Here's my Clint Eastwood review, The Good, The Bad, and The Disappointing…read more
The Good
Location, not on SPID and all that congestion. Located on Spohn right off of S Staples, really nice location. This place is huge, with a giant bar, where we like to sit and dine, with an adjacent raw/Sushi bar, very nice. The bar offers a huge selection of adult beverage makings. We were celebrating our 39th anniversary, so a restaurant of this caliber is certainly appropriate. The drinks, a Tanqueray Martini with an Orange twist for her and a Manhattan straight up with four roses bourbon for me, were perfectly sized and delicious. The restaurant boasts a large freestanding humidor with a nice selection of cigars. I also noticed a wall of personal humidor lockers for customers to keep their personal cigars available. This all suggested a cigar room, but I never saw it.
The wait staff, were mostly attentive. Instead of depending on your bartenders to deliver food, I'm more accustomed to restaurants, of this caliber, to have a dedicated wait staff for bar dining patrons. Especially considering they have a large number of high top tables for dining in the bar. Friday nights, like when we were there, get pretty hectic for the bartenders. For our second drink the bartender made mistakes on both our drinks, my wife's Martini came with Olives,(I liked them) instead of the twist of orange. My Manhattan came with her twist of orange instead of the usual Luxardo cherry. Perhaps if the bartenders just bartended they wouldn't make simple mistakes. . They were very nice and brought me a shot glass with several Luxardo cherries in it. Thank you Ladies!
The food.
We started with appetizers. My wife got their escargot that were traditionally prepared in an escargot serving dish rich with butter, garlic and a hint of citrus. They were delicious, albeit small. My wife was happy with them. I got their Crispy Calamari Atop Stir Fried Carrots, Green Onions & Cashews with a Kung Pao Sauce. This dish, for us, was the hit of the night. The calamari, instead of the rings so commonly served, were calamari strips. They were perfectly fried and the combination of the calamari, the vegetables and that kung pao sauce was absolutely mouth watering. If you like calamari I highly recommend this dish. You won't be disappointed.
Entrees. My wife got their escargot Greek style rack of Lamb with spinach. The Lamb was perfectly seasoned and served medium-rare. It was absolutely delicious. If you like Lamb this is a great dish, oh and the chops were huge!
The Bad. Nothing to see here.
The Disappointing.
I ordered the USDA Prime Ribeye with Citrus-Braised Baby Carrots & Whipped Potatoes and a Dijon Herbal Butter. I order my steaks cooked medium-rare "Pittsburgh style". First, everyone knows what a ribeye steak looks like, it has that very distinctive shape, you can't miss it. If what they served me was a ribeye, then I'm the true Bad Bunny! When the entrees were delivered they didn't give us steak knives, we had to ask for them. Now maybe they were that confident in the tenderness of the meat that they didn't feel we needed steak knives. Or maybe, just maybe, they should be tending bar instead of delivering food.
Second the menu clearly states USDA Prime Ribeye. I know what that is, and what was served me wasn't that. As I stated I order my steaks "Pittsburg style". What that means is the steak is first cooked to an internal temperature that is 5 to 10° short of medium-rare. The steak is then immersed in either melted butter or tallow and then immediately thrown on a very hot grill. This causes the grill to engulf the steak in flames charring the outside of the steak and raising the internal temperature to medium-rare. I do it all the time on my backyard grill. While my steak did have some charring, it wasn't Pittsburg style.
Conclusions.
Would we go back? Absolutely if for nothing else to get that crispy calamari.
Would I order the steak again? Not without getting some assurances that I get a Rib Eye and they know how to cook it Pittsburg style.
I guess, in the end, this has all the potential to be a high-end steakhouse, for our visit I felt they didn't meet that expectation.