Category Archives: Non-Steakhouse Steaks

Latin/Mexican & Caribbean, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, NY Strip, Restaurant Reviews

Corima

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First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

 

My wife and I came here for a quick meal and really enjoyed everything we tried. She had been here soon after they opened for a quick meal at the bar. Now, Corima was awarded a Michelin star and even has a fancy tasting menu. We opted for an a la carte meal, and I’m glad we did. Let me get into it.

We started with two recommendations from the waiter, Francisco, who was AWESOME, by the way…

The first recommendation: Their sourdough flour tortilla. This is CRACK.

It comes with a sort of mole butter, too. I could eat pounds of this stuff. When you go here, do not skip this. I’m not kidding. It doesn’t seem like much, and it’s hard to describe, but this is fantastic.

The second recommendation: Their Beef Cecina Tlayuda. This was essentially like a beef carpaccio on a crispy tortilla. Raw thinly sliced beef on top, lots of flavor packed underneath with alliums and such. This was my favorite dish of the night.

Next up was an absolutely perfectly cooked hamachi collar. It came with a spicy aioli, but the fish was so beautifully cooked and seasoned that it wasn’t necessary.

After that was another seafood item: The spicy surf clam toast with Chinese sausage and super thin sliced tomato. The toast was sourdough. This reminded me of a panzanella.

The duck enmolada was super unique. Think of this like an enchilada, but with a mole sauce instead of a chili-based sauce. Despite this being our least favorite dish of the night, we still vvery much enjoyed it. Literally nothing was left on any of our savory plates.

For our final savory course, we had the 120-day dry aged NY strip steak. This was about 6oz, pre-sliced, perfectly cooked to medium rare and topped with a veal brain Bearnaise sauce! Served with it were some jus roasted white asparagus spears grilled kolrabi cabbage. This was a 9/10. So good.

We ordered one dessert but they sent out all three! Incredible service here. We ordered the chocoflan, thinking it would be flan. It turns out it was more like a brownie topped with whipped cream and ice cream. It was delicious. Unexpected, but delicious. This was my wife’s favorite.

The rhubarb tres leches cake was served with a hibiscus sorbet. It was so light and flavorful. What a treat.

My favorite dessert was the mango granita sorbet with spicy tamarind chamoy and candied sakura leaf. So unique. Spicy and tart, with a bit of sweetness in there to round it out. And doesn’t the plating look kinda like Plankton from Spongebob?

I will definitely be back here for more. What an incredible meal. Put this place on your short list!

CORIMA
3 Allen Street
New York, NY 10002

Flash Deals, French, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, NY Strip, Restaurant Reviews

Le Jardin Bistro

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My wife scored a heavily discounted Groupon for Le Jardin Bistro so we gave it a shot. The deal came with two cocktails, two apps, and two entrees, with just one or two block outs that were understandable (a $26 foie gras app was one). Here’s what we got:

Apps: Escargots and steak tartare. Both great, and easily can hang with some of the big boy French spots that are super popular and expensive in other neighborhoods.

Entrees: Steak frites and rack of lamb. The lamb was the winner here, and nicely composed with tomatoes, cheese mashed/baked potato, and carrots. The steak was about a 6/10. A little tough, a little thin, and technically not a shell steak (a shell should have bone on two sides – this was boneless).

We added on some desserts: apple pie and strawberry tart. Both were good.

I would definitely come back to try their burger and mussels.

LE JARDIN BISTRO
95 Delancey Street
New York, NY 10002

Chinese, Fusion, Japanese, Korean, Midtown West, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Restaurant Reviews, Thai, Vietnamese

SEA by Jungsik

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This place is a sister restaurant to the Michelin-starred Jungsik restaurant. We went big here, so I’m going to make it quick. Check this out:

First off, the oysters here are probably the best I’ve ever had. I think that has to do with the jalapeno and cilantro granita (ice), and their version of a mignonette.

I also really enjoyed their steak tartare.

The prawn rolls, sticky rice sausage, and fried eggs were great too, but my focus on a re-visit might be on the other stuff above.

The stars of the show were the short rib special and the crispy pork belly.

I would get these every time I visit. The pork belly was the best version of this dish I’ve ever had. The fat was completely rendered and soft, the meat extremely tender (no stringy bits), and the skin was nice and crisp without being too hard and hurting your teeth/mouth.

The crab fried rice was a bit fishy, but beautiful nonetheless. It went nicely with the curry, actually.

The soft serve dessert sundae was a great way to end the meal.

I will definitely be back here again. I highly recommend it.

SEA BY JUNGSIK
151 W 30th Street
New York, NY 10001

American, Lower East Side/Chinatown, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Restaurant Reviews

Bufon

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Bufon is a new meat and seafood focused joint in the lower east side. My wife and I tried five items from a menu that we really wanted to ravage. We definitely plan to go back to try more items.

Sunchoke

This was fantastic. Really nice, fresh and mildly starchy.

Halibut

The sauce on this was crack. It was some sort of buerre blanc with bottarga.

Pork Chop

Delicious. Served with butter beans and chopped up Chinese sausage. Super unique.

Picanha

Roasted to perfection. The fat was delicious as well. Scored and rendered to become a beef gelatin of sorts. Skip the vinegar based Creole salsa and get the au poivre for a more classic Sunday roast feel. 9/10.

Crispy Confit Potato

I didn’t expect a fancy hash brown, but it was really good.

No dessert was offered yet. They literally just opened. Interior decor still a work in progress, and the windows still needed to be cleaned!

BUFON
78 Rivington Street
New York NY 10002

American, Midtown East, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye

Seafire Grill

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I hit Seafire Grill with some buddies from high school. While this can technically fit into the steakhouse review format, I decided to keep it quick and easy, since the thrust of the menu here is seafood.

Speaking of seafood, we had a nice selection of raw east and west coast oysters to start, along with grilled calamari and Spanish octopus.

Of course I had steak for my main course. This was a nice 8/10. Rib eye, dry-aged on sight.

Nice seared tuna entree.

The sides were all good. We did creamed spinach, truffle mashed potatoes, and caulilini. For dessert, pecan pie and apple strudel.

They also mix a good martini at the bar.

SEAFIRE GRILL
158 E 48th St.
New York, NY 10017

Lower East Side/Chinatown, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye

Balvanera

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Balvanera is an Argentine wine bar and steak-focused restaurant. We went with another couple, so we were able to try a bunch of stuff.

We started with four small plates:

Octopus

Roasted Beets

Blood Sausage

Burrata & Squash

All of these were really great, but I think we all sort of agreed that the octopus was the best, with the blood sausage either close behind or tied. Really great flavors on this stuff. The blood sausage had none of that grainy, irony, gamey flavor that you sometimes get with low quality or overcooked blood sausage. It had a sticky sweetness to it that was hard to describe. The octopus was so incredibly tender, and the Romesco sauce was killer.

We went with the 25oz, 28-day, dry-aged rib eye for our main course ($120).

This was cooked to a perfect medium rare, but it lacked a little bit of that dry-aged flavor. It was present mostly around the edges and along the bone. But that didn’t matter, because the flavor was so great. This is a solid 8/10 steak, potentially bordering on 9/10 if the aged flavor bumps up on future visits (definitely going back).

For dessert, we did a chocolate tart and flan. Both of these were pretty nice, but I think next time I will focus more on the small plates in the savory department instead of the sweet stuff.

BALVANERA
152 Stanton St
New York, NY 10002

Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye, Thai, Tribeca

Teakwood Thai Chophouse

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First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

My buddy told me about this place, and it looked so good that I needed to try it ASAP. We started with some nice cocktails and moved onto a trio of starters:

Stir Fried Manila Clams

Crispy Pork Jowl

Petite Filet Steak Tartare

These were all fantastic and unique. I think the tartare might have been my favorite, or perhaps dragging the pork jowl through the sauce that came with the clams. So delicious.

For entrees, we tried another trio:

Pad Kua Taley

Pan Roasted Pork Chop

Dry-Aged Rib Eye

These were great too, but a few slight criticisms: First, the noodles were excellent but the squid was a little bit overcooked. This was a delicious dish featuring wide/flat noodles and shrimp, squid, crabmeat, Asian celery, scallion, and sesame oil in a roasted chili sauce. Second, the pork chop was a little bit dry due to being overcooked. Thankfully, the salted chili lime sauce that it came with added that moisture and flavor back into it beautifully.

The steak is a great deal at $68 for 24oz of dry-aged beef on the bone. If I had to guess, this was choice grade. The roasted garlic with tomato, tamarind and dill flavors really help bring out its dry-aged characteristics. Bravo. 9/10.

For dessert, we had some more cocktails and a unique sweet and sticky rice dish that was topped with pumpkin custard.

I was reluctant to put this restaurant into my standard steakhouse review format with 100 points spread across ten categories. I think it would have made for an abnormally low score due to the structure of the review. But this place hits top marks for their bar and decor, with an inviting, bright, wide open and airy space. The flavors are so unique and new for the application into a chop house. The staff are all super friendly, helpful, knowledgeable and attentive. I really enjoyed this meal, and I can’t wait to go back to try the two other cuts of steak on the menu (strip and skirt), and perhaps some of the large format fish dishes as well.

TEAKWOOD THAI CHOPHOUSE
345 Greenwich, St.
New York, NY 10013

Lower East Side/Chinatown, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Other Cuts, Restaurant Reviews, Spanish

Bar Oliver

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First, check out my Ride & Review video HERE:

Bar Oliver is a small Spanish style tapas and pintxos joint at the intersection of Oliver, St. James, East Broadway, Bowery and Worth downtown.

My wife and I stopped in for drinks when they first opened, but now that the menu is fully built out, we wanted to go in and try some food.

We started with the Montauk red shrimp pintxos. These were tasty little bites. Expensive at $18 for two, but that’s the way of live here now I guess.

Next up, the mushrooms. These come with a beautiful egg yolk on top to break and mix in. Loved this dish.

We also tried the skate cheeks. These were served in a nice bright tomato sauce and ate more like a soup than I had expected. There were three to four good sized fish cheeks in there.

We contemplated getting a larger format rib eye, but instead we went with the wagyu hanger steak, which comes with fries and is served atop a really nice piquillo pepper sauce.

The steak was perfectly cooked, but it was a bit small for my liking. I’d say around 6oz. But at $39 it isn’t a bad deal. I give this a, 9/10. Perfectly cooked, nicely seasoned, great flavor and texture.

For dessert we did the Spanish cheesecake. To me, it ate more like a standard cheesecake. Still good though.

I would definitely go back to try more items. Especially the larger steaks. They had a good selection of local beef and domestic wagyu cross breed, all dry aged.

BAR OLIVER
1 Oliver St
New York, NY 10038

Italian, Nolita/Soho, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, Parms, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye

Sartiano’s

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First, watch my Ride & Review video HERE:

I went to Sartiano’s with four of my law school buddies after a round or two of drinks at Zero Bond, so we were able to try a lot of stuff.

I apologize for the lack of quality images. I really just shot video here, so as to minimize my use of the light. All the pics below are screen grabs from my video.

The caviar cannoli were delicious bites of savory goodness. They’re pricey, but when you’re going big with a meal like Sartiano’s, you get these! As a matter of fact, these were on the house thanks to my friend being a regular here.

The steak tartare was one of the best I’ve had in a while. There were some crispy sunchokes on top that really made this dish pop!

The fried calamari was almost fried in like a tempura batter, and it came with fried slices of zucchini and squash. I really loved this. perfectly seasoned!

The baked clams are fantastic here. I highly recommend those as well. We grabbed two orders, that way everyone got a few. I actually forgot to mention these in the Ride & Review.

Even the Caesar salad was great. It’s served in layers; almost like a salad lasagna.

The tomahawk was pricey, but it was a solid 8/10 in terms of flavor. The aged flavor was mild, but they do dry-age meats on the premises. It was really nicely cooked (clearly grilled and not seared or broiled)), and adorned with delicious roasted garlic and herbs.

A real beauty.

The veal parm was excellent. This stole the show for us. It rivals Carbone, Ballato and all the other greats in the area. Perfectly crisp with some nice melty mozz and grated parm on tip.

We had some roasted carrots and smash-fried fingerling potatoes to go with the mains, but we also threw down on some pasta as well.

We even had some meatballs on the side, not realizing that we would be getting some more with the “Sunday Sauce.”

The “Sunday Sauce” has a serving of baked ziti (tubes arranged vertically in the dish for extra presentation points) along with a heaping bowl of tomato sauce with slow cooked short rib, sausage, and more meatballs within. Awesome.

We also tried the green cavatelli with Jonah crab, which was really nice and fresh. I wish I had the stomach space to eat more of this.

For dessert, we had some chocolate ice cream for my boring-ass friend Paul, and tiramisu. Both were great.

All in, this was a fantastic meal. I can definitely understand the hype for this place. If you can get a table, do it! Personally, I would love to go again if I could.

SARTIANO’S
99 Prince St.
New York, NY 10012

American, Filet Mignon, Nolita/Soho, Non-Steakhouse Steaks, NY Strip, Restaurant Reviews, Rib Eye

The Corner Store

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The Corner Store is a new bistro type American restaurant over on West Broadway and Houston.

Check out my Ride & Review video HERE first:

I contemplated reviewing this in my steakhouse template, with ten categories of ten points each, but it seems like the website calls this place a restaurant as opposed to a steakhouse. I think we are on the borderline, for sure. In any case, let’s get started…

For the appetizers, we went with fries and horseradish aioli, madai crudo and grilled artichokes.

These are all great but the fries took the cake. They’re an absolute must. It may seem like a waste to get one of the sauces, but the horseradish aioli will work well with your steak later on, so it’s not a bad deal to grab one. The madai was really fresh and bright, and had some added meatiness and texture from the sliced caperberries in the garnish. Great touch! The grilled artichokes really popped because of the mint on there. I haven’t ever had that combination of flavors before. I like it!

These little lobster and caviar rolls are delicious, but they’re $20ea.

On a second visit, we started with the wagyu French dip, which is probably the best item I’ve eaten here.

We also had the tuna tartare on another visit. This was perfect.

For our mains, we did the chicken paillard and the bone-in dry-aged strip steak. Both were incredible. The steak was perfectly cooked to medium rare and sported a mild aged flavor. I would definitely get this again. I give it a score of 9/10.

On a second visit, the dry-aged rib eye (boneless) pulled in with the same score. We also tried the 4oz Margaret River wagyu strip (boneless). Another 9/10.

On a third visit, another 9/10 for the filet.

The chicken was pounded super thin and almost had a potato chip crust on the top side. It comes with a really nice salad that had a good amount of acid in it. This was actually nice to cut the fat of the steak between bites.

For dessert, we had their apple pie with vanilla spice ice cream, and their Samoa cookie sundae. The apple pie was absolutely perfect, and it came with a little container of ice cream that reminded me of the kind you used to get from the ice cream truck, with the little paper tab on the top!

On a second visit, the little tub of ice cream was gone, but a nice raised glass was filled with a nicer ice cream. We also tried the Szechuan peppercorn -seasoned melon, which was nice.

That pie was probably the best dessert I’ve had in years. The sundae was good – a nice soft serve ice cream was under there – but over all there was a little bit too much salt content that took away from the Samoa flavors.

This place is definitely worth visiting again. I can’t wait to try more of their menu!

THE CORNER STORE
475 West Broadway
New York, NY 10012