A solid 3.5....
A late reservation for my first time here, I was joined by 2 regulars, who happen to dine here on the regular, so my expectations bar was set nominally higher than usual. The staff here was very warm, welcoming and accomodating. Melody was our person for the night and I think every retaurant should have a Melody lol
But I digress and move onto the food!
20+ dishes ordered to try. Lots of hits, some very surprising hits, and several not so good hits. My rule of thumb, when it's my first time, is order the entire apps selections, even the special ones for the evening, especially at a steakhouse.
The stars of the evening:
Tableside made Guacomole: super fresh ingredients, made a la minute is key for this and it was exactly that.
Duck Eggrolls: surprisingly light and delicate and a nice rich texture to the duck meat.
Braised Short Ribs: Melt in your mouth awesomeness. My test for this is going for the fattiest piece on the plate, a proper braised short rib's fat will literally melt in your mouth and not get stuck inbtwn your teeth like gristle.
Sweetbreads: ok serously, what's with the corn in this dish ppl? Why do most restaurant's add the corn?? Is it for color? I don't get it! Regardless, this was a huge hit at our table which says a lot since 2:3 normally aren't sweetbread fans.
House Cured Beef Jerky: flavor was spot on, I liked that it was heavy on the cumin. It reminded me more of a South African biltong than it did the traditional bone dry jerky known in the states, though it did have a nice bite.
Beef Sliders: though the beef patty was too well done for my taste, it was actually still quite surprisingly juicy, which is hard to do when they are that tiny
Tableside made Steak Tartare: nice balance of tart, richness and creaminess.
For our entree we had a family style meat sampler accompanied by 4 veggie sides of sautéed spinach, a broccoli, a mushroom medley and a veg Israeli cous cous...the family style platter included their signature dry aged Tomahawk, Dry aged prime, Long bone veal chop and a steak the call Suprise, pronounced sooprees. Usually in my experiencr, veal chops are manhandled and cooked to death, this one was done to a perfect medium rare which kept all the juices intact. The standout for me was the dry aged prime, then the Tomahawk, the surprise was just Ok. But by far, their meats were the best I've had in a long time.
Desserts again all looked beautiful but out of 9 served 5 were great: chocolate mousse, chocolate lava cake, lemon merengue pie, housemade passion fruit sorbet and coconut sorbet.
I have to equally mention the uglies of the evening:
Beef Ravioli with a butternut sauce...pasta was way undercooked and filing and sauce did not compliment eachother.
Salmon Tartare: when you mash up fresh salmon to a pulp and then place it on top of guacomole of the same consistency, mouthfeel is not pleasant nor appetizing.
Salmon Ceviche and Salmon Flautas combo: the ceviche was actually quite nice. Refreshing and bright in flavor and seasoning. But the accompanied fried flautas were all wrong. Salmon was incredible fishy and nothing meshed inside the half soggy/half hard as a rock corn tortilla shell.
Moroccan Chili: no body to the dish. Flavors were muddy and not seasoned at all.
Special platter of the evening: meatballs were not moist but crumbly in texture, the chicken empanada: filling to the encasing dough ratio was off, the grilled shisito pepers were great though.
The Flan and Creme Brulee: way too much starch in both. Not sure what they are using to bind them but it was a way too heavy handed. Both are light airy custard dishes, well the air was beaten out of them both.
Apple tart: just Ok. Nothing stood out flavor wise, you almost forgot it was apple.
Pecan pie: again a miss. The brown sugar filling was extremely gummy in texture and clawingly sweet that we took turns taking a bit of the vanilla ice cream to counter it.
So back to customer service...the restaurant staff being attentive and at the ready should happen without saying, and this component is definitely present here. But when a customer constructively tells their server a dish doesn't work OR if the server sees that the dish was barely touched and asks said diner was anything wrong and what they could do to improve the dish, a f/u up of sort should happen imo. I think taking back the dish and not charging the diner is appropriate, of course within reason that is. There are several reasons why I have my staple go to's for upscale dining...it's not about getting freebies, but just making the gesture of showing your clientele a bit if appreciation is all it takes to have a loyal consistent following. It doesn't cost the restaurant much to comp an app or dessert or drink or two in the grand scheme. Sadly Prime Bistro falls short in this department. Still, it was a solid first experience. read more