Grill of My Dreams
John Howie stakes out a niche for the fourth steak house in Bellevue.
And I sincerely don’t mean that as a dis. Because Hipkiss delivers the big flavors behind the big aromas. Mesquite burns extra hot, lending each steak a little crust and driving the smoky flavor deep into the flesh. These steaks are USDA Prime, aged 28 or 42 days, or American Wagyu, or actual (cue angels singing) Japanese Kobe (cue angels charging $130 for an eight-ounce filet)—but that mesquite flavor and that whisper of crust makes them delectable, even craveable.
Take the 16-ounce rib eye—lustily marbled and cooked per the menu’s color chart to a perfect “red throughout with a warm center” (i.e., medium rare). It arrived—complete with pearl-handled steak knife—manfully sufficient on its beautiful white plate, carried in by 38 servers—give or take—in that ostentatiously obsequious way fancy steak houses invented. Never mind that the curved edges of the beautiful white plate repeatedly unbalanced that pearly knife, that pearly pointy knife, sending it straight into my shoes. The steak was sumptuous, as were a ramekin of crusty Beecher’s mac and cheese, a five-cheese (tasted more like five-onion) twice-baked potato, and roasted sweet corn with feisty chipotle-honey butter. This Hipkiss is a pro.
Flavor is paramount at John Howie Steak—and flavor its Achilles heel. The aforementioned fungi walloping the delicate crabmeat is one example, though our server warned us that this appetizer billed as Dungeness crab legs was “not primarily a crab dish.” (Well-informed servers consistently hit the sweet spot between graciousness and candor—even when the menu didn’t.) A lunchtime Wagyu burger crusted with peppercorns and heaped with Roquefort and frizzled onions on a brioche bun was tremendous fun to cram down, but the subtlety of the creamy beef was lost amid the shrieking pepper and cheese. Down, boys.
Still, that $15 burger reveals important things about John Howie Steak. First, that at lunchtime the place shape-shifts to genuinely affordable, with prices in the $9 to $16 range. Second, that John Howie’s fourth restaurant descends not from the upmarket Seastar branch of the family tree, but the good-old-boy Sport branch. Yes, Sport of the fat burgers and sports memorabilia and 45 televisions. I mean, John Howie Steak is a place that tempura-fries bacon. And those house-baked rolls and desserts Howie insisted on as proof of its culinary cred? They say leagues more about the place’s sheer down-home lip-smackin’ yumminess. The Meyer lemon pie featuring tart curd in a graham-cracker crust with a mile-high dollop of vanilla creme isn’t there to satisfy your brain; it’s aimed directly at more animal body parts.
And what’s the Bravern about if not good taste?
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Published: December 2009
My boyfriend and I ate at John Howie Steak the second weekend the Bravern was open—what a disappointment. We were first escorted to a table right by the entrance, with the cold air from the front door blowing in on us plus the bar was right next to the table and was so loud we couldn’t hear each other talk. We requested another table and were then taken to a table right next to 8 drunk women on a night out. Not exactly romantic.
Our server managed to come over after we’d sat for about 15 minutes. She began to recite the spiel about the restaurant, etc., when she was distracted by a passing waiter, and she left the table mid-sentence without excusing herself. After a 10 minute conversation with the waiter, she came back and asked us where she was in the menu—without an apology.
The food was good, but the atmosphere was so loud, and the inside decor resembles nothing so much as an 1970’s Asian-inspired cafeteria. Another shock—the price of drinks. A bottle of Sonoma-Cutrer Russian River Chardonnay retails in QFC for around $24; here a GLASS was $22. The markup was beyond belief and the experience didn’t justify the price.
Net-net, I won’t go back. After sharing my experience with coworkers, one of them mentioned that her sister had had a similar experience, so I suspect my experience was not a lone instance and was rather SOP for this restaurant. Too bad, I really wanted to like it.
You are the second person who has given me the thumbs down on this place. I guess it is El Gaucho for me still.
Thanks for the confirming option to Tom’s.
I had the best steak filet ever in my long history of steak (too many to mention, but includes El Gaucho, Ruth Chris, Morton’s, Porterhouse, etc.) I like my steak well done, so most steak houses usually give me their worst cuts because they think I’m already ruining the steak by having it “over cooked.” My John Howie steak was well done, tasty, and so tender, I could cut it with a butter knife. The other two folks in our party said it was their best steak ever as well. I’ve also heard good reviews from the employees at Nieman’s that treat themselves to lunch at John Howie on payday.
Our family had such an enjoyable experience celebrating our daughter’s 40th birthday that our evening extended into three hours. The food was delicious and the staff did everything possible to make this one of the finest dining experiences that we’ve ever had in Bellevue.
Thank You,
The Peterson Family
Kelly M. I would suggest giving it another try. This is a fabulous restaurant. All restaurants go through growing pains the first month or two of operations. I can assure you that those pains have all taken a back seat to the ridiculously good food and wine and polished service. YUM!