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Sunday, February 26, 2012

The Old Homestead - New York, NY - Review


I will try to keep this as short as possible, but there it a lot to get out when it comes to reviewing this steakhouse.  We went for a night out on the town, limo, and reservations the whole shebang.  We entered the Old Homestead and were seated promptly at 8:00.  We are greeted by our waiter and a round of drinks are ordered, Johnny Blue, Patron Silver and a French Martini - Not long after we would tear through 2 bottles of Toscana wine (cant remember the name, but it was damn good) a cognac and a port.  The "main waiter" was not to my liking, he screws up as you will read, and the other attendants were excellent though.
We start off with some apps and oysters, now the oysters were very very good, we chose Malpeque, Royal Myagi and Emerald Cove, leaving out the ever boring blue point.  Now I know there is no preparation in oysters that reflect the chef or anyone in the kitchen other than the guys shucking them and not getting any shell in the oyster itself, but I must say, the Emerald Cove Oyster is probably one of the tastiest oysters around...anyway, back to the food they make.
Bang Bang Shrimp, nicely done EXTRA LARGE JUMBO deep fried with a spicy sauce drizzled on top.  Crab Cakes, these were tasty, more crab than cake and not over seasoned, the crab really took center stage, I have a nice sear on it which leads me to believe its pan fried not deep fried.  Beet Salad, apparently good, as far as beet salads go, I don’t know I didn’t have any.  The Caesar salad was simply O.K  I always get a Caesar when I go out, and I knda judge or gauge, if you will, the experience off the salad, why?  Well, I guess when you get it right the salad is delightful and chances are the rest of the meal will be as well, but when you get it wrong, man oh man.  This one - sorry to say, they got it wrong, WAY too much dressing, the romaine was drenched, it was very heavy, but kind bland, tough when you have ingredients like, anchovies and parmegiano reggiano in the bowl.
The steaks, ah the steaks, here’s where I get  a little annoyed at this high caliber steakhouse, my wife and I had the 22 oz. Gotham Rib Steak on the bone, my favorite cut.  I order mine Pittsburgh Style, (charred outside rare inside, sorta like a black and blue but cooked a tad more), the waiters asks "How would you like the inside?"  Hmm, what did you just ask?  I have been to many steakhouses and never asked this question, Pittsburgh is Pittsburgh correct me if I am wrong please.  My wife orders her medium.  The come out, mine is cooked but not "charred on the outside" my wife's is flat out rare, not medium rare and certainly not medium.   Obviously something went awry.  The other two steaks were a New York strip and a T-bone, the strip was cooked rare and asked for medium and the T-bone was cooked the specified rare.  Two strikes on the steaks, they had to be sent back.  Once corrected they were very good, not the best I have had but very good.
We had mushrooms - tasty typical, creamed spinach-good as far as creamed spinach goes, onion rings-had some cayenne in the batter not a kick I was looking for, truffle mac and cheese-tasty but no truffles, obviously just mac and cheese with truffle oil,  garlic mashed-tasty and just the right amount of garlic.
Deserts - crème brule - wife said it was good, cheesecake-very good, it was heavier than the average, but I really liked it, chocolate cake-very good as well, big chocolate goodness.
$1080.00 with tip, I know that sounds crazy and it is but this was a spare no expense meal as payment for some lawyering done on my behalf.  It was slightly pricier than you average steak house in Jersey, but not more than I expected from the city.  I think most would probably be at least half of that for a party of 4.  Give it a shot, I would go back, but would probably try another steakhouse in the city first.

Website to tempt you
http://www.theoldhomesteadsteakhouse.com/

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