DC Prime Steaks

We have been to DC Prime several times. The food is always good, with pleasant, helpful service. We want to like it so badly– let’s support the independent local restaurants! We always order a bottle of wine with dinner, and they were so proud of their wine list when they first opened, but they NEVER have the first bottle that we order, and usually not the second. Good food and close to home, but while the wine list is impressive, the actual wine inventory is disappointing. Because neither the servers nor the managers know what’s in the inventory, much time is spent hunting for each bottle, only to have a sheepish server come to the table and let us know that they don’t have whatever we ordered. I believe there is a sommelier, but we also never get a recommendation: «we don’t have that, but you may like this instead». So frustrating. Pretty soon, we’ll stop trying.

Been here three times each worse than the last. The pork belly was still amazing and Eric was attentive. My wife liked her tuna, but the vegetable (not sure what it was) was flavorless. I had the «special» grass feed wagyu and it was not a good steak. It was sitting in a puddle of liquid on the plate and tasted odd. Honestly the texture reminded me of a steak i had at bob evans. It was the worst $ 60 steak ever. Also, not sure if they changed the recipe, but the au grautin potatoes were terrible and we left them uneaten. The chocolate pecan cake was very good. I will try again but running out of patience with this place. It needs more consistency.

First visit, high recommendation from friends and family. It was our anniversary, made a reservation in advance, and to our surprise we were seated in a private room near the back! The service was excellent, did not feel rushed, and made good suggestions from the menu and extensive wine list. Tasteful music and décor. Food was delicious! Recommend the Wagyu steak and Au gratin potatoes. Prices on par with other restaurants of this caliber, but definitely worth it and beats going into downtown DC or Tysons corner.

an outstanding welcome to this area of virignia. the food was outstanding, but what made the meal was our server john. extremely knowledge ab0ut every aspect of the restaurant, it’s amenities, it’s specials, what the bar scotch was… johny walker red. not to shabby, and most important he enhanced the specials and what our final selections were and what we could expect. he hit the nail right on the head. no let downs here… portions just right, entrees were perfect. a great evening… wednesday night no less. looking forward to our return visit.
william & sharol c.

My husband and I went to DC Prime for our third wedding anniversary earlier this month and for the most part, had a great time. The food was spectacular! In fact, it’s the main reason I’m giving this place four stars. My Kansas City Strip Steak was cooked perfectly, the mashed potatoes were the second best I’ve ever had in my life (second only to The Tower Club in Tyson’s & DC), and the onion rings were delicious. Don’t even get me started on the heavenly chocolate cake! The food really was amazing.
The only reason I’m hesitant to give DC Prime that fifth star was because of the service and overall attitude of the staff. Our actual server was very nice, I had no problems with her! (Although I was shocked by how many dishes were broken throughout the course of one meal…) My main problems are with the lady with the rather miserable attitude at the front desk, some obvious «New Restaurant» issues, and a little bit of an incongruity between the reservation process and our actual experience. I’ll explain.
The lady at their front desk seems to have a major attitude problem. (I’ll note, at a quick glance over the other Unilocal reviews, I’m not the only one who’s noticed this.) She never smiled once, seemed like we were nothing more than a bother, and despite the fact that the restaurant was practically empty, she seemed to take a bit too much glee in the fact that she sat us in a ridiculously over-​sized table right by the entrance to the kitchen. It was a bit distracting having every server in the place constantly rushing by our table while preparing for the inevitable evening rush. Plus we felt a bit silly, two people sitting at a giant half-​round booth. It seemed a little odd, but as my husband and I often do, we made a joke out of it and had a good time anyway. At least we could put our feet up, I guess.
Later when our meal was done and we were on the way out, I noticed a sign by the bathroom advertising a contest to win a gift certificate. I filled it out, but there was no obvious bin in which to deposit the entries. I asked the same front desk lady where to enter the contest. I should have known better. With a very loud snort and obvious eye roll, she told me to fold it and put it in the same open bin next to where the blank entries and pencils were stored. After she walked away, my husband noted that seemed like an identity thief’s dream come true, with a giant stack of everyone’s personal information easily accessible to anyone who wanders by. Definitely a rookie mistake not to think that through a little more carefully. More importantly, though, I’d suggest they hire front desk staff that won’t actively sneer at their customers who just shelled out hundreds of dollars on a meal.
The last issue definitely isn’t earth-​shattering by any means, but I would like to provide this feedback just in the off chance the owners or manager reads this. When my husband made the reservation, they asked specifically if this was for a special occasion. He answered yes and said he was surprising me for our wedding anniversary. Last year we ate at the Capital Grille and they asked the same question. When we went there, they acknowledged the event quite nicely with two flutes of champagne and a decorated dessert plate. Granted, that’s a heckuva lot to live up to, but clearly DC Prime went to the effort to ask the question during the reservation process… yet nothing came of it. Not even a passing mention or anything. That seemed a bit odd, but again, nothing major! However if that’s what their competition is doing, DC Prime might want to take note and at least have someone in the restaurant acknowledge special occasions in some small way. Clearly they’re going to the effort to ask the question, but why bother if nothing comes of it?
Overall I really think DC Prime has a lot of potential. I like having an upscale steakhouse so close to home, freeing us from having to bother with Tyson’s or DC traffic to have a nice evening out. But I do think there are some kinks that need to be worked out so that their service lives up to the quality of their food.

Last night I went to DC Prime and I wasn’t disappointed. We started off at the bar where the bartenders are friendly and knowledgeable about their mixed drinks. It’s a cool starting spot with TV sets, sports and well dressed clientele. I’m interested in hanging out at the outdoor lounge when the weather gets nicer.
The hot appetizers are great! Had lobster bisque and shared the extra large steak fries with 3 different seasonings with my table. Very good! For dinner I split a bone in dry aged ribeye. One of the best steaks I’ve had at a steakhouse in a long time. Our waiter knew his meat! His in depth explanations on the entrees were spot on. The wait staff service was efficient and friendly.
This place is not easy on the wallet, but the quality of the food is worth it! If you live in Loudoun, skip the steak houses in Tysons Corner and stop here instead.

Delicious and juicy tomahawk steaks and good wine, they let us tried the wines before we ordered and the service was wonderful. A bit pricy but since it’s for my husband’s birthday and he had a great time it was worth it.

I really want to like this place. And to be clear, though my many guests thought the steaks of lesser quality than other high end houses locally, I LOVED the Wagyu steak. LOVED IT!
But that’s where the love affair ends. What a service disaster.
Well, this was a 5 star review in my head after a business dinner there Monday night with a former Redskin. Maybe our service was merely exceptional because of him.
The server was very nice. I loved my wagyu steak. All was really, really great! I was excited to have finally tried and loved this fairly new restaurant.
So excited, in fact, that later in the week I booked a party of 8 for Mother’s Day dinner. I was excited to bring my family and another couple we routinely enjoy high end steaks with.
This was to be my second meal there in a week. A pace normal for me when I love a place so close to my office.
On Thursday, I called to confirm the reservation and whether they had a kids menu. I was told «no kids menu.» But we could order full meals and awkwardly split them up.
The attitude of the girl on the phone was irritating and she just wanted to cancel the reservation, rather than save a cover sure to top $ 600 with four wagyu steaks, sides, wine, kids, etc.
She clearly said kids were welcome, but no effort had ever been made to create a kids menu.
So, reservation canceled. Some other restaurant will get my business. And a guy who was in love with this place, and was willing to shout it from the rooftops, now is suddenly terribly, terribly disappointed by the owner and management’s philosophy of alienating parents who enjoy fine dining, but also have children.
Competence? Guess what? They never even canceled the reservation as the girl on the phone had pushed to do. So I get a confirmation phone call Saturday evening. She now mysteriously claims she was mistaken, and they do have a kids menu. So, OK, I told her we’d come the next day for dinner.
It’s now Mother’s Day. We arrive for our reservation. We have one extra, so we’re up to 9 people. No worries, they easily add a chair. We’re seated.
From there, it’s like we don’t exist. The server disappears for 10 – 15 minutes at a time. Drink orders take forever. Water glasses are left empty almost the entire evening, to the point I considered getting up and pouring my own.
Though we have five kids with us, and I was advised they have a kids menu; none was ever produced. We were offered three «kids choices» without menus for the kids to read, and no pricing offered for the kids fare. In my opinion, they have no printed menus, were making it up as they went along, and I had been sold a ton of bricks. So we ordered the kids their meals blindly, with no clue how much each would cost.
Appetizers, salads and meals eventually ordered after a very long wait. (They should warn you of the full anchovy bodies that will be laying on your caesar salad. But I understand other restaurants also serve that way.)
A reminder that it’s mother’s day. We have my wife, and another couple with us. TWO MOMS. After an extremely long sawait the salads arrived. Oooops. Correction. Two of the three arrived. One of the Moms was never served her salad. After ten minutes of waiting for any attention whatsoever from our disappearing waiter, I flagged down two people. What happened to the other mother’s salad? No explanation, but it suddenly appeared within minutes with barely an apology.
Speaking of salads… I’m sad to report that my buddy got to the bottom of his to discover a large, long hair in it. Gross. But hey, hair happens in obscenely expensive restaurants, right?
The manager quickly apologized, as did the server, who could clearly see the hair, which could no possibly have fallen from my buddies head, based on color and length. To their credit, his salad was comped and they bough the table dessert. Amazingly, though; my wife’s very tardy salad was FULL CHARGE.
Fast forward the clock by quite a bit. No food. No food. Hungry kids. No food. After flagging down four different staff members (because they rarely checked on us); we finally only waited another ten minutes for our food.
Of course, I enjoyed my meal sans water, since they hardly ever refill glasses here. My guests found their filets average. When two ordered the 8 oz filet, we found it strange that the menu did not make it clear it was «bone in,» though all the other bone-​in options were clearly printed on the menu. Were we served someone else’s steaks in a desperate attempt to get food out to our table quickly? I’ll point out the apologies all around from managers. They clearly knew the wait had been unacceptably long.
Oh… Minor point. But no salt and pepper on the table! Really? At this level of white tablecloth service and prices?
While we’re talking about service… Much lesser restaurants come around and offer to grind pepper onto your salad. Such service never materialized for us and was very awkward.

I had an evening meeting in Ashburn and went to D. C. Prime afterward. I ate at the bar and was served very well with a wonderful fillet steak with garlic potatoes and a very nice wine. The wine list is extensive and I had excellent advice from the bar. It was comfortable and relaxing before driving back through evening traffic. I will be going back.

The food, service and atmosphere is lovely. It was such a wonderful surprise here in Ashburn. We will definitely be back. an absolute Do Over!
We had a delicious spread. you should say yes to these
— lobster mac n’ cheese
— lobster bites
— crab legs
— bone in filet
— cream spinach
All yum yum

I was given a gift certificate as gift so my husband and I went with some friends. We were not disappointed! We made reservations for a Friday night and found it interesting that they were not crowded.
We started with cocktails that did not let us down! A couple were basic — rum and coke and gin and tonic but well made and two others off of their select menu. Both were delicious. After some suggestions, we chose the Lobster bites as an appetizer. Although a small amount — it was perfect to share for the four of us to get our palettes wet! They were awesome — with just a hint of spice. Bread and butter were fresh and hot.
We moved on to a bottle of red wine from Spain — very good — with our salads, entrees and sides. The waiter recommended that we split salad since we only ordered one appetizer — which we all did — the chopped salad. It was very good and worth it.
Two of us opted for the three filet medallions with different toppings, one chose the regular and one chose a bone in sirloin. All were awesome. My favorite was the bone in sirloin — melted in your mouth! The sides we had were a potato au gratin and brussell sprouts. Both were delicious.
As full as we all were — how could we pass on dessert. We decided on coffee and shared a slice of cheesecake made with real vanilla bean — we went simple! It was a perfect, simple finish to a melt in your mouth meal.
This is not someplace we will frequent on a regular basis, but the quality of the food was well worth the experience. I recommend it as a gift or for a special occasion.

Every year I like to take my boyfriend to a nice steak dinner for his birthday. We’ve done Ruth’s Chris a few times so my co-​worker suggested DC prime. Life. Saver. Last year our dinner took almost 2 hours, we were at Ruth’s Chris forever and we felt like we were basically forgotten, this year was the complete opposite!
The restaurant has a really cool layout, that includes and «open kitchen» wall of windows and high wood panel ceilings. The atmosphere her was great!
Our waitress was wonderful! She was very knowledgable about the menu, and the company. We learned this is the only DC prime around, and that was pretty cool to learn. She even told us where our seafood and beef came from. It was really interesting to hear everything.
We took the recommendation of another Unilocaler and got the appetizer tower. Great idea! We chose the crab cakes, calamari and lobster bites. I’m not the biggest fan of crab/​seafood in general but their crab cakes looked too good not to try! I actually loved them! Huge chunks of fresh crab and a delicious mustard sauce. The lobster bites were fantastic! Huge chunks of lobster in a sweet pineapple sauce, so so good! I highly recommend them!
For dinner we tried the social of 3 petite filets with 3 different sauces. Great idea, if they have it, try it! I can’t leave a nice dinner without a cappuccino. They did a great job, lots of fluffy foam, great espresso. Perfect ending and pairing with the crème brûlée! Over all I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone looking to celebrate and event or just have a nice evening out!

The best atmosphere and perfectly cooked steaks! I have dined here frequently and I would say this is one of the best experiences for fine dining in the Ashburn area. The meals are pricey however there isn’t another place in this area that can compare to the fine dining experience you get at DC prime. I have enjoyed every night out here and will continue to frequent this establishment. Well done!

As with most restaurants that try to make themselves seem better than they are by jacking up prices and dimming down the lights, DCP was pretty lackluster and left me feeling a deep sense of regret both for how much food I didn’t really enjoy yet ate, and how much I paid for said food.
From the moment you walk in, there’s a stench of cigarette smoke. They don’t even have a cigar room, so I’m not sure if this smell was just coming from patrons in the restaurant or what. I thought maybe at first it was coming from the kitchen, but the longer I sat there smelling smoke and terrible cologne, the more I realized this isn’t a place for young well-​to-​do foodies so much as it is a haven of middle-​aged divorcees and Loudoun cougars drowning their sorrows in dead cow and booze.
Nothing about DCP is spectacular. The décor is gaudy. Despite having reservations and the place being mostly dead inside, we were given a table crowded very close to other tables instead of one of the open booths that were never filled the whole evening (in fact, aside from the bar, there were only two other groups in the dining area the whole time — I will be surprised if DCP is still open a year from now). The menu is unimaginative and pretty straightforward: steak, steak, steak, steak, lobster or fish. Which, fine, it is a steakhouse, after all.
But even the food was just OK as an overall experience. Don’t get me wrong, the steaks are superb. Ridiculously tender, perfectly juicy and very flavorful. They were cooked to perfection, too. In the top five steaks I’ve probably ever had. But if I’m paying that much for steak, I would at least expect it to be grass-​fed. It isn’t. And it was only 8 oz. for a filet upwards of $ 40. And here’s the kicker: That’s JUST for the steak. You don’t get any sides with the entrees. None. Zip. Nada. Zero. You want a side? Shell out another $ 5 – 10. I tried the Brussels sprouts hoping for a healthful, yummy vegetable experience. What I got instead was a bunch of soggy, brown, soaked in bacon fat, barely recognizable, overly salty green globules. Also, the flavor was reminiscent of gasoline. The au gratin potatoes had to be great though, right? Cheesy tatoes?! They were fine, but don’t compare to the ones at Wildfire. Where, by the way, the steaks are just as good.
Probably the best part was the dessert. The restaurant’s signature Senator’s Pie, which is a chocolate/​coconut pecan pie with a teeny tiny scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, is quite delicious, though you’ll leave in a sugar coma and making vows to eat nothing but kale smoothies for the entire next week.
The bright spots here are the steaks and the service. Our server was very pleasant and very attentive. And like I mentioned, yes, if you are a steak aficionado, then you will not be disappointed. But you know what? I can be happy with an 8 out of 10 steak instead of 10 out of 10 and a complete meal where I also enjoy the other elements for a lot less than $ 100 per person (including tip). And that’s why I probably don’t ever need to come back to DC Prime.

GREAT restaurant! I went on a Friday evening when there wasn’t too much of a crowd (around 9pm). The waiters were accommodating and happily provided off-​menu requests. Service was fabulous overall!
Drinks:
The drinks were not made consistently (perhaps a bartender change). A few drinks were sent back from our table because their was either too much sour mix or they did not taste the way they should (classic mojito).
Food:
We (our table) ordered the lobster bites, bbq shrimp, ahi tuna. Everyone seemed pleased with the appetizers. My fiancé and I ordered the Tomahawk bone-​in ribeye and let me tell you… DELICIOUS!!! This is a 38 oz. piece of meat that is so flavorful and comes with the option of butters that have goat cheese flavors (amaaaaazing). I had it prepared medium and it was perfect!
We also had the creamed spinach and loaded baked potato. The creamed spinach was pretty good. Loaded baked potato was okay– not the best I’ve had but they did include chunky smoked bacon bits that added a bit of flavor.
There was no room for dessert after all of that food! I hope this helps :)

The food and service — OUTSTANDING!
The restaurant has so much great food. We went to this restaurant for a dinner get together. Some of my co– workers ordered steak and I ordered sea seared scallops! The bread is great! Especially the garlic bread and of course the butter is to die for!
Everything was perfect! You should try this restaurant… It is expensive but its really worth it

Exceeded my expectations! Great place if you’re trying to show off or simply want the best steaks in the area. Got the bone in Tomahawk ribeye (dry aged 65 days) and was thoroughly impressed!
Paired with a nice bottle of Cotes du Rhone, this is likely one of the best steak experiences I’ve had.
DC Prime came highly recommended to me, so I’m paying it forward
Enjoy!

Lots of parking in the attached lot. Solid service by Eric R, he was friendly and readily answered every question. There was only one course where he was nowhere to be found (and honestly our table would’ve been fine having the apps and salads served simultaneously), but for the rest of the meal he was checking in on us and refilling our waters. During that brief dry spell, I looked around and saw a lot of waitstaff milling around without much to do. The fellas bringing food to our table kept serving plates to the wrong people despite our protests, but Eric caught on and eventually rushed back over to redirect most of the misplaced dishes. When one of the servers spilled some brussels sprouts on a dining companion’s arm, the dude apologized twice during the evening and the manager gave us his business card in case it needed to be dry cleaned.
Not much beer on draft, but they have an agreeable wine list. Woodford Smoke was surprisingly sweeter than smokey, and I ultimately preferred the Black Vanilla over it. Great lobster bisque, not too heavy thanks to the splash of sherry, to taste. Caesar salad dressing was non-​traditional, but the generous shavings of Parm and anchovies still won me over. Less enthusiastic about their confit pork belly, which could have been rendered a bit more beneath the pretty sear.
Ribeye was marginally more popular at our table than both the bone-​in filet and KC NY strip. Skip the au gratin potatoes, the texture’s too wet and mushy. Brussels sprouts are great, and the charred asparagus was nice even without hollandaise. Way too full to try the lobster mac & cheese this time, and definitely eyeballing the carpaccio, duck breast, and braised bone-​in short rib for future visits.
For the sake of your arteries, share a dessert. The portions are huge, the cheesecake had the right texture, the proportion of cake to frosting in the chocolate seven-​layer cake is appropriate, and the one-​sixth slice of senator’s pie is as rich and decadent as a chocolate pecan brick sounds. Accompanying scoops of vanilla ice cream were fine. A few minor misses, but overall a delicious 3.75 stars.

Had a great time here… atmosphere and food was awesome
We had:
1. Cesar salad
2. Porter house
3. King crab legs
4. 2 sides — spinach mashed potatoes
5. Cake dessert

So I had dinner here on Saturday night. The place is very nice inside, although I am not sure who picked all of the red colors, it looks a little gaudy really. What I did notice is they had a great lounge area that was half inside/​half outside. It would be a great place to have a drink before your table is ready. The tables inside are a little close together, but your not bumping chairs or anything.
Speaking of drinks they had a great drink menu. Wines by the glass and by the bottle at about any price range. I got a bottle of a Chardonnay I like, the markup was just the same as you would get anywhere else.
Onto the food: I started off with a mozzarella and tomato salad, which was well done, but not great. They need to add something else to it to make it stand out. The other salad we ordered came with no cheese, but bacon — We had of course asked for no bacon. It wasn’t the end of the world, but a little mistake nonetheless.
It was also about that time, when I was eating my salad that I watched another server drop what appeared to be a glass of champagne into some poor guys lap. Now I do know she said sorry about 100 times, but you know what I didn’t see? I didn’t see the manager over there right away trying to smooth things over, the guy wasn’t irate or anything, but once something like that happens, the manager should be right over.
Anyways, once the entertainment was over they brought out our steaks. One NY Strip and one filet and lobster tail. The NY Strip was cooked perfect and had just the right amount of charred fat around the edge that gave it flavor, but was still edible. The filet was like butter, really, it was unreal. Eating these steaks and adding in a few sides and we were stuffed.
For dessert we split a piece of the cheesecake, which was also great. Really dessert was about the last thing I needed at that point, but I figured I had to try a bite or two since the place was new. In the end the meal was like $ 280 or so, plus the tip. So not someplace you are going to go every night, but it was worth it.
If I could have rated this place a 4.5 I would have, but gave them the benefit of the doubt. What makes or breaks a place is the management, and when someone drops a drink on someone the staff needs to know the manager needs to be told. Either they didn’t tell him or he didn’t care. Hopefully once they start working together longer things will work out better.
I look forward to going back and if nothing else having a drink on the patio.