john howie steak

hh l d. my order of enjoyment: happy hour,lunchthen dinner. fried gnocchi with truffle creme sauce is crazy. their burger is great (wife says best in seattle). drinks are off the hook, especially the spicy pear kamikaze and the provincial goose (lavender martini).

great food and the staff here is friendly. thelunchmenu is incredible and delicious! i got the sandwich and soup combination smoked turkey sandwich and the french onion soup. both were healthy portions they almost needed to roll me out and delicious!

great food, horrible service.

first of all, i'm convinced this place is a little racist. the back corner had 5 tables. every table in that corner had mainland asians sitting at it. there were no other asians at other tables in the restaurant.

the maître d was by far the highlight of the night. his whole demeanor was negative and ruined the whole night for me. he was very rude, terse, and pushy. he kept emphasizing that the filet and salmon didn't come with any sides and kept trying to push us to order more when we didn't want more because we had a late lunch. i almost stopped him and yelled "i know how to read a menu" but refrained and decided to be the better person. when we told him that we would be sharing a bowl of chowder he kept asking how we were going to share that and i felt pressured to order two. i don't know if he thought we couldn't afford the place or decided to treat us horribly because we weren't ordering that much but either way, it wasn't appropriate.

after we were served, nobody else came by our table and asked how the food was. the bus boy eventually came by the table and asked if we would like the dessert menu but by then we were ready to get out so we just paid the check and left.
horrible experience. i was actually looking forward to our dinner here because my boyfriend comes here forlunchall of the time and he only had good things to say but after this experience neither of us will be patrons of john howie again.

rude staff. on a visit to seattle from our home in austin, we decided to stop for a latelunchin the bellevue wa restaurant since it had been highly recommended at the sur la table store.

we were astounded at the rude and unhelpful greeting both at the reception desk and the bar. the waiter in the bar was cold, unsmiling, indifferent to whether we ordered or not, and very unhelpful. we immediately left without ordering. this was an extremely disappointing experience in one of the seattle areas supposedly premiere restaurants.

it’s tough for me to give a 5 out of 5 but this was really darn close. everything was really good and the service was excellent. the restaurant is nice inside. we had a rather loud table dining next to us which was a little bit of a distraction but our server explained to us that “the loud guy” was the man that provides john howie with all the steaks for the restaurant. it was nice of him to give us that information, making the noise a little bit more justifiable. i would definitely go back to john howie and try the other sides and other cuts of beef. theirlunchmenu looks really good and apparently they have a great happy hour menu as well.

surprise!. decided to "splurge" and go to john howie forlunchand much to our surprise, thelunchmenu is incredible and delicious! i got the sandwich and soup combination - smoked turkey sandwich and the french onion soup. both were healthy portions (they almost needed to roll me out) and delicious!

great choice for lunch!. really nicelunchoptions for the gals--- a steakhouse wasn't on the radar, but we had heard lots of good things... wonderful service, fab selection of breads to start, and nicely priced for those of us without expense accounts. the philly sandwich was amazing if you don't care about calories. they bring out a signature selection of salts, but beware: everything was already at the max threshold for salt. i've just finished my third glass of water.

not worth it.... well, the wife and i went back to this restaurant after not being happy with things the first time, we wanted to give them a second chance... so this is an updated review.

again.....the ambience was great, wait staff knowledgeable and friendly, but that is really where it stopped for us.

a lesson from the first time around, order your steaks with less seasoning if you don't want it to taste overly salty, we did this and the steaks were brought out as ordered and were very good.

now onto the not so good...

we ordered the mac and cheese and asparagus on this side. the mac and cheese had a great flavor, would have been amazing if it were hot! asparagus, the same way, not hot!

ordered the table-side caesar, we talked with the person making it about how we really loved anchovies in the salad, we ate the salad and noticed not a single anchovy to be found...

so, disappointed yet again. we aren't food snobs, but i know what a good meal is, and at best this meal was decent. for the money we spent it should be phenomenal, how do you spend $200 for a meal and not get your food hot? it's inexcusable and there are better places to eat if you are going to drop that kind of money.

sorry john, we really wanted this to be great the second time through and it was just average.

i will say going forlunchor happy hour, the burgers are excellent, but i won't be ordering a steak or a full dinner again...

fabulous lunch!. i took a work friend there forlunchand we both loved it! great atmosphere and great waiter. i had their grilled wild alaska salmon forlunch(i know, it's a steak house; but i figured the chef/owner of seastar would be sure they did great fish, too) and it was wonderful!

truly the finest steak in bellevue!. i have been to all the steak houses on the east side and i have to say that john howie steak is hands down the best. the variety of menu items and excellent quality of the steak they serve is amazing.

i eaten there at least 2-3 times a week forlunchand have almost had everything on theirlunchmenu. most items on thelunchmenu are $15 and under so quite reasonable for a fine dining restaurant atlunchtime. some of my favorites on thelunchmenu are the steak salad which has a generous portion of steak and topped with crispy fried onions. the shrimp salad is not only delicious but the presentation is very artistic. if you want a real treat try the filet oscar over a yukon gold potato cake and asparagus topped with dungeness crab and bernaise.

it was fine. but when you spend $40+ on a filet forlunchyou expect better than fine. the romaine salad with shrimp was actually the highlight of the meal. the server warned us that the steaks come in on the rare side, which is always fine by me. i ordered my filet medium-rare and it arrived medium to medium-well by any standard. i was also surprised that i found myself with a mouthful of fat/grislte three times while eating the steak. i've had much better steaks at other steak houses. the cheesecake glob (for lack of better word) was also a disappointment. sarah lee might have liked it, but nit me.

i have been to john howie steak 4 times already and each time the foods been great. the cheese steak sandwich and blt are favorites forlunchand love the deviled eggs too! for dinner the steaks are amazing and the seafood is fresh and prepared perfectly. you really can't go wrong with anything you order. love it!

sooo tasty!. went to john howie's steak for my first time last friday. ridiculously delicious. service a little slow, but the place did just open. i wouldn't try a rushedlunchthere yet, but probably soon.

it's pricey, but there are some tricks. go at lunch. try the steak salad. try their awesome hamburgers. even the chicken my boss had was crazy good.

or loosen up the belt, open up the purse strings, and have yourself a big ol' steak!

oh, and try the deviled eggs too... out of this world.

oh and the wine list was solid too said one of my other knowledgeable bosses.

cheers, and steaks up to monsieur howie!
ian