12/27/2010 John Howie Steak, Bellevue WA

we had dinner at JHS partly to have a good steak, but partly to see our friend lisa who's head sommelier.

i have to say she really spoiled us this night. she brought us a glass of prosecco to get us started with our appys.

top sirloin with black HI salt, chives and blue cheese.

this was actually pretty good

the bread bowl.  JHS is one of the few places around that make their own bread daily

tempura fried kurobuta bacon with maple sambal ponzu sauce.

wagyu beef tartare, herb aioli and guinness stone ground mustard and crostini

as good as john howie is with steak this was a surprising disappointment. it tasted like he shoved it through a meat grinder then used a form to plate it and that's it. i felt like i was eating nothing but raw hamburger.

there are lots of other items on the menu so skip this and try 1 of those.

wine with diner













beecher's flagship reserve cheddar mac & cheese

 5 cheese twice baked stuffed potato with bacon, scallions and sour cream

i had the australian wagyu zabaton 8oz steak served 'french onion style'. - take the meat and put caramelized onions, veal stock brandy, gruyere and parigiano reggiano cheeses on top.

the flavor was quite good but it was undercooked to the order. i asked for just pink and it was almost as red as matt likes it.

it was also not very tender in comparison. i'll stick with the filet mignon in the future.

matt wanted the rib eye steak and had to go with the USDA prime beef as it was not available in the wagyu that night.

ma had the australian wagyu 6oz filet mignon

ma had the classic vanilla bean creme brulee

thanks to lisa we all got to try and share the salted caramel and chocolate ganache tarte with shortbread crust, semi-sweet chocolate, caramel, fleur de sel, and vanilla-salted caramel ice cream

matt and i shared the tempura fried lemoncello scented pound cake with warm chocolate ganache, mt. rainier huckleberry jam, and lemon mascarpone.

this was on the heavy side but was quite yummy. i liked the combo of the mascarpone and chocolate ganache with the pound cake. i found the huckleberries a little bitter for my taste.

 YAY! we hadn't known lisa had been awarded until then!

and little mignardise to take home. chocolate truffles (that wasn't the only thing that went home in boxes that night!)








we noticed a lack of actual kobe on the menu and so no knife presentation. that was sad. it's kind of cool to see the box being brought to the table, the server opening it like a butler with a humidor and letting you actually select your knife. oh well. i hope this isn't going to become a standard thing, the no kobe. only time will tell.