John Howie Steak Restaurant

So I came in here with friends who wanted to do happy hour. Was not excited because of previous experiences, but I have to say I was surprised. The service was good and quick. The food for happy hour was really good as well. The one thing though is my friend got the bolognese and I tried some and it was nothing like a bolognese. It was closer to a beef stroganoff; a good beef stroganoff though. But if I wanted a bolognese then that would have been a big let down. The waygu flatbread was very good and the deviled eggs were fantastic. Then to top it off the gran marnier crème brûlée was out of this world. So I think I will be coming back in the future with much less resistance to the idea. I hope future visits will be just as good or better.

This is a review for my first time visit.
Upon entering, we were greeted and checked in our reservation. We were seated right away.
We were a bit disappointed to be seated next to table of 5 children that were playing and running around the area. The family at the table were unaware that their behavior affected others seated nearby. We also noticed several patrons on a Saturday night were dressed in jeans. We made quite an effort and believed we were the best dressed in the venue.
Our server was quite nice and attentive until we were ready to order food. Our interaction with him became quite awkward when he became surprised with us ordering the cheese and charcuterie plates. He mentioned that would be too much food for us and we would not have enough room on the table. My partner and I had no problem eating all of our food. The selections were quite good and our favorite was the duck prosciutto.
We ordered a 2013 Pinor Noir from Oregon that was clearly labeled $ 48 on the menu; however, we were charged $ 60. I am highly certain due to the low quality, we were really drinking a $ 12-​$ 15 bottle.
Overall the food was great, service could of been better, and the ambiance was nice; however, the lack of etiquette from the patrons was quite disheartening.

The food is excellent! Deep fried bacon with maple soy dipping sauce is out of this world! The only reason why I didn’t give it 5 stars is because it can get super loud in there. But the food is worth it that we will keep going back. Probably wouldn’t spend our anniversary there just due to the fact it doesn’t feel very intimate with the noise.

Between this place and The Met in Downtown Seattle, its pretty hard to choose for dinner! John Howie blasts them for Happy Hour tho, ill cover both experiences. Dinner: The Lobster Bisque here was the best I have ever had! Actually had large chunks of lobster in it! Beware of the «Wedge» salad, its more of a «Half Head of Lettuce» salad, its huge! Steaks, cooked perfectly! We ordered the Porterhouse for 2, good serving size, came with some potato and veggies! The Yukon Gold Hash Browns were good, a little greasy. And the Grand Mariner Crème Brûlée, oh so good!!! Happy Hour: Burger, best ever! Deviled Eggs… oh yum yum, mac and cheese… i mean its all so good! I myself wasn’t impressed with the tempura bacon, but i think it was just my opinion and not a reflection of the item. Happy Hour is good for any occasion, Dinner is perfect for that special occasion, the service is top notch!

Umm nothing short of delicious! I had been wanting to try John Howie for some time and we finally decided to give it a go! We made reservations for a Friday night. We brought our own wine ($ 25 corking fee) and knew we were in for a treat.
We (group of 4) started with the wagyu sashimi which was full of flavor. They also brought out a bread basket and the pretzel bread was so good, we had to have them take it away so we didn’t fill up. They also brought over a complimentary salmon chowder amuse bouche that was absolutely fantastic. Then we all got the table side Caesar salad. For my entrée got the 28 day aged filet mignon and it was so tender I probably could have it it with my butter knife. My husband got the prime rib cooked medium rare and it was to die for as well.
We ended up loving our first bottle of wine and the second wasn’t that great so we got another half bottle instead. They actually didn’t even charge us for the second (not great tasting bottle) corking fee since we ended up not liking the wine. The sommelier helped us choose a better bottle for the food we had.
Oh and I haven’t even mentioned the side dishes. Umm, heaven. We for Brussels sprouts, beechers Mac and cheese and lobster mashed potatoes. That amount was more than enough for the four of us and it was all so good and the perfect way to complete the meal.
We ended the night with some coffee, crème brûlée and flourless chocolate cake. We were also given chocolates from the restaurant when we left.
The atmosphere, food and staff made the whole experience. We will definitely be back. I honestly can’t find one thing I would have changed. Excellent!

Great service, great food.
I usually go there for special occasions (birthdays, out-​of-​town visitors, etc.) and it never fails to impress. Their appetizers are great — I forgot the names but they have one with tenderloin and orange slices which is to die for. And another one with scallops. Lots of really delicious plates.
Their Wagyu steaks are also fantastic though (a) sometimes they don’t taste as good and (b) they’re very pricey.
Their service is great and their waiters are well-​trained.
Finally they have a great selection of desserts.
You can park in Bravern and they’ll validate your ticket, so it’s pretty easy to do.

I’m so so impressed by their food, drinks, and services everything. Even the side dish (lobster mashed potatoes) was impossible to forget that taste.
We ordered the mashed potatoes as appetizer, 3 kinds of meat plate (US beef, Aus beef, Jap wagyu.) as entrée, and some Cabernet. It was good enough for 2 people. Each table gets your server, runner, and buster. (I was so impressed by each of their professions!) and the steak was def the best one I have ever had in the US!
At the end, they gave us giant (!!) key lime pie for my birthday for dessert, their French press coffee was also so amazing!
I personally fell in love with their secret black salt (from Hawaii), those are very chunky but perfect with potatoes! (They sell at the store but our very kind buster boxed our left over black salt because we couldn’t decide to buy it)
Overall, I loved everything at John howie they made my birthday so unforgettable!

Impeccable service. Fantastic wine list and the cocktails were terrific.
We did the Sunday family dinner and selected the Chateaubriand (filet mignon). Bread was very good, however, we all agreed the caesar salad was a disappointment. The 2 reasons I am giving only a 3 star are the caesar salad and because the 2 sides although good were very small. The size seemed to more like servings for 2 people not 4. As expected the Steak was excellent, and the crème brulee yummy. We have decided to give John Howie another try in future and not do the family dinner and see if the issue od small sides was the family dinner special.

This review is for the famous Happy Hour.
3.5 Stars for the HH menu and its quality, add .5 for great friendly service.
It seems every year that the food gets a little lower quality. While everything still is very good, I myself can taste the differences. For example, 2 years ago, I noticed the Habanero Shrimp was not as «airy» nor tasty. I asked the server if they changed the shrimp, she said no, but I knew better. Then the chef came from the kitchen and explained it certainly was a different shrimp and their sourcing had changed but didn’t think it was not as good as their previous source. He graciously apologized if it was worse then before. Sincere apology accepted. While this dish was ALWAYS and order for me, I have not ordered it in my last 10 visits or so (unless the party wanted it).
The tempura bacon… man, each bacon piece is so big and fried. Its pretty damn good, can get a bit salty if you have more then 2 pieces, but I always consider ordering it, crunchy, slightly greasy… sigh. Yum.
Now to the burger. This is what made their HH most famous and still widely regarded top 3 burgers in Seattle. It is still huge. You may be able to finish it, but don’t even try to eat or drink anything else. We always just eat half and everyone brings the other half home. BTW, this burger reheats deliciously. The lettuce, tomato, bacon, pickle is top notch quality and always fresh. I really appreciate this as it can be overlooked by other establishments. The fries is meh, neither good or bad, it needs sauce and I think charging for their homemade tartar sauce is absurd. Charging for sauces is cheap to me and taking advantage of the customer. I’d rather just see a slight increase in the cost of the fries/​burger then see a surcharge for sauce. The meat is still good, big, thick, tasty. Burger is always above warm, but not hot. The meat used to be better. I can taste for sure its of a different lower grade. The burger itself is still good, and if you just started going within the past 2 years you would not know it was better and still think its great. But if you’ve been their from the start, you know/​taste it differently now. $ 12 for the burger though at its current (still good) state though is starting to push it.
Overall still great to visit.
Just not the same. Kinda like owning a 1958 Porsche speedster (Dylan’s car in 90 210) then owning a 911 Porsche today, there’s a bit less soul.

As everyone knows, John Howie is one of the best spots on the eastside for happy hour, but I was lucky enough to come for their Sunday Family Dinner for my birthday.
The Sunday Family Dinner is a 3 course dinner that includes the amazing bread basket (Oh god yes!!) a starter salad, a choice of steak to share (pricing depends on the cut) with 2 sides and 2 desserts. I opted for the excellent iceberg wedge, which was almost dinner sized, with amazing crispy lardons of bacon and a nice chunky blue cheese dressing. For the entrée we ordered the 40 oz porterhouse which the carve and portion out table-​side. The steak was amazing, but splitting with 4 people you don’t get a honking steak. Just about an 8oz portion, which I guess is what «normal» people are supposed to eat. Paired with the famous Beecher’s Mac and Cheese and grilled asparagus. For dessert we went with the sorbet and impressively tall Key Lime Pie. We also ordered a rack of lamb dinner as we had more than 4 people which was tasty, but over done. Almost no pink in the lamb. As usual the service was impeccable and the décor classy.
The meal left everyone full and satisfied. The Sunday Family Dinner is a great value at under $ 50 per person, especially considering the the 40 oz porterhouse is almost $ 100 ala carte.

Could have been a three star but I expected so much more. Went on company lunch and ordered steak, ordered it rare, came out just about grey. Normally I would have sent it back but I was with 7 other people and did not feel like making them wait, dog ate well.
The good, their appetizers were very well executed and wine list is great.

I gave it 4 stars for the overall service. The server was very nice and checked up on me multiple times. I’ve been on the hunt for the best French onion soup. I had high expectations for here. So far, I have tried the soup at Wild Fin in Issaquah and Nordstrom Grill in Bellevue. Both of the 2 restaurants has better French onion soup. Sorry John Howie Steaks, you need to up your game in the quality of the French onion soup. Your soup was good, but wasn’t better than the other 2 places, shockingly.

I love John howie burger! It’s my favorite burger of all time. It has never disappoint. The burger is big and I always have to share with someone. I need to start trying their other happy hour food!!! But their burger is always so good. We got a wedge salad, which was small but still good. The only critic was the fact that it costed more than the burger. I wish they had a happy hour salad. The reason I gave it 3 stars is because of the service. I asked if we can substitute the fries for the ones with gravy and she said there was no substitution allowed. However, she substituted our fries for the salad without even telling us! So we had to ask for fries after. And then later, we weren’t even finished with our fries and she tried to clean it up! We had to tell her we weren’t finish (there was still a lot too). So it feels a little rushed.

dinner
food: 42 day aged rib eye. i usually prefer the rib eye over the NY strip, but in this case it was vice versa. my rib eye was more lean than usual. the steaks were well made. great crust and well seasoned. it was missing that beefy flavor i love. the sides arent as big as they say. it said it can feed 2 people. i am two people. the breads were awesome too. they have a dinner roll that tasted like fried cheese. i think we went through 3 baskets. i have no shame. ***4/​5
service: the bar area is so much different from the dining area. i cant tell what it is, but i can feel the difference. the servers were very attentive and knows the menu well. service does take some time, which is weird because steaks can be the easiest thing to cook. watching youtube videos do skew the time reference, but still. perhaps i was starving and that made things worse. it was my birthday and they offered a volcano chocolate cake. that was awesome. ***5/​5
value: finally got to try their dinner menu. we all know this place is expensive. lets say price aside, would i order what i ordered again? probably not, but i will come back to try the australian or japanese cuts. plus the service was amazing. ***4/​5

My husband and I came here for a special occasion. The staff and service were five stars, top notch. Impressive — fabulous service goes pretty far with a fine dining experience.
I didn’t find all the food to be five star worthy and that is why I’m giving a four star review. We ordered steaks — one American wagyu hybrid, one sirloin. Both were very good and plentiful. Although the waiter recommended the brussels sprouts, I found them overcooked, too greasy and mushy. The wedge salad was almost a meal in itself, but I should have asked for the dressing on the side as the ranch dressing overwhelmed the salad.
The three types of sorbet dessert were lovely in presentation and a sweet end to our date at John Howie.

I’m not really a big steak guy. I mean I like a good Rib Eye but we don’t frequent steakhouses for that Prime Porterhouse, or anything like that.
This place isn’t just a run of the mill potato and steak place.
They have a variety of options; seafood, chicken, pork, they have it all!
The appetizer menu has a lot of choices. Bone Marrow, Seafood, Tartar, and Tempura Bacon (amazing).
The sides are just as good as the rest, Lobster Mashed Potatoes were amazing!
What is really unique about this place is they have A5 Japanese Kogoshima Wagyu beef. This is the highest grade of beef in the world. Essentially the same as the famed Kobe beef which is wagyu but from the Kobe region only. The prices are high, but it’s a once in a lifetime cut of beef. The marbling is perfect throughout with a ratio of about ⁵⁰⁄₅₀. You can find this cut at Uwajimaya on occasions. It runs about $ 100 a lb. Their price for a rib eye here is around $ 130 for a half a pound.

Five STARS all around!!! I came here for lunch and received AWESOME customer service at the bar. I ordered the Salmon with red/​beans and rice. It comes with a sauce that is genius and mixes well with the Salmon, rice and beans to add a delicious flavor. The Chef who created this dish, knew exactly what he was doing!!! Please keep him or her around! :-)
Pros —
–Awesome customer service
–Free Valet
— If you’re traveling or going there before the airport, they have a place to store your luggage.
— Lunch is comparable and reasonable prices. $ 21 for Salmon and rice/​peas :)

This place. If you ever want to go and have a good steak, this is the place.
Now keep in mind that I am not a steak lover AT ALL. Or a meat lover in that matter. But this place is literally one of the few places I’ll even order the meat. It’s delicious and literally melts in your mouth.
This is definitely on the pricey side, it’s a nice place to go for a romantic date or special celebration. Or you can come here every day if you’d like, trust me when you try the food you’ll definitely be tempted too :)

This is my third time here, and I usually come here for celebrations. The thing I love most about this place is the service.
We had the French onion soup, Foie Gras «Bacon & Eggs», Dungeness Crab and Shrimp Chowder, Steakhouse Salad, Fried Brussels Sprouts, Cedar Plank Roasted Jidori Chicken, Filet mignon, and carrot cake with brown butter frosting. Although the food here was salty, the menu was pretty interesting (especially the foie gras bacon and eggs). The foie gras appetizer was like breakfast for dinner. If you like rich, fatty, sweet and savory all combined in one, then I suggest you try this out. Aside from that, the poultry and steak were perfectly cooked. The only things I didn’t like about this place was the brussels sprouts since they were too tangy, greasy, and salty for my taste, and the carrot cake was a little too dry…

This is an overdue update to this review:
After our last experience at John Howie’s where my mom and sister were ignored for 20 minutes before deciding to peace out, my mom emailed John Howie’s about our experience. She promptly received a response and was able to talk to one of the managers on the phone. The manager apologized and assured my mom that they had addressed this with staff and were working to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again. The manager also sent my mom a gift card for us to try John Howie’s again. Now that’s excellent customer service! We felt like our concerns were acted upon and the gift card was a very generous gesture. We’ll be back to try happy hour again.