we ordered the bread because most of the meat was inedible. We did not want to send it back, since it already took them half an hour to “cook” the steak for it to still be raw. I don’t know if it was how the puree was prepared, or if they incorporated too much butter, but the puree was also borderline inedible and runny.

The server began to set down the dessert menus. I told him no thank you because we were already full; translation: we did not trust the desserts to have any flavor, either, and we were not going to spend more money for a mediocre experience at a “high-end” restaurant. I expected so much more from John Howie Steak. We have been to higher end steakhouses and know the flavor of good quality steak. If you’re a chef at a steakhouse, you should know the correct temp for the cut of steak; be able to nail that temp, and never send out subpar prepared meat. That is just embarrassing. I am incredibly annoyed that we spent money on food that I can prepare better at home.

First...

Every time I go to John Howie there are absolutely no regrets and I walk away super happy and full with my food baby.

Parking: Shared retail parking for the building (there is an entrance along each side of the building (but double check to make sure you’re not going into Residential entrance) Pet friendly: No Family friendly: Yes in the dining area, not the bar area

FOOD: Korean bbq amuse Buche (Korean bbq with eggplant) Complimentary: 5 Stars - Unexpected addition and so happy as I went into our dinner starving. One bite that was very flavorful and kind of wish this was an actual menu item so I could have more.

Fresh Shucked Oyster (1/2 dozen oyster on the half shell, classic cocktail sauce, champagne mignonette, lemon) $28: 4 Stars – I love myself fresh oyster and this did not disappoint. The oyster was a little bit sweet, a little bit briny and the only thing I probably didn’t really like was we were never told what type of oysters we were eating. From order to when it arrive at our table we didn’t get any information.

Tableside for Two: American Wagyu Beef “Long Bone” Rib Eye (Mesquite-grilled 40oz, roasted vegetables, roasted bone marrow, bordelaise) $240: 4.75 Stars – This was THE reason I came here for our date night. The roasted vegetables had great char but not burnt, the bone marrow was so flavorful and not greasy even though its all fat, and the beef… OMG so good. The marbling gave it the flavor, the grill gave it that slight smoke… I don’t even know what else to stay about it as its was just so delicious. The only negative about this whole dish was the bordelaise. I absolutely did not like this. I love sauce but I usually eat my steaks pretty simple as I don’t like anything masking the beef taste.

Bourbon Cherry Bread Pudding (Bourbon soaked tart cherries, caramelized pear, cracked hazelnuts, warm spices, whipped cream glaze, Makers Mark Ice cream) $15: 3 Stars – I’m sure someone else would rate this a lot higher but I’m not a fan of cooked fruit. I will say the exterior texture of the pudding (where the bread touches the ramekin) is great cause its crispy but not burnt which is good texture contract from the interior where its moist and squishy (I know squishy is probably not the best word for food). The ice cream was tasty but I did not taste any of the Makers Mark.

Flourless Semisweet Chocolate Volcano Cake (Warm caramel, dark chocolate ganache, vanilla crème, shaved white chocolate) $14: 10 STARS! I assumed this was going to be a lava cake and I’m sure there was a reason they didn’t call it a lava cake but it was pretty much a lava cake (which is the term most people are familiar with and invokes an image of what it is). This thing should probably be shared with between 4 people especially after the entrée but you know what, I powered through ate the whole thing. In my defense… my husband had a couple of bites. The warm, gooey, center was soooo luscious. Just order this is all I can say.

Key Lime Pie Mignardise, Complimentary: 4 Star – I love getting more food lol. Very good but best Key lime pie is still from Joe’s Stone Crab. But this is a close runner up.

MENU/RESTAURANT: Visited a few times in their dining room and a few times in their bar area for Happy Hour. Either location you will get amazing service and food. Great restaurant for date night or just a hang out with friends. Picture a stereotypical steakhouse but elegant (but the view is not going to be great just because its downtown Bellevue).

The menu is pretty standard and leans slightly to Asian influences on a few items but nothing too crazy that takes away from the steakhouse’s meat, meat, meat.

SERVICE: From the moment you arrive to when you leave, the restaurant strive for a white glove service experience but its just a step below. Its all small nick picky items but you will not regret...

First off, I want to say that if the food had not cost as much as it had, the star rating would not have been as harsh.

We visited John Howie recently for our anniversary. Our waiter was cordial and asked us first about allergies - very welcome as I have a dairy allergy and my wife is allergic to alliums. We opened with drinks - my wife's Bravern "Manhattan" tasted like cherry cough syrup, but mine was balanced and delicious.

We started with the ahi tartare - which was delicious and well portioned. However, the toast provided with it was buttered - I wasn't missing it but it should be simple to provide unbuttered toasts, so it was a bit surprising to see that they weren't provided.

Moving on to main courses - I had the Japanese a5 ribeye (8oz) and my wife had the a5 filet (6oz). We also split an order of the broccoli as a side as it was one of the only sides without dairy. Both steaks were cooked well and to our specification, but the ribeye was not trimmed well, with some small bits very overcooked - for the price we paid I would expect better. The rest of the ribeye was delicious and tender. No complaints about the fillet - well cooked and delicious. The broccoli, however, was basically inedible - while it was cooked well, it was seasoned incredibly poorly, and tasted like someone had dumped citric acid powder on it. We didn't even finish half. The plating wasn't great but wasn't excellent either. The tower of salt was fun but I wouldn't miss it if it werent there.

Lastly, desert. Our waiter mentioned an "on the house" desert to leave room for when we first arrived so we were looking forward to it. However, the plate dropped off was a chocolate caramel lava cake with vanilla ice cream - obviously a no-go for a dairy allergy. The waiter was incredibly apologetic, but the restaurant was not busy - it should never have even made it to the table. The waiter offered to substitute it for sorbet which I accepted, but instead of leaving the cake for my wife (who could eat it) he instead brought sorbet for both of us. The sorbet was ok - strawberry and rhubarb was great, but orange and passion fruit had a large amount of ice crystals and did not have the ultra smooth sorbet texture we expected. We also finished the night with a tawny port flight, which was excellent.

Like I said at the top, if we hadn't paid so much for the meal this review wouldn't be so low. If it were one thing, or a matter of taste (maybe someone likes cherry flavored manhattans) it similarly wouldn't call for a low rating. However, the issues that we saw seem structural or systemic - I can't imagine a chef sending out the broccoli that we were served if they had tried it beforehand. Along the same lines, serving a5 steaks with trimming issues causing overcooked sections just feels wrong, I'm not quite sure what the deal was, if this was just an off day or something, but I'd have rather gone to Fogo de Chao - at least then if I didn't like the broccoli I could grab another side dish - and the steak was not significantly better at John Howie.

Overall, our impression of John Howie steak was that it was a place to go to show off how much you're spending, not a place for an amazing steak.

One last item - another table bought a bottle of wine - an employee (possibly the sommelier) decanted the wine without an aerator, and then immediatly poured it - what's the point of decanting it without either aerating it directly or letting it rest?

Just to get ahead of anyone asking "why didn't you complain or let your server know?" - if I'm spending $700+ on a meal, I...