My spouse and I visited Medium Rare for drinks and dessert
on a Sunday evening in mid-December 2019. Medium Rare is open daily for dinner,
as well as for brunch on weekends. Guests can book a spot using the online Open
Table reservation system.
Medium Rare occupies the street level of a building on
Fairmont Avenue in the Woodmont Triangle neighborhood of Bethesda. (Additional
locations are found in Arlington, VA and Washington, DC.) We stayed nearby at
The Bethesdan (a Hilton property that was formerly called the Doubletree), and
it was a short walk from the hotel to the restaurant. The first/Cleveland Park
(DC) location opened in March 2011, whereas the Bethesda location opened 6
years later in March 2017. The restaurant space includes a dimly lit dining
room with large windows that seats over 100+ patrons, lots of wood (walls,
ceiling, floor, furniture), brick accent walls, a small bar, and al fresco
sidewalk dining in warmer weather.
Medium Rare offers a unique restaurant concept: a 3-course
prix-fixe set dinner menu for $23.95, which includes rustic bread, a mixed
green salad, and culotte steak (cooked to your desired temperature, not just
medium rare like the restaurant name) accompanied by fries (steak and frites).
Five a la carte desserts can be ordered from a menu. (We tried the six-layer
carrot cake, which was tasty although a bit of a skimpy portion for $9.) Brunch
is also all-inclusive, although diners can choose from five entrees accompanied
by bread and green salad (or alternatively, fruit salad or fruit and granola
yogurt parfait). Because we sat at the bar during our visit, we noticed that
the bar also offers an abbreviated menu: a few draft beers, a few different
wines, and a few liquors to create some cocktails (but they do not offer a
complete range of mixed drinks). Our bill was delivered with two pieces of
Bazooka bubblegum, a candy novelty we have not seen since our childhood.
We enjoyed our drinks and dessert at Medium Rare, but we
prefer to have more choice in terms of starters and entrees.
