Been going to D'Carlos for 32 years for the Prime Rib. Treated myself after the Pandemic when they were up and running again, to a full cut of it. Service is still great. Blue Cheese Salad dressing (homemade) is still awesome. But the meat? Someone gave Chef a new toy, a sous vide bath, and he used it on the prime rib. Sous vide is wonderful, especially for poultry, pork and fish, but beef, like prime rib, rib eye, etc. should only ever be grilled. Sure, the meat comes out in a beautiful uniform pink from edge to edge and looks delicious, but the different method for thermal leaves the muscle fibers texture the consistency of smoked meat-great for BBQ sandwiches. Prime Rib loses it's juiciness and isn't supposed to be developings flakes (see pictures). The only beef that should enter a bath is a less tender cut like chuck steak which is then used in a stew or other similar dish.
I haven't been back to D'Carlos since, til tonight. I was jonesing for prime rib, and too far away from Jimmy's Restaurant off of Mission Gorge (prime rib there is to die for and humongous portions of everything on the plate). I visited Ramona's Barn (no prime rib) and Up The Hill Grill (prime rib sammies only), so I finally went to D'Carlos. I asked waitress if she could check with chef that the prime rib was not sous vide. She said he offered to make Delmonico style for me, so I ordered the large cut. I should have realized immediately it was still sous vide, when the meat plate came out in about 7 minutes. Anyone who loves their steak knows that 7 minutes is about the length of time to cook one side of a steak perfectly before flipping over to another 7 minutes on the other side. What Chef had done was take a sous vide steak and maneuver it a few minutes on the grill on each side to partially caramelize the fatty edges. The first bites tasted good (nothing better than grilled and crusty prime edges), but as soon as the extremely thin crust (almost like painted on) was gone, I hit the sous vide layer, so mouthfeel and taste weren't that good. It wasn't inedible, but basically I paid 54 dollars for delicious blue cheese dressing.
Again, service was great (my waitress and other staff were attentive) and their homemade blue cheese dressing still makes my mouth happy, but will someone take Chef's wand and waterbath away from him so he can't screw up the prime rib? Or make him take a cut of his sous vided prime rib down to Jimmy's/Mission Gorge, have him purchase the prime rib there, and then taste comparison both out in the parking lot so he will finally understand how he's abusing the meat? Thank you. Till then, when I'm on the prowl for prime rib, it's a long drive to Jimmy's in Mission Gorge, but that's were I'm going.
Also, might mention that small, thin, oval plates (not the regular round ones used for the other diners who had the chicken parmesan) are not conducive to cutting and dipping one's prime rib. Not enough room for the cut, and the little sauce cups were angled sideways. And for gosh sakes, at least steam the rolls. They were like opening the package up at Staters and taking bites in the aisle. Cold and already hardening. C'mon D'Carlos. Your food used to be awesome, so what has happened? Now it's like eating gourmet food, but prepared in a school cafeteria, and yet you are charging premium prices. You need to fix your kitchen. I used to take whole groups to D'Carlos when they came up to Ramona. Now I would be embarrassed. So should be D'Carlos. read more