DINING: Elegance on K Street

The Prime Rib, on K Street Northwest, boasts that it’s “Where Morton takes Ruth and Chris for prime rib.” A bit of boasting, no doubt, but Prime Rib’s roast prime rib is, indeed, as good as it gets.

This is Washington’s last bastion of the once-upon-a-time elegant steak-and-potatoes restaurant, the in place for movers and shakers, for lobbyists and lawyers, for movie stars and sportsmen. The atmosphere is that of a fashionable supper club. Evening gowns and dinner jackets are relics of a more polished and refined time, but coats and ties are still de rigueur. Beautiful high-maintenance young things at the bar sparkle in basic black.

The space, like so many others in town, is the ground floor of an office building, but the black walls, adorned with naughty black-and-white prints; the white tablecloths; little lamps resembling dining-car lamps on each table; bustling waiters; and the piano and bass playing “The Way You Look Tonight,” “Besame Mucho” and 1940s and ‘50s show tunes all create an atmosphere unlike anything else in Washington. It’s deja vu all over again, the nostalgic return to dining as it was long before nouvelle and fusion.

The Washington restaurant — the original is in Baltimore — opened in 1976, and the menu, like the restaurant, harks to decades past. Not everything is perfect, but you can rely on the beef to be tender, tasty and cooked to order and the fish to be fresh. A note on the menu reassures that the restaurant serves only organic extra-virgin olive oil, demonstrating that even a classic is not immune to trendy fads.

Whipped sweet butter and lovely warm sesame-crusted bread arrive shortly after you are seated. The wine list is extensive. Wine by the glass is poured generously, and the choices are good, primarily California vintages.

I couldn’t resist oysters Rockefeller as a starter. They were delicious: the small, barely cooked oysters nestling in a bed of spinach under a light blanket of cheese. Alas, there were just four oysters, a meager portion for $16.95.

Oysters also can be ordered on the half shell. Clams casino, snails and smoked trout are standards. Crab is prepared as a crab cake, cocktail or imperial. Of course, there’s a splendid jumbo shrimp cocktail. The crab imperial and the crab cake can be ordered as main courses.

The classic steakhouse first course is a wedge of iceberg lettuce with Roquefort dressing. At Prime Rib, it’s just as we remembered it. Served with a slice or two of ripe tomato, the crisp lettuce is refreshing in its excellent dressing.

Roast prime rib is the restaurant’s signature entree, but filet mignon, strip steak in various guises, rib-eye and chopped sirloin are all very good. The pepper steak — even when the marchand de vin sauce that is supposed to accompany the meat is omitted — is fine. Veal, lamb and pork chops are available for carnivores in the mood for something other than beef, and chicken piccata is prepared in a lemon-butter and caper sauce.

Fish is grilled carefully, be it sea bass, salmon or halibut. Tuna is crusted with sesame and served with an Asian mix of wasabi mustard, soy sauce and pickled ginger.

Other than a garnish such as shredded fresh horseradish, entrees are served without side dishes, but there’s an ambitious list of sides that can be ordered with the main course. Remembering a past dinner, we ordered the potatoes au gratin and were disappointed. The cubed potatoes are served in what basically is a bechamel sauce with a little cheese and not much flavor.

At lunch, a choice of two from the list of sides is included in the price of the main course.

The grace note of the evening, and every bit as good as in remembrance of flings past, turned out to be the bread pudding with bourbon sauce. Not too sweet, not too heavy, not too alcoholic, just slightly crusty. This is the queen of bread puddings.

Hot and cold appetizers and salads at lunch are basically the same as on the dinner menu but less dear. A New York steak salad, London broil, calf’s liver and a cheeseburger are lunchtime additions. Corned beef and Reuben sandwiches are offered on Tuesdays; on Thursdays it’s roasted turkey.

RESTAURANT: The Prime Rib, 2020 K St. NW, 202/466-8811

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