The Metropolitan Grill is one of those restaurants in every city that everyone’s either heard of and wants to try, or reserves for a special occasion like a business meeting or fancy date. Obviously, I don’t rub elbows with people who go to The Met regularly, but there are definitely those as well.

Value: Being one of the top steakhouses in Seattle, The Met shouldn’t be judged using your regular criteria for value. The cost for a steak and sides is as high as you’d expect from such a place – $30 – $50 for the steak and $7 – $10 for sides, but you’re paying for the service, ambiance and what they call the experience of The Met as well.

Experience: Everything you could ask for in a fine steakhouse – professional and courteous waitstaff, a huge wine list, dark wood paneling, photos of celebrity diners all over the walls, and a fun shoe-buffing machine in the men’s room (my favorite). The pace of a Met meal is slower than most, but this last time was especially bad – we didn’t get our table til 1 hour after our reservation, and the meal itself dragged far longer than expected, lasting almost 2.5 hours and crimping our plans for the night. Disappointing.

Food: If you love steak, you’ll love The Met, which claims to have “The Best Steak In Town” and is pretty accurate. I’ve never been disappointed with the taste of the food here.

I’ve had good experiences at The Met before, so I’m not totally discouraged by my most recent meal there. As long as you attend with the right expectations of ambiance, pace and value, you’ll like it. Take your time and enjoy your experience here.

A must for the happy hour lover. The Met is a Seattle classic. It’s got that classic sports bar type feel with the dark woods and a warm a warm, lively bar with a couple TVs showing the days games. It’s a good sized bar.

The crowd is mostly professionals coming here after a days work to grab a drink and some great bar food. You might have to wait around at the bar for a bit for a table to open up cause this place is hoppin’ after work.

Not many drinks on happy hour special, so come here for the food. Try the cocktail shrimp and shooters. Great prices.

I had heard a lot about this place being one of the best steakhouses in Seattle so I went in with at least some expectation. Perhaps I ordered the wrong steak for myself, perhaps the place was a bit too old-school and upscale for my taste, or perhaps they got us seated 40 minutes after our reservation time (even though we were early), I didn’t enjoy my experience at the Met and found the place to be a bit overrated.

Our bill came out to be about 90 bucks per person. With that kind of money, there are many restaurants I can think of where I can have a much better experience having a much yummier feast!

But then again, I’m sure I’m not within their catered market: this place is probably for the true wine and steak connoisseurs who have truly fat wallets. :)