D.C. now has its own Hell’s Kitchen. The fine dining restaurant inspired by chef Gordon Ramsay’s hit TV series of the same name opens Monday after months of anticipation.

Located at The Wharf in Southwest D.C., the 14,800-square-foot restaurant offers sweeping views of the Potomac River. Its design should be recognizable to fans of the TV show — but in a departure from other locations, it has two levels, both of which have outdoor areas: ground-floor patio and a 730-square-foot dining terrace on the second floor.

This is Ramsay’s fifth Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen location in the U.S.; the restaurant first opened doors in Las Vegas and has since expanded to Atlantic City, Southern California, and Lake Tahoe. This is also not Ramsay’s first time expanding into D.C; he opened his casual Fish & Chips shop at The Wharf in October.

Fish & Chips has been well received, says Christina Wilson, vice president of culinary for Gordon Ramsay North America — and the Season 10 winner of Hell’s Kitchen. The chipper’s line goes out the door and around the building at peak hours, she says. That success has born out The Wharf’s reputation as a “high energy destination,” Wilson says, adding she hopes the new restaurant will bring something “unique” to the waterfront.

Both of Ramsay’s restaurants are part of Phase 2 of The Wharf, a redevelopment of the Southwest waterfront which spanned more than a decade and cost billions of dollars. Phase 1 of the project wrapped up in 2017, and the second phase began opening in October 2022.

“There’s amazing restaurants in the Wharf. Our neighbors are just incredible,” Wilson says. “Gordon’s wanted to get into D.C. for ages. It’s got a great food scene — very eclectic, very, very diverse.”

Like any other Hell’s Kitchen, the D.C. location pays tribute to the show and features Gordon classics like beef Wellington ($65), lobster risotto appetizer ($30), and sticky toffee pudding ($14). There’s also a three-course fixed price menu ($89.95) with optional wine pairings ($154.95), and vegan and vegetarian dishes such as butternut squash risotto ($18) and tofu “scallops” ($18). (Ramsay recently confessed his love for vegan food, despite being a vocal critic for years.)

If you’re in need of a drink, you can order a variety of cocktails — including house specialties such as “Fear & Loathing” ($18) made with mezcal, maraschino liqueur, and citrus; or the fanciful “Smoke on the Water,” ($20) which is made with local Catoctin Creek rye and Aperol, and comes with dry ice in a lantern for a bit of drama. If you’re in need of a drink as well as some words of affirmation, you can order the “Notes from Gordon,” ($18) which contains plymouth dry gin and a kind — yes, really — message from Ramsay himself.

It’s one of the ways the restaurant tries to make diners feel like they’re close to Ramsay and on the set of the show. “We’re not trying to recreate the wheel,” Wilson says. “We really want to stay true to the television show.”

But she says they also did research to fit Hell’s Kitchen’s menu to the local food scene, and they plan to use seasonal ingredients. Now that it’s winter, they’re making food a touch richer, leaning more into root vegetables and “low-and-slow” cooking, but the menu will lighten up in the spring and summer, she says. They’re planning a new menu now, and for example, it could include a dish with “cherry blossom vinaigrette” around D.C.’s beloved National Cherry Blossom Festival, Wilson says.

Even some of the menu’s familiar favorites won’t always be identical to what you recognize from the show — they’ve updated some of the plating and techniques for some of the dishes, Wilson says.

“But also we don’t want it to be too fussy,” she adds. While Hell’s Kitchen might be fine dining, she also wants it to be “fun dining.”

The D.C. location was an especially big project because it’s the first Hell’s Kitchen that Gordon Ramsay North America is owning and operating on its own. All of its other locations are in partnership with hotel and casino company Caesars Entertainment.

“To have this concept under our belt and in a city like D.C., it’s just high energy all day. I absolutely live for this kind of thing,” Wilson says.

Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen is located at at 652 Wharf St. SW and open daily for dinner from 5 p.m.-10 p.m., and until 11 p.m. on weekends. Reservations are recommended.