Being the man of my word which I pride myself in being, I finally got around to giving this place a try. Better late than never! Business entertaining a client and he asked if I knew this place, told him I’ve been meaning to try it for awhile so off we were. Funny seeing my last post in this thread was Oct. 16 and I was complaining about Shipwreck, my feelings regarding them have remained the same.
Unfortunately / fortunately (depending on your perspective) Prime 13 is a BYOB, which is really the reason it took me so long to give it a try. We arrived 6:45pm on a Tuesday night without reservations, surprisingly the place was fairly busy, probably 70-80% full. Thankfully they had a nice 4 top in the corner that offered us plenty of room. We were greeted by the server, a nice albeit “young” woman, we were given water and two pretzel rolls, and our wine was opened. Pretzel rolls were good, they were served with some mustard dipping sauce which I didn’t really care for, would have just preferred butter.
Looking the menu over I did notice none of their steaks (maybe one) of their steaks are actually Prime grade. They are all C.A.B and only their tomahawk ribeye is listed as aged. (again its not prime) Their prices @ $ 97. for porterhouse for 2, are prime aged NYC prices. I’ll be honest the menu really concerned me, I was preparing for a disappointment.
We ordered:
Apps: bacon and raw seafood platter for 2
Entree: Porterhouse for 2 medium rare, side broccoli rabe
When I inquired about how many slices of bacon come with the order the waitress said 2 slices so we placed one order to share. When the bacon came there was actually 3 half slices, so 1 & 1/2 actual slices of bacon. Odd. It also came with some balsalmic reduced onions which were a tasty garnishment. Bacon was a bit over cooked and dry.
The seafood tower at $ 14pp was very good. Only two shrimp, they were jumbo and very good. Oysters were fresh (we subbed the raw clams for oysters so the order had 8 total oysters) and the crab meat was fresh. A decent portion vs. price. The “home-made” cocktail sauce was very weak, I requested extra horseradish and there was a “mystery” sauce served with the platter that just seemed to be tobasco, even the waitress was a bit unsure on what it was.
Although we were served two appetizers we were NOT served any plates. We had to use our bread plates for the app’s and after eating the bacon and onions first we had to request clean side plates for the seafood. As I said the sauces with the seafood were weak.
The steaks came with a house salad which is a typical mixed greens house salad dressed in a vinaigrette dressing. Adequate.
The poterhouse was served cut off the bone and it was a nice sized cut. It is served on a somewhat sizzling plate, in it’s own juices!!! ((BRAVO-BRAVO!!!)) I’m not a fan of the “resting” steak method of serving steaks and they come to the table bone dry, no juices. I’m a Lugers fan, give me butter bath and juices baby. I didn’t taste butter on this one but I was glad to have it’s juices to savor. All in all the steak was VERY GOOD for non-prime, non aged. It lacked that nutty woody flavor typical of an aged steak, but it was still very good. The bernaise sauce I’m assuming home made was excellent as was the side order of broccoli rabe.
The steak is served with room temperature plates, I would prefer a warmed pate.
The place is fairly casual for the price point. It has an open kitchen with a counter top style seating in front of it, I’m not sure if you have to reserve those seats or not, nobody was seated at them during my visit. Overall I have very mixed feelings on the place, it’s pricey especially for the quality (or lack there of) the steak they are serving, they are charging prime aged prices but not serving that product. The CAB steak was excellent, but as I said I’m torn. The service was particularly poor, the waitress didn’t seem to be over 20 years old and her service would be adequate for Outback, not somewhere serving $97 steaks. Additionally there was no floor manager, no body other than the server checked on us. The bus boys are kids and they are clueless, when there are still two un-eaten oysters and several pieces of uneaten crab on a plate, don’t ask if we are still “working” on that. Missing utensils, frequent requests for water or ice etc. made the “dining - experience” less than desirable.
Dinner for two for the above $ 167. w tax no tip.
Bottom line:
Would I return? Yes, I certainly would. Especially still holding the grudge against Shipwreck (oddly the owner of which just recently friended me on facebook out of nowhere. lol ) I would go back, I would try some of their other steaks, now knowing what I"m in for.
Certainly worth a trip for you to draw your own conclusions, just don’t expect a formal dining experience.
