The Big Apple - Smith & Wollensky

Dinner time!

For our Saturday dinner, our friend suggested Smith & Wollensky, stating that they have the best steaks in town. Since we trust his judgement and we are not ones to pass up a good hunk of meat, he went ahead and made a phone call, worked his magic in German, got a call back a few minutes later, and we got a table at 8pm.

For the remainder of the day, we probably watched 5-10 Smith & Wollensky's commercial in the cab, and a few times our friend would be giddy as a school girl when he watch the commercial, it was actually quite amusing to watch him. At the end of the commercial their tag line is "If steak were a religion, this would be its cathedral," and hearing that all day long has set my expectation quite high, I hope they will live up to their claim.

We got to the restaurant at about 7:30pm, the host checked us in and we had a few drinks at the bar; about 15 minutes later we were told to go upstairs and ask for John, who seated us at the corner table deep inside the dining room. Since our friend, Alex, wanted us to experience the lively atmosphere and be in the center of the action, he asked if it's possible to move to a table that's closer to the middle of the room. At first it didn't seem like a big deal and they moved us right away, but immediately after we sat down, another person came and told us that the table has already been spoken for; they then got us another table, we sat down, and the same thing again. The table was reserved and we were ask to get up and wait at the bar till a table opens up.

I can't fault the restaurant for not having a table, since they did seat us at a perfectly fine one and it was us who requested to have another one; however, I do believe that I would have had a better experience if they didn't keep sitting us down and telling us to get up.

We started our meal with the fried calamari and hashbrown. The calamari was well seasoned, but the breading was a little heavy and the calamari was just a tad overcooked. The hashbrown... oh the hashbrown... mmm... this hashbrown (bottom) might not look like much, but it was quite tasty! It has a nice and crispy exterior and a meaty soft interior with some onion flavor to it. I normally don't order hashbrowns in a steak house, but I'm so glad we got them here. I think it might actually be one of the best hashbrowns I've ever had.

For the main course, I order the bone-in Ribeye, my boyfriend got the Cajun seasoned Filet Mignon, and our friend got the Au Poivre Filet Mignon.

Alex, if you ever read this, I'm sorry! To me the steaks were good, but was not great. It was not the best steak that I have ever had, but I suppose no steak can be since the best steak I had was the Kobe steak that I had in Kobe, Japan, and no one can beat a Japanese Kobe steak that just melts in your mouth... mmmm... Kobe steak...(drooling) Ok, let me wipe my mouth and get back to Smith and Wollensky before I make this a Kobe steak post. The steaks here were well cooked, I won't argue about that, but it just didn't have that "umph" to push it over the top and live up to the hype.

Bone-in Ribeye

My Ribeye had a wonderful exterior, it was seared nicely and produced great flavor; but maybe because it was a thick cut of steak there was only flavor on the surface and I wanted to sprinkle some salt on it every time I took a bite, plus I ordered medium well and my steak was pretty well done. The Au Poivre filet was tender and juicy, the sauce was a little bitter, but maybe that is what it's suppose to taste like. My favorite is the Cajun Filet, and despite the name, it is actually not spicy hot but it definitly is full of flavor. If you ever been to Morton's, it is very similar to their Cajun Ribeye. In fact, all the three steaks that I tasted are comparable to Morton's, except it has a higher price tag.

Au Poivre Filet Mignon

For the three of us, I believe we spent about $250.00 just on the food, which is a bit on the pricey side. If it was about $60 to $70 cheaper, then it would be a better value, but it was the good company and conversation that is important to me, and you can't put a price tag on that!

Overall, Smith & Wollensky is a good steakhouse, but for me, I think I'm going to keep searching for my cathedral.