Beloved BBQ at Love, Makoto

Dark Walls, Live Fire, and the Logic of Yakiniku in D.C.

Walk into the Capitol Crossing development on Massachusetts Avenue and the shift from federal corridor to Japanese steakhouse is deliberate and immediate. At Beloved BBQ at Love, Makoto, the room is built around contrast: dark walls that absorb ambient noise, a neon-lit hallway that frames your entry, and large tables fitted with central circular grills that make clear, from the moment you sit, that the cooking here is participatory. This is not a restaurant where food arrives plated and finished. The grill in front of you is part of the editorial statement the kitchen is making about how meat should be experienced.

That statement is worth taking seriously. Washington's Japanese dining scene has expanded well beyond sushi and ramen in recent years. Omakase at Barracks Row, Kappo, and Shōtō each occupy a different register of Japanese technique, while Perry's has long held its own space in the city's broader dining conversation. Beloved BBQ sits apart from all of them by format: it belongs to the yakiniku tradition, in which grilling is managed at the table and the quality of the raw ingredient determines the outcome more than any kitchen intervention. The 2024 Michelin Plate recognition confirms that the execution clears a meaningful threshold, though the format itself is less common among Michelin-tracked D.C. restaurants than tasting menus or counter omakase.

How the Menu Is Structured, and What That Structure Reveals

The architecture of the menu at Beloved BBQ is the most instructive thing about it. Yakiniku menus can take two forms: a broad catalogue of cuts at varying price points, or a curated selection that uses the format to make an argument about quality. This kitchen takes the latter approach. The sequence begins with cold preparations, moves through rice and cooked dishes, and arrives at the meat program as its conclusion — a structure that positions the grill as a destination rather than a default.

Icy cold oysters with chili koji serve as the opening move, and the choice is telling. Koji, the fermented mold that underpins miso, sake, and much of Japanese fermentation culture, appears here in a preparation designed to cut through the fat that will define the rest of the meal. The opener is calibrated, not decorative. From there, the A5 Wagyu fried rice with soft egg arrives in a steaming hot pot, with a server folding the ingredients tableside to ensure even distribution across each kernel. The intervention is subtle but specific: it signals that texture and temperature are being managed throughout, not just at the grill.

The meat program is where the menu's logic becomes most explicit. Prime short rib arrives with sudachi, sea salt, and black pepper — a combination that points toward Japanese citrus acidity as a foil to richness rather than the Western reflex of horseradish or mustard. Wagyu New York strip is paired with lime and wasabi, again prioritizing brightness over weight. Aged beef tongue carries what the kitchen describes as gamey notes, a descriptor that acknowledges rather than apologizes for the cut's intensity. Each pairing choice reflects a consistent philosophy: acidity and heat to cut fat, restraint in seasoning to keep the beef itself audible.

This is a meaningfully different approach from what you find at Washington's French-influenced steakhouses or the broader American chophouse tradition, where butter, cream, and reduction tend to compound richness rather than counterbalance it. It also places Beloved BBQ in a different comparative position from D.C.'s heavier-hitting tasting menu addresses. At the $$$ price tier, it sits below the $$$$ bracket occupied by Michelin-starred peers like Albi in the Middle Eastern space, while offering a level of ingredient specificity , A5 Wagyu is a graded designation requiring marbling scores above 8 on the Japanese Beef Marbling Standard , that justifies the positioning.

For a sense of how yakiniku translates at the very leading of the format, Myojaku and Azabu Kadowaki in Tokyo represent what the tradition looks like under maximum constraint and precision. Beloved BBQ operates with a different energy , larger tables, a more social format, Capitol Crossing's business-district context , but the underlying logic of ingredient-first, minimal-intervention grilling connects the two cities' approaches.

Capitol Crossing and What It Means for the Room

Location shapes experience here in ways that matter. Capitol Crossing is a mixed-use development positioned between NoMa and the Capitol Hill corridor, drawing a clientele that skews toward government, legal, and consulting professionals dining on expense accounts or celebrating within walking distance of their offices. That context explains the room's scale , large tables accommodate groups rather than intimate pairs , and the format's appeal: tableside grilling creates a social dynamic that works well for business dinners where the meal needs to generate conversation rather than demand silence.

This is a different energy from the counter-service intimacy of D.C.'s omakase addresses, or the focused formality you find at tasting-menu destinations like Lazy Bear in San Francisco or Alinea in Chicago. At those addresses, the format demands attention. Here, the grill invites participation, and the room is designed to hold it. That distinction is not a weakness , it reflects a different and equally considered intention about what dining in a group should feel like.

Washington has produced some ambitious Japanese-inflected dining in recent years, but the city's Japanese steakhouse category remains less developed than its sushi or izakaya segments. Beloved BBQ occupies that category with more technical seriousness than most of its format peers in American cities, where yakiniku often skews toward spectacle over substance. The Michelin Plate recognition is the clearest external signal of that distinction.

Planning Your Visit

Beloved BBQ at Love, Makoto is located at 200 Massachusetts Ave NW, Suite 150, within the Capitol Crossing complex. The $$$ price tier makes it accessible relative to D.C.'s Michelin-starred $$$$ tier, though the A5 Wagyu program will move the final check depending on selection. The format rewards groups of three or more who want to work through multiple cuts; the tableside grill and server-assisted rice preparation mean the experience is paced over the course of the meal rather than front-loaded. For anyone building a broader Washington itinerary, the full Washington, D.C. restaurants guide covers the city's range from Michelin-starred tasting menus to neighbourhood anchors. If your trip extends to hotels, bars, wineries, or experiences, the EP Club guides for Washington, D.C. hotels, bars, wineries, and experiences are the relevant starting points. For reference on what the format looks like at comparable ambition levels in other American cities, Le Bernardin in New York City, Emeril's in New Orleans, Single Thread Farm in Healdsburg, and The French Laundry in Napa each represent the upper ceiling of their respective categories , useful context for calibrating where Beloved BBQ sits in the national conversation. Google reviews place it at 4.8 across 1,351 ratings, a signal of consistent execution at volume that the Michelin Plate reinforces from a different evaluative angle.