Well, last night was kind of a mixed bag. The space is very nice, definitely not your standard-issue dark wood paneling steakhouse. I can see how the long tables in the center would be great for a big party! We were seated at one of the round tables along the side, which was just a little awkward for intimate conversation, but comfortable enough. Service was good, although our waiter was a bit obsequious for my taste - a few too many bill-padding recommendations and a few too many ill-timed inquiries about whether everything was good (he must have caught me with my mouth full 4 or 5 times).
As for the food and drink, I was pleased with some aspects and disappointed in others. The drink menu/beer/wine list did not impress. Aside from a few classic cocktails like a Manhattan, Collins, etc., the rest of their cocktails were syrup and flavored vodka concoctions - it made me think that their core clientele must be 20-something sorority girls. The Manhattan I ordered was fine, but I was hoping for a more interesting/creative list (they do have their cocktail menu online, so mea culpa - I should have looked beforehand instead of having expectations of grandeur). The wine list was HIDEOUSLY overpriced. I’m used to a 3-4x markup, but I was seeing bottles that I buy at the supermarket for less than $10 marked up to $55-60. Also, almost the entire “by the glass” list was Coppola, which isn’t bad wine, but I don’t care to pay $14 a glass for it. I had a second Manhattan instead. DH stuck with beer despite the lackluster selection and small pours.
They started the food off on the wrong foot with a basket of stale rolls. We don’t eat much bread anyway and certainly don’t expect anything special in the bread basket at a steakhouse, but stale rolls are really inexcusable. We had a slice of bacon each, each ordered a ribeye (mine medium rare, his rare) and creamed spinach and sauteed broccoli. The bacon was excellent, thick and tender with just the right amount of chew, nicely seasoned. The waiter recommended their steak sauce with it and it was a good combo - I would never put such a sauce on a steak, but with the pork it was good, more or less a tangy BBQ sauce with some warm (nutmeggy?) spices. Broccoli was fine but the creamed spinach wasn’t actually creamed! It was a bright green puree of spinach, not a hint of cream to be seen or tasted. It tasted fine but not like creamed spinach, and the texture was basically baby food.
Steaks were not up to snuff, though, IMO. The meat wasn’t especially well-marbled and didn’t have the dry-aged funk or texture I was hoping for. Mine was also cooked closer to medium - grey edges and light pink middle near the bone, with the outer edge/deckle cooked to a solid medium. I expect a ribeye to be cooked more at the edge than at the bone, but IMO it was overcooked, although not enough for me to complain or send it back. However, when a manager (or maybe owner - my husband was embarrassed enough by my critique so I didn’t ask) stopped by to ask how it was, I showed him my steak and mentioned that I ordered medium rare and asked if that was how medium rare is meant to look at this particular restaurant, because I know each steakhouse does it a little differently but by my reckoning it was a bit over. Instead of owning it, he gave me a song and dance about how their burners are at 18000 BTUs, which causes it to cook one way, and the steak is thinner on one side, yada yada. I basically stopped listening after he tried to convince me that 18000 BTUs has anything to do with how a steak is cooked (or that it’s a strong flame, my stove at home has an 18000 BTU burner!). The one saving grace was that the more-cooked steak had a lot of delicious crispy bits around the bone and exterior, which my husband’s less-cooked steak was lacking.
Anyway, we passed on dessert, so here ends the review. It wasn’t a terrible dinner by any stretch and if I wanted to take people to a steakhouse with a non-traditional ambiance, I could see this being a decent option, especially if said people weren’t major steak snobs. I doubt very much that DH and I would return, though, especially given that my question regarding the steak temp was sidestepped. Too many other places to try to give this one a second chance!
I would have done the porterhouse but my husband prefers ribeye, so when its just the two of us we generally get our own steaks rather than sharing the porterhouse for two.