When you’ve eaten as much steak as I have, it takes a lot to achieve memorable, lasting impressions of a meal. QI delivered in spades. This was by far the best regular menu item steak I have ever had. I say “regular menu item” because, of course, when I dropped $94 on a 32oz wagyu rib eye at Del Frisco’s I got a better steak. But for $46??? Holy shitbags my friends… It’s $10 cheaper than most rival restaurants, and for that price you get the most delicious tomahawk style rib chop you will ever sink your teeth into. And it’s a nice big 28oz fucker to boot.
Juicy all the way through, from fat cap to bone. Perfectly cooked pink all the way through. Soft, tender meat even in the roast portion. The fat was delicious – not too oily or greasy, and all of it soft and edible. Seasoning was just right – not too salty to the point where you get the meat sweats afterward (hate that). Simply put: the thing is fucking fantastic. But not only is the steak incredible; everything else is too. My wife had the lemon chicken (pic below in “other meats” section); it was a generous portion size and really tender and juicy – even in the huge tit area (large breast) where things can tend to dry out. Apps, sides and desserts were some of the best I’ve ever had as well. Read on, assholes.
rib eye before and after
Choice of Cuts & Quality Available: 10
Everything is prime and aged, and they cover every type of cut possible. They even offer some steaks for two, and a bunch of different types of filets for assholes who eat filets. Every base is covered, and then some.
Portion Size & Plating: 10
The plating was amazing here, just like it was at their sister restaurants Quality Meats and Maloney & Porcelli (Smith & Wollensky not so much). Little touches like herbs for garnish, interesting little porcelain cups filled with coarse salt, mortar and pestle containers for the fresh sauces, and just the way the food was decorated as well – not just slapped on the plate but artfully done. Portion sizes were all very healthy – healthy meaning big – not healthy meaning pussy-sized small dishes for losers on diets. The tartare was the size of a big burger. The sunchokes were two potatoes worth. The pasta side was enough for two no problem. The steak was huge, and the chicken was, I think, a half chicken (thigh, drum, wing, tit, still articulated).
Price: 9
I was a little surprised that the bill only came to $175 and change. For what we had, I was expecting over $200. Everything is extremely fair in price, especially when you take into consideration the PRIME real estate they have. Right on 6th avenue, overlooking the street, and just below the park. Are you fucking kidding? And steaks are still under $50 each??? Wow.
William Price
Bar: 10
There are two bars to mention here. First you are met with a really nice little bistro style open air/semi-outdoor bar at the front door. Great place to hang out for some negroni on tap, or house made white peach bellinis (also on tap) and watch the people whiz by on their way home from work.
signage and outdoor bar area
Upstairs there is a big bar at the top of the steps. Nicely decorated, modern, sleek, but not pretentious. They make great drinks. My martini was perfect, and was garnished with the best olives (castelvetranos). My wife had a great drink called “the midtown,” which was made with bourbon, vermouth, sour cherry, orange peel, and burnt sugar. Nice ice cubes too for those who care (you know who you are).
half drunk martini and “the midtown”
Specials and Other Meats: 10
The waiter read off some delicious sounding off-menu specials, and highlighted a few featured menu items that were considered house specialties. One dish they have already become instantly famous for is the chicken parm. It is pounded flat onto a pizza dish and topped with sauce and cheese, then baked. It seriously looks like a pizza. I might have to go back to try this. Anyway they have all kinds of meat on tap here. Beef (of course), chicken, veal, pork, lamb. Everything is covered. One thing to note here – truffles on demand. What? Yes. You can have them come over and tick off a few shavings of truffles on anything your little heart desires (for a fee, of course). Fucking brilliant idea. Below is the lemon chicken dish I described above:
chicken alan
Apps, Sides & Desserts: 10
We started off with the steak tartare and the grilled octopus saltimbocca. Both were fucking incredible. I liked the tartare at Quality Meats better, but it was still really great here. Underneath the patty of chopped beef there was a little pool of mushroom aioli, which was really great when you folded it into the meat and mixed it all up (with a squeeze of lemon too). They even had some shaved cheese on top for a salty crunch. The octopus was perfect. They swapped garbanzos (chic peas) for the cannolinis. I think this is a common thing in Italian food culture, because whenever my mom ran out of cannolinis she used garbanzos for our pasta fagioli. Either bean is fine. Both are great.
tartare and octo
For sides we had sunchokes (a delicious cross between potato and artichoke, with an amazing little dipping aioli), and porterhouse filled agnolotti (little football shaped pasta dumplings/packages) with a brown butter sauce. Also amazing. They don’t offer creamed spinach here, but they did offer sautéed spinach. I was too excited for the sunchokes though, so I didn’t try it.
pasta and sunchokes
For dessert we shared a watermelon, lime, strawberry and basil sorbet. It was so fucking good. Very aromatic from the basil, and they even crystallized and sugarified some basil to sprinkle on top and garnish. Really interesting flavors.
sorbet
So many of the other desserts looked good too. It was so hard to choose. They even had a cannoli cart rolling around where you could have them make and fill cannolis for you with whatever flavors you want. This place takes steakhouse dining to a whole new level.
Seafood Selection: 8
Other than the octo, we didn’t have any seafood. They had some nice sounding fish entrees like grilled branzino, etc. And they offered 4 different types of oysters on special (Montauk, Rhode Island, and two west coasters), a nice seafood tower, and some interesting shrimp based pastas. Next trip I will have to delve deeper into the seafood menu.
Service: 10
John was hands down the best waiter I’ve ever had – even better than the young guy at Keen’s that I was so impressed with. I instantly felt like I had known John forever. He was warm, funny, very nice, natural, and extremely knowledgeable on the menu. He knew it in and out, and he knew just where to go and what to suggest when we had follow-up questions. The management was the same way – all very welcoming and friendly. I had the opportunity to meet a bunch of people on the floor. Scott, Roger, and Mike: thank you for making me feel like such a celebrity! My wife was beaming when we left – we had such a great time and you really made our special night memorable. I only wish we had a little more time to spare. We would have loved to take Roger up on his offer to hang out at the bar for a while and have some after dinner drinks. Hopefully next time! Other awesome things to mention in the service department: fresh hot garlic bread. Bread like that makes me wish I had 4 hands (One for each lump, just like how Benny wished he had 3 hands – one for each tit – in the movie Total Recall).
garlic bread
For larger tables, they have this bigger bread dish:
Also; Kate, the sauce specialist. She made the steak sauce table side, mixing up concoctions of raisin molasses puree, fresh tomato, oregano, and other herbs/spices. It was like watching a wizard make a potion. She stirred it up nice in a mortar and pestle, and boom – we had the most delicious and fresh steak sauce in town. We put it on everything we ate, and even took some home with us.
sauce making
Ambiance: 9
I love the simple, bare and elegant look here. They really made the best of the space. I think a few more booth type seats might be nice to add, but the concept here is a little more open anyway, so it might not fit right to have big private type booths jammed in there. The views out the windows are great. I didn’t expect to like a second floor dining room this much. The lighting was cool and interesting: glass balls held in a clamp or vice; very industrial, but not the meat-locker type of look that Quality Meats has. Even the shitter was nice, with its beautiful arched wooden doors. It smelled like the inside of a Yankee Candle store. You would never know that people shit and piss in there – very clean and pretty. For a second floor joint, tho splice is pretty dynamite.
dining room
the room where shitting happens
UPDATE
I came back about a year later and really put the hurt on some bone-in strip, filet, and chicken parm. Check out the pics. This place still holds up really well after a year.
Thank you Roger and Gaetano for putting up another amazing meal!
We started with an order of prosciutto, and also ricotta cheese with honey, pine nuts and pear. Really fucking simple and delicious.
Next came the chicken parm. Holy fuckbags, this is some blow-your-mind shit. They pound out and chop the chicken into the shape of a pizza and then cover it with sauce and cheese. It’s amazing.
They also offer a brunch version of this baby with eggs and bacon on top. Super tasty.
Speaking of brunch, carbonara pasta!!!
We ordered only the side of mushrooms, but the house sent out some kale carbonara and spaghetti squash too! All were amazing. The mushrooms were a blend of four different types; very earthy and fresh. The kale was really great. This dish beats creamed spinach any day.
I had the bone-in strip. Really juicy and perfectly cooked. I ate every bite like a fat bastard.
The filet stole the show though. My buddy got it with this dumpling that was filled with melted gorgonzola. Perfect!
I almost forgot – the house sent out a free bottle of wine too. WOW!
Some more food porn from a third visit. Man the shit is always on point at this joint.
Doughnuts:
Veal osso buco for two:
Pappardelle:
Porterhouse for two:
Mushrooms and peppers with the steak:
One night my wife and I came here and really just focused on the pasta. Here’s a shitty photo of the really great bucatini with clams (cockles):
The pasta was cooked perfectly and had a really amazing flavor, with a generous heaping of saffron sprinkled on top.
We had a side of artichoke mac and cheese. Really great texture from the bread crumbs on top, and gratuitous amounts of delicious artichoke brewing beneath the surface.
On special was a garganelli pasta (similar to a rigatoni or ziti shape) with pork shoulder and guanciale (cured pork jowls). So fucking good.
They really execute this stuff like no other place. I think my favorite pasta dishes all come from Quality Italian (like the pappardelle that you get with the veal shank, pictured above – fucking amazing).
That night we had the smores ice cream dessert. Burnt marshmallow flavored ice cream and a tart filled with brownie? Yes please!
The drink selection is always on point too. My wife ordered a tricolor margarita. Check out the ice cube, layered with different colored margarita ingredients, so that when it melts you’r just getting more margarita, instead of water:
And I was able to try some really nice beer that I’ve never seen before:
After this non-steak visit, I put this place into a tie with its sister restaurant, Quality Meats. They top the leaderboard right now.
UPDATE 2/20/16
This place is truly amazing. I inserted a few updated photos above, but here is a look at their “bone-in filet” – a really nice piece of tenderloin that’s still attached to the vertebra.
It was cooked very nicely and was super tender and juicy, yet retained a great charred flavor from the grill.
My wife tried the balsamic lacquered filet, which is service with a marrow bone filled with fried hazelnuts and marrow. Delicious as well, and cooked similarly perfect.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every cut of beef available here, and a few specials and steak alternatives as well. I can guarantee you will have a great meal here. My most recent waiter, Michael, and the manager Gaetano, really made us feel like royalty here. A few more shots of the incredible food here.
Corn brûlée:
Sauteed spinach:
Fries:
Assorted gelato: ferraro rocher, coffee and nuts, and blood orange creamsicle.
This place is pretty fucking legit. The burger was a slight bit over cooked, but it was tasty as all hell. I got a bacon cheeseburger deluxe with jalapeños.
My buddy got a fucking chicken salad, the damn quiff that he is… He claims that he had too many burgers and dogs recently. Whatever. At least it was a pretty big size.
The coolest thing about this place though is the $7 PBR 40oz. Boom.
The price came to $30/pp including tax and tip for everything: burger deluxe, salad, two 40s, and a Lagunitas. Not bad.
The interior is small but it gets the job done.
Cool thing is that we finished eating inside, then took the rest of our 40s outside to drink in the courtyard. Sweet.
Some more shots from a second visit are below. Burger still holds up as one of the greats. I kept it simple this time with a single cheeseburger.
My first day out shooting with my new camera brought my wife and I over to 9th Avenue, where we stopped in for lunch here at Bar Bacon. We had walked by a few times and were excited by the menu, so we finally gave it a shot.
We started with a flight of four 5oz beers and four types of bacon.
The beer & the bacon:
Left Hand milk stout paired with jalapeno bacon
Blue Moon paired with applewood smoked bacon
Empire amber ale paired with apple cider bacon
Six Point Sweet Action paired with pepper bacon
My wife had a bloody Mary that was pretty solid, garnished with a piece of thick cut bacon.
Next came the bacon banh mi sandwich. More like steamed pork buns as opposed to a Vietnamese sandwich. The two bites were tasty, but it was extremely small in portion size, and there was not much bacon in it. The BBQ flavored chips and coleslaw were great though.
Then we had the ever-increasing-in-popularity “pig wings” item that was covered with sri-racha BBQ sauce. These were good, but also small in portion size for the price. I like the pig wings over at Iron Bar a little better so far, but these held up nice.
Some atmosphere pics:
In sum: very yummy, but a bit over-priced and very small portions.
I am a big proponent of getting prime cuts when it makes sense. Generally speaking, the difference in quality is outstanding. However, you have to be careful. Don’t buy blind at the grocery store. Look at the photo below. Choice is $14.99/lb and prime is $21.99/lb. The up-charge is primarily for more and better marbling. But look with your own eyes. Does that boneless prime rib eye on top look any more marbled or better than the bone-in choice rib eye? In this case, I might buy the choice cut, even though the prime cut has a bigger Spinalis / fat cap.
Oh you wanted pictures? Are you kidding me? Look at the ingredients. Ask yourself: What would it look like? Probably very similar to what it’d look like in the toilet bowl. No pics this time, folks.
Actually… with the benefit of post-publish-editing, I can present to you an actual photo of this shit. Rod Budget, over at Hungry Dads, tried this recipe out. The Easy Cheese didn’t sit well with him, and he was not a fan of how the flavor of that product worked with the other items (despite his love and affection for Easy Cheese, mind you), but the combination of chips, coleslaw and bacon were a success, in his view.
This is just a quick and dirty review of Miss Lily’s jerk ramen. The verdict? Jerkworthy. Really fucking good. Take a look:
So what we have here is jerk chicken, pork belly, shoyu marinated ackee, egg and fermented scotch bonnet paste in a jerk broth. Jerk broth… Hehe…
Every element was fantastic. The chicken was flavorful and juicy. The pork was nice and fatty. The shoyu marinated ackee, which I had to google, is a fruit. However it was presented in such a way and with such interesting texture that I thought I was eating some kind of offal meat like kidney, fois gras or brains. It was freaking great! The egg was perfectly cooked. The scotch bonnet paste, I thought, could have used a bit more spice to it. I was expecting HOT. But if you need some spice, just add he “rass hot sauce” to your bowl and you’ll be good to go. The broth was really flavorful and hearty as is, but the sauce really punched it up.
We also had the coconut grilled jerk corn, which was really tasty – sweet and savory/spicy at the same time.
My wife is friends with Mark Hannon, who is the chef over at Ca Va. We came in initially to try out restaurant week, but Mark had something else in store for us. Something amazing.
Mark grew up with a chef for a dad, so it only seemed natural for him to follow in his footsteps. He spent some time running kitchens at some of Thailand’s nicest hotels, and he got close with Todd English over the course of about a decade of working for him. He married an Australian chef, and is now back here in NYC, where he was essentially given free reign over the contents of the Ca Va menu (aside from a few things that needed to stay on or be done a certain way). Since taking the helm at Ca Va in the last moth or so, reviews and diners’ reactions have changed in a significantly positive way. When you see what I have to say below you’ll understand why.
First we ordered a couple of cocktails that were really nicely prepared.
Then, before we knew it, this really cool stand of deviled eggs with caviar and winter truffle came out. It was delicious. Creamy, earthy – a perfect way to start the meal.
Next was escargot with fried sea beans, some interesting purees, stuffed snail shells and crisp ham. The crispy ham was a great way to add a little salt into the dish, and the snails were perfect – soft, tender, buttery.
Next was grilled octopus with cannelini beans, chorizo and dehydrated olive powder. We’ve been having a lot of grilled octopus lately, and this dish sits among the best of them. So tender and juicy. I cleaned this plate off so well it was shining like a mirror when I was done.
Next came kale salad with goat cheese mousse, fava beans, dehydrated prosciutto, radish and snow peas. The big star here was the potato chip-like dehydrated prosciutto. Instantly my mind was imagining bags upon bags of them being consumed while watching movies at home on the couch. Fucking delightful.
Then came a scallop dish. It was seared perfectly and garnished with a trail of mushroom dirt (mushroom, shallot, almond flour, dextrose, garlic) and truffles, topped with caviar, and sitting atop asparagus and braised pulled oxtail. Holy shit. This was insane! This represents the best scallop I’ve ever eaten. Mark blew it out of the water.
Next was, by far, the most interesting plate of food of the night and possibly of the year. Duck breast and seared fois gras with toasted marshmallows, chocolate sauce, peanuts, cinnamon, huckleberries and roasted kale sprouts. It was savory yet sweet, but not too sweet, which is what you might expect when you see the stuff listed above. Combining the elements with the duck really made for some taste bud-awakening flavors.
Oh yeah baby – here it comes. Aged New York strip with tangy mustard potato salad and bone marrow powder, drizzled with a bone marrow bordelaise. Let’s just say that the meat man went home a very happy dude. Perfectly cooked to medium rare, sliced and plated beautifully, TONS of flavor and juiciness.
The first dessert was a bread pudding. I have a pic of the ingredients here but I was embarrassed about whipping out the cell phone camera to shoot the plate because Mark was sitting and chatting with us as we ate this course. I would’ve felt like a d-bag sticking my camera in his food instead of just eating it. It was great. Lots of times the texture of bread pudding isn’t right. Either the soak doesn’t hit all the bread and you get some bricks in there, or you are really just eating it for the sauces and toppings. This bread pudding was different. I usually don’t like white chocolate but I loved every bite of it here. The bread pudding itself was very silky and smooth, with really nice texture.
Last came a little plate of cookies and chocolates. The cookies were great, made in-house. The chocolates were pretty good too, nice and rich, but not made in-house.
Jordan, our waiter, was really great. We made sure to give him a good tip seeing as though he had to deal with us for about three hours.
My wife has this really cool credit card from Chase called the Chase Preferred Sapphire Gold-Trimmed Special Sparkly Platinum Elite Card. Among other cool perks, it entitles her to get discounted, exclusive and advanced-entry/VIP-type tickets to things that regular people would not normally be able to get (for example, our tickets were cheaper and we were allowed in early at 7pm for this event).
One thing we’ve been privy to in the past was the Top Chef Masters Premiere Party. This season’s re-imagination of the Top Chef brand is called “Duels.” We had a lot of fun last time, and got to meet all the chefs, so grabbing hold of my wife’s perks this time too was a no-brainer. I love my wife’s perks.
Top Chef Duels is set up to be 10 one-on-one battles of the masters, where the chefs actually choose their own challenges for each other, and the dishes are then judged to see who is the winner. Cool concept. I like a good fight!
So they had the place set up with three major battle stations, featuring six of the chefs and the dishes they dueled with. The main station was Marcel Vigneron vs. Richard Blais.
The challenge: Lobster Roll.
The winner according to me: Marcel Vigneron’s “Open Face Knuckle Sandwich”
While I enjoyed Richard’s lobster roll, I felt like the filling itself was too watery, and yet the bread was dry. Go figure. I was really pulling for Richard too, because he was one of my favorite contestants to watch, and he’s a fellow Long Island native. It was still way better than any regular old lobster roll you may find in the northeast, but Marcel’s was just really nicely executed. I think the potato roll was a big plus, and the addition of pickled onion really made all the flavors pop.
Richard’s roll (Rick Roll?)
Marcel’s rolls
We wandered around a bit, taking in some free booze, when we stumbled upon the second battle station. The chefs featured here were Dale Talde, who I met at the Dynasty Project Casino Night event, and Tiffani Faison.
The challenge: Ribs
The winner according to me: Tiffani Faison’s “Spicy Sticky Thai Ribs”
Dale served up some Korean style short ribs, which I absolutely LOVE in general. However, he served them in lettuce cups as if they were de-boned and ready to pop in your mouth without any additional work. I took a bite and came right down on the bone. No worries though. Once I knew what was up, I put the lettuce cup down and used two hands to pull the meat off the bone.
If you have any familiarity with Korean style BBQ short ribs, you’ll know they are a very fatty (and sometimes gristled) cut of rib meat where the bones and meat are cut on the bias, so that you have cross-sections of bone connected to the surrounding meat. Often times you will get two or three circular rib bones per slice of meat. My first exposure to this was with my wife’s family. My wife isn’t Korean (she’s Vietnamese) but the style of BBQ and the actual cross-section cut of rib meat is popular in many Asian cuisines.
So anyway, Dale’s dish had just one bone circle with the surrounding meat attached, so I thought it was boneless when I picked up the lettuce cup, especially since the bone piece had toppings on it and was not readily visible in the dim lighting. In any case it was very tasty, but I think Tiffani nailed it with the layers of delicious sticky sauces she had going on her traditional style rib cuts. She even sprinkled some fried shallots on top to add some crunch and texture. All the familiar Southeast Asian flavors were there. This was a perfect rib in every way.
Dale’s ribs
Tiffani’s rib
Ribs cooking
The last station was Kevin Gillespie vs. Art Smith. I saved this for last because I think the winning dish here was probably the best of the night.
The challenge: Fried Chicken.
The winner according to me: Kevin Gillespie’s “Closed On Sunday” Chicken Sandwich.
One thing I appreciated about Art’s dish was that it was a nice, full piece of fried chicken on the bone, readily identifiable as such, like Tiffani’s rib (and unlike Dale’s). In typical southern style, Art’s dish contained a hint of maple syrup to throw your taste buds back into breakfast mode. It was good! But Kevin’s sangwitch was masterfully created. He was working like a powerhouse all night, didn’t mix and mingle too much. He just kept right on working his station. Amazing. And his passion for cooking shines through his food, because that chicken slider was one of the best poultry-based dishes I’ve ever eaten. People were going up for seconds and thirds. Even Top Chef alumnus CJ Jacobson asked me to run and grab him one while he was stuck in the cattle pen pretending to be interested in talking to, and taking pictures with, obsessed fans. I earned a solid fist bump from that human beanstalk for being his sandwich bitch.
Anyway back to this fucking juicy, delicious sandwich… I mean let’s be honest here: it doesn’t look like much. But the taste… Holy fuck. Look at the list of flavors you’re getting!
Art’s chicken
Kevin’s sandwiches
Okay so that’s it for the battle food. The passed hors were nice too, but I didn’t shoot pics of them and I don’t remember all the details about them. They weren’t prepared by the chefs (they were catered or made in house). One notable item was the mini-mac – a miniature McDonald’s-esque Big Mac in slider form, donning the special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickle, and even stacked two-high on tiny sesame seed double buns. It was everything you love that’s delicious about the McDonald’s version, except for the ammonia bath and fake-ass, grade-F beef.
And last but not least, here are some other pics from the night, mostly me or my wife with other chefs, and various famous and quasi-famous people from the TV food world. Enjoy!
TiffaniArtRichard & Antonia LofasoThe Cake Dealer & Takashi YagahashiDavid Burke & AntoniaGail Simmons & Curtis Stone posing with fansMe, Curtis & The Cake DealerShirley Chung & The Cake DealerCJ Jacobson & The Cake DealerKevin hard at workArt & usRichard & The Cake DealerMaster Chef Season 2 Alumnus Derrick Prince & meMe & KevinMe eating Tiffani’s rib
Okay so listen up. I saw this awesome photo on Chef David Burke’s Instagram feed. I showed my wife and we immediately decided that we needed to go.
We made a reservation for an hour or two later, psyched as all hell to dig into that incredible looking hunk of beef.
When we sat, the waiter brought out a little shot of strained cold gazpacho; tomato with melon. Very refreshing.
I had the “rabbit hunter” cocktail: bourbon, lime, ginger beer and mint. It was good; like a bourbon mojito.
My wife had the “antica Manhattan,” which was made with buffalo trace bourbon, antica carpano, maple syrup, bitters and brandied cherry. It was excellent, except for the fact that later on during the meal we found a gnat floating belly up in it. Doh!
We started with a pair of apps. First was the “skin and bones,” which was essentially chicken liver pate sandwiched between two pieces of crispy chicken skin, and served with chicken dumplings drizzled with vindaloo sauce. The cool thing about these dumplings was that they were “bone-in.” The chicken bones were little handles to grab the dumplings. Observe:
Next was octopus tacos (can we call them tactos?) with guacamole, chipotle sauce and salsa. These were excellent. The octopus was nice and charred but tender inside, and the sauces were great. Maybe a few jalapeno slices or some lettuce would have made this dish perfect.
We ordered a side of chic pea fries to go with our steak too. These were interesting. Crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside. The dipping sauce was more of the chipotle cream from the tacos.
So now for the big fucker. The Bronx filet for two, with bone marrow. The presentation is gorgeous, isn’t it?
Even that first slice up front. Looks delectable, no? Hmm… Maybe just a little too much grey on the edges?
Oh FUCK. After that first, nice looking piece, it looks like whoever sliced this puppy was trying to hide the incredibly overcooked portions!
I kid about the hiding. But, yeah… It turns out that the rest of the steak was really well done. We ordered it medium rare. I guess with these big hunks, lots of chefs have trouble getting an even cook across the meat. The bone still had blood on it. It certainly was an awkward size and shape. What a shame. When it’s done properly it is probably an incredible meal.
When the waiter came around to ask how everything was, I mentioned that it tasted good but that it was severely overcooked. He grabbed a manager and she agreed, though she relayed what the chef said, which was that the edges are over but the middle is okay. Unfortunately that just wasn’t the case. There were about 3 or 4 bites of medium rare combined from all slices, and the rest was hockey puck. The manager generously offered to have the chef fire up another for us, which would be ready in 25 minutes, but we declined because we had to get back home to field some interview calls for a New York Times story that is being written up about the two of us. The steak normally takes 40 minutes to cook, and we were already pushing it on time. So we put on our big-boy pants and ate the dry, grey meat as best as we could. It was still yummy, but really dry and over done. I imagine it to be a great item when properly cooked. 5/10.
The manager was kind enough to send out some free desserts for us, and we were not charged for the overcooked steak. For dessert we had the “Burke-n-bag.” This one is great for photo ops. It is essentially a really amazing candy bar dolled up to look like a purse, and served with a little scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.
We also had the frozen yogurt banana split. This was pretty good. The fro-yo was actually delicious, and the pink stuff you see is the sauce that was poured over and then hardened into a shell. Magic Shell!?! Total blast from the past. The banana was just so-so; maybe a little under-ripe. The brownies weren’t really needed, I don’t think.
Last are the cheese cake pops with bubble gum whipped cream. I wasn’t a big fan of these, but I can see how someone could love them. When it comes to all-things cheesecake, nothing can compare to my sister’s cheesecake. MY sister’s cheesecake is so good that it’ll make you want to murder YOUR sister.
So anyway – moral of the story is this: beautiful pics of food can be deceiving. Also the table next door had a wrong item taken to them. Red snapper instead of tuna. So maybe this place was just having a bad night. Our steak was ruined, there was a gnat in my wife’s drink and the table next door had the wrong item delivered to them that apparently no one at any other table had ordered. Ehh, whatever. We all know David Burke is an amazing chef. It’s just too bad he wasn’t actually there cooking for us this evening.
FABRICK
Archer Hotel New York
47 W. 38th St.
New York, NY 10018
