published on July 07, 2024 in Front Page News

washingtonpost.com: Les Halles

1201 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington
(202) 347-6848

Hours of Operation and Prices
Lunch: Daily 11:30-4; Entrees: $11.75-$20
Dinner: Daily 4-midnight; Entrees: $13.25-$22.50

Other Information
Credit Cards: All major
Reservations: Recommended
Dress: Casual
Parking: Valet (fee) at dinner
Nearest Metro: Metro Center, Federal Triangle
Handicapped accessible

A slab of steak, a pile of fries and thou. In an odd way, Les Halles is a most romantic restaurant. It's big, it's public and it's a beefy kind of place, but it's also charmingly French, with an old-fashioned pt-and-cassoulet menu and pleasantly anonymous service. It has the comfortable, unhurried, tie-loosened feel of a brasserie. Most important in good weather, it has a spacious sidewalk cafe, partly covered by an awning.

I go to Les Halles for an onglet - a tender but fibrous and exceptionally flavorful, boneless, hangar steak - cooked rare (which really means rare here) - and for greaseless, crisp fries. I start with the petatou de chevre, a small construction of diced portobellos and potatoes, served warm under a mantle of goat cheese, accompanied by a mountain of green salad. Or I might have the frisee aux lardons, a chicory salad with chunks of bacon and Roquefort-smeared toast. The pt is gutsy and the rillettes powerful. Or you can get salmon tartare, classic onion soup or snails to start. Entrees include the brasserie regulars: blood sausage, mussels in white wine, tartar steak and a cassoulet so rich and meaty that it could have seen you through past blizzards and the ones to come. There's fish, of course, but I think of this as a meat haven. Crisp, unctuous duck confit, rotisserie lamb - they're Les Halles fare. The mainstay, though, is steaks: sirloin, skirt, the bargain-priced "steak, frites, salade," or that unbeatable hangar steak.

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