Montsouris

Is there only one host/​waiter working at this place? Or is he the only one worth writing about? Yes, I read the Unilocal reviews before coming here and was promptly greeted at Montsouris by the pretty man with a French accent. But onto the food!
Warm bread? Check!
Steak tartare?
Having recently become a rabid steak tartare fan (to the point of ending up buying pounds (yes, plural) of freshly ground meat from Whole Foods to make my own), I can say that this one was somewhere between meh and meh. Was it the best I’ve ever had? Definitely not. But at the same time, it wasn’t horrible. The meat was cut up into chunks, instead of ground (I prefer mine ground) and where was the egg?! It came instead with some sort of cheese concoction which was just… odd. In any case, the point being that the steak tartare, while not horrible, is not worth the price that you’d be paying. The best reaction I’d say one would have to the steak tartare is disappointment and «awwww, I paid that much for this?»
Mussels? Yum!
Unlike the above dish, the mussels were fantastic! And the sauce was oh so creamy, which is important. After all, warm bread must be dipped into the sauce.
Fries? Excellent! I needed more!

I heard many rave review about Montsouris for quite sometime…
I was so happy that I came here with Michele D and PC W. for lunch recently. We were seated immediately… it was not that busy during lunch.
I wasn’t very hungry that day (very surprising!) So I decided to get two appertizers (bone marrow and mussels) and shared escargots with PC W.
The bone marrow dish was interesting (I never had it before). It was literally a bone cut in half with the marrow in the middle. I wasn’t sure how to eat it, but since it came with bread, I just put some bone marrow on the bread. It didn’t really taste like much… not bad… not great…
I had the steamed mussels also, but I think Michele D’s mussels in the white wine /​cream sauce was MUCH better!!! But they were all very big mussels, very meaty! The escargots were also excellent… the garlic butter smelled so great!
I will definitely come back there and refer this great find to other friends!!!

Sigh. *Dabs a cool towel to the forehead* Sigh. Again.
I would love to write a review about the host, who was also our waiter, but I know the purpose is really to write about the restaurant. Since he IS a part of the restaurant, I’m going to steal a minute of your time to tell you about him. Upon first glance, I thought, «Sweet Jesus, he’s pretty». But then the unthinkable happened. He spoke. With a FRENCH ACCENT. I would have given him $ 50.00 to read the menu to me. Twice. His eyes were dreamy… I would have followed him into a wood chipper. Sigh.
Yeah. So back to the food. Nice, warm French bread upon being seated. Water. With lemon. Mussels in this very heavenly cream sauce. Great basic salad of greens, carrots, beets and tomatoes. More bread to dunk in the left over sauce from the mussels. Delectable.
I really wanted to keep lunch light, but will certainly go back for either the Hangar steak or the Kobe steak. Both sounded really divine, and PC W raved about her Kobe steak! My mussels were a phenomenal deal. 7.95 for mussels that are as big as hackey-​sacks. Huge. But the sauce. WOW. Seriously, that and some bread could make a meal.
Will totally return. And I’ll bring something extra for The Hotness to read to me.

Somewhere in between visiting embassies, we stopped here for lunch. I was surprised that the restaurant was empty for lunch on a Saturday but that was perfectly fine since our host/​waiter, who will be referred to as The Hotness in the rest of this review, was nice to look at and we wanted him all to ourselves. But you’re reading because you care about the food so without further ado.
Bread: Sliced up baguette, served warm and toasty — 5 stars
Appetizer: Escargots. The garlic parsley butter was unbelievable. I couldn’t let it go to waste so I soaked up the remaining butter with buttered slices of baguette. — 5 stars
Entrée: Kobe steak with frites. My rare Kobe steak was perfectly peppered and seasoned. I ordered the bernaise sauce but The Hotness brought the bernaise and red wine sauce. I’m glad he did because I much preferred the red wine sauce. The bernaise was too tangy for my taste buds today. But not to let it go to waste, it made a great dipping sauce for the awesome frites. Thin, golden and salty. 5 stars
The Hotness: Attentive. Personable. Nice hair. Gorgeous eyes. French accents don’t really do it for me. 4.75 stars.
Busboy: Quick with clearing our table after each course. Kept our waters filled up to the top which was great since we had been walking outside in the heat for awhile. 5 stars.
The mussels I sampled from my fellow diners were also rave-​worthy but you can read their reviews soon enough :) Best French food in DC by far.

I’ve lived next to this place for over a year. It’s often that the gems closest to you are overlooked… I went their this weekend and ordered the following: mussels in cream sauce, the hangar steak and crème brule. For the first few minutes i started to get a little irritated with the slow delivery of food. it was 930 and I was starving. That immediately dissipated as soon as the food arrived. the mussels were divine and the hangar steak was perfect. Topped with a tasty crème brule, one can’t go wrong.

When a Frenchman recommended Montsouris I moved the restaurant up (way up!) in my mental queue. And when two of my fabulous colleagues came to DC and stayed across the street at the Palomar, I knew just where to take them for dinner.
At the behest of my French recommender (and the great craving in my stomach) I ordered the bavette steak. Nothing could have prepared me for the humongous portion of frites that accompanied my steak. Even with help there’s no chance you’ll finish these! The steak was cooked exactly to my order and well seasoned.
When the wine we initially chose was unavailable our waiter suggested a higher priced substitute but charged us the same as our first choice. That’s just one example of the attentive, professional service we received during our meal at Monsouris.
I’m unimpressed by the restaurant’s dcor but the food more than makes up for that! When I’m craving steak frites, this is likely to be the first restaurant to come to mind.

This charming little French bistro is located a block away from Hotel Palomar, so we decided to have a late dinner here during my first night in town. We were greeted by the host, who was also our server, with a cute French accent. We had no problems getting a table at that hour, and we ended up closing the place down.
I had the Kobe beef bavette, which was accompanied by a generous heap of crisp pommes frites in a separate bowl. The large slab of thinly cut beef came out in minutes with nothing else on the plate but a side of the red wine sauce, which really added more flavor to it. We also ordered a bottle of red wine — our first choice was a Carneros Merlot, but they were out of it, so the server suggested a comparable French red and even offered to give us the same price as the merlot. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any room for dessert.
Would I return? Good food, good wine, cute bistro setting and cute French accents? Oui, oui!

My last French food encounter was at Anis in Atlanta, and I was too wow-​ed by my dining guest (ok, fine. and maybe a little drunk) to take much notice of the food. Fast forward to present time, and I was excited to try Montsouris. Our waiter came with a very authentic sounding French accent and no Parisan attitude. It was a quiet night for the restaurant, and we were able to score a decent table sans reservations. The kobe is a giant portion of meat, and creates quite the challenge for the mid sized carnivore. Our waiter also gently recommended to our tableful of «medium well» ladies to go straight up «medium» for our meat, which was a good decision.
A good place for an evening with friends, or somewhere to take someone with that certain «je né sais quoi.»

This place had an authentic French air to it. The menu had some great options, including the marrow. The fries weren’t as good as Les Halles — neither was the mayo. But, the mussels in cream sauce were wonderful. The service had its flaws — namely they poured still water into my half-​full glass of sparking. But, they comped us a free bottle of sparkling. Chestnut cream was surprising and tasty.

I would give this restaurant 4 stars, except that it’s incredibly hard to find anything healthy on the menu — half the items are a heart attack in a dish. That said, I’ve been here a couple times and enjoyed myself. The service is great — very attentive French waiters who know their menu and are very accommodating (my friend and I over ordered and they happily wrapped up the rest for us). The wine list is also a plus!
As for the food, the bone marrow appetizer is delicious, especially on their crusty bread. The carrot/​ginger soup is good but could use a little work on the consistency (sludgy). They do a sort of gizzard chicory salad with a gooey egg on top that’s pretty good as well. Overall, I recommend this place for an intimate lunch or a glass of wine on Sunday afternoon.

Great service and great French food. My partner and I have dropped in for dinner during the week and have never had a problem being seated. The pâté is great and if there are any special offerings for the evening, give them a try, since they are usually fantastic!

For the most part, yum. Some friends and I ended up at Montsouris after the Unilocal wine/​sake tasting. I have friends who love this restaurant and others… well, not so much. My experience was a good one.
I enjoyed the charcuterie. But then again, I rarely say no to salty slices of pork. I didn’t try the gravlax or pâté, but they disappeared quickly. I counted eight different steak preparations and eventually chose the Bavette of Kobe style beef. I knew not to expect the real deal, however it was good, full of beefy flavor (unlike, say, a tenderloin) and very, very tender. The frites that came with it were good, however when I tasted my friends mashed potatoes with bacon, I was jealous.
Montsouris’ version of steak tartare includes cheese (goat cheese, I believe). It’s definitely not traditional and makes a rich dish even richer. I liked the flavor, but can’t imagine eating a whole order of it. The more time that passes, the stranger the cheese strikes me.
No room for dessert.

This is an interesting little restaurant. Although I’m not a resident of DC, I travel there frequently for work. I recently had the good fortune of trying out this little place near Dupont, and I have to say it was quite good. I found the bone marrow to be perfectly done, and my steak was pretty damn good. The service was quick and attentive; however, the seating arrangement (if you’re a party of two) can have you sitting right in the middle of the place. I would recommend reservations as the place seemed pretty crowded on a Monday night. One further note– the wine list was decent, but more importantly fairly priced (average markup for a bottle).

Lunch update: Ate here yesterday (6÷13÷07) with 5 co-​workers for a going away lunch. It was nice. Not too busy. They easily accomodated us when I changed my reservation from 2 people to 6. The menu is the same as dinner, so most of us got salads and smaller items as shelling out $ 23+ for lunch was not on the agenda. The owner made a nice red wine recommendation. The food was great!
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Most of the reviews you will read online will mention that this great little restaurant is the offspring of the french DC powerhouse Montmarte in capital hill…
i have been once for dinner and once for just drinks and both times were pleasant.
this french bistro is much quieter and cozier than bistro du coin (though i do prefer the latter) and the food is pretty straightforward, priced well, and made with love… :)
you must try the beet tartar… yum yum yum… if you like beets of course… i’ve had better mussels though you could really tell these were fresh and the recent spinach salad i ate was delectible… especially with the roasted apples mixed in.

Montsouris is a welcome addition to the P Street area in Dupont. It’s a cozy French bistro, which means… lots of deliciously prepared beef! I ran (literally) into Montsouris to meet up with my boyfriend after a hectic day at work. The semi-​casual warmth of the restaurant calmed my nerves immediately… as did a nice glass of wine. It was very busy that night, but the noise level wasn’t bad and it still felt quite intimate.
We started with a salad and the bone marrow appetizer which was actually a large portion size and deliciously fatty and rich in flavor. You spread it onto grilled pieces of bread and sprinkle it with salt… yuuumm. For the entrée, I had to try their steak tartare which was served with a large portion of pommes frites. It was fresh and creamy with cheese and a bit of crème fraîche. I can never eat a full serving of steak tartare, though… it’s just a bit too much raw meat for me. So, of course, my boyfriend and I switched mid-​dinner and I was able to try the butcher steak. It was above-​average, but not way above-​average. The chive mashed potatoes that it came with stood out more.
Next time… I’m going back for dessert. It’s sister restaurant, Montmartre in Eastern Market, has the best crème brûlée. I can’t wait to see what they have to offer! So far, it’s the best French food I’ve had in the city.

I did not plan to go to Montsouris. I was meeting a friend for dinner, and I left the choice up to him. He decided on Johnny’s on The Half Shell. Well, when I got to the address I realized the restaurant had not only changed ownership, but also had a new name and type of cosine.
I was a bit hesitant because the middle-​end French restaurants I had been to were pricey. However, at Montsouris, the cost was surprisingly reasonable. They had a great selection of wines by the glass — American and Italian in addition to the expected French wines.
Unlke most French restaurants I have been to, the food is prepared healthfully– not laded with fattening cream sauces.
The atmosphere is warm due to the mustard yellow walls and dark wood furnishings. The food was good, too. Thinking we were ending up at Johnny’s… I had my mind set on oysters. I had the mussels instead. They were deliciously sweet.