Craft Steak NYC: Don't

I usually don't write negative reviews. Its not my speed: I'd rather just ignore the place. That's why my London posts were so few! But, after my meal tonight at Craft Steak, I feel that I really can't ignore this...the service and food were unacceptable for such a venture. I remember Tom Colicchio telling a contestant on "Top Chef" that people came to top flight restaurants for a special occasion, and that it wasn't fair to them to have a bad night. If the meal we had tonight was on Top Chef, it would definitely have been a "Pack Your Knives and Go" type of night for the chef who prepared it for us.

We went for a special occasion: boy #2's birthday. Our entry into Craft Steak started with an indifferent greeting in the Las Vegas like space that is this restaurant (the decor and table spacing are the best part of the place, and are quite nice in a Gordon Gekko kind of way). Led to our table, we sat a bit, and then were asked our drink orders. We had some questions about the food and whether there were any specials, and the waiter told us that he would have a complete explanation when he came back. Some time after that, he came back and said "ready to order!??" We made him do the explanations. In summary, they have a "market menu" that changes every day and therefore there are "no specials." Very nice in concept, but the menu from November 29th that is posted on the internet is almost identical to the one we had....the differences being a few dishes or types of steak that you might even want to call "special" if you so desired.

The Caesar salad was too fishy, the frisee with fried pork ear was fine. The marrow bones were good, but they were served on a giant plate of kosher salt. One slip of the fork and your marrow was toast (not on toast, as it should be). The dinner rolls were supposed to be a "better" version of the warm parker rolls that you can buy in the supermarket, but were lacking something that those rolls had. And they were dolled out as if they were gold.

We did not have the Wagyu beef, but we did have a wide selection of other cuts: the porterhouse, strip steak, flat iron and hanger steak. The porterhouse was clearly the best, with the flat iron in a somewhat distant second. All of the steaks were salted in a way that could only be described as "variable." The hanger steak was like shoe leather.

We had been there for almost two hours at the end of dinner (this is a steak house) and couldn't deal with it anymore. We paid and left without eating dessert.

Needless to say, next time we go to Luger's, and if we can't get in Palm, Too.

The Striphouse: OK (expensive, too)

Normally, I would be at the beach now, but boy 1 is headed off to camp tomorrow and we are in the City this weekend.  Last night, we took boy 1 and boy 2 out to a steak place in honor of the boy 1's impending 7 week trip to institutional food.  One of boy 1's friends had eaten at the "Strip House," located at 13 E. 12th Street, NY, NY, 10003 (212-328-0000) and liked it, so we went.  I vaguely remember having gone there when it opened some years ago with our friends from London before theater and not running to go back, but, no matter.  The lovely wife did not have similar memories, and off we went into the sticky and gross New York City Evening.

When we arrived, I remembered why I remembered eating at the strip house: naked ladies.  Lots of them.  The walls of the restaurant are adorned in cheesecake photos from the earlier parts of the twentieth century.  Hubba, hubba.  According to the Website, the photos were all taken at Studio Manasse in Vienna.    I assume that there are similar photos at the Strip House's many other locations, including Key West (I will have to ask the in-laws if they have ever been there).  They also have a website that is so web 2.0, its veritably web 3.11.  It takes a while to get a phone number because of all of the transitions and graphics.

The restaurant itself is pleasant, dark, and its red walls are covered with the pictures noted above.  Its quiet enough.  As for the food: good, but, even by New York steak house standards, on the pricier side (I will never get over a $9.00 baked potato).  I thought the oysters were fine, but nothing special.  Particularly good was the bacon appetizer, which consists of two large strips of bacon, some lettuce, and Russian dressing.  Caesar salad was just fine.  We had two steaks, a tomahawk cut ribeye and the porterhouse.  I am always reading about how great Ribeye steak can be, and in all honesty, have never truly enjoyed one.  This did not change on this trip.  What waiters call marbled inevitably tastes "fatty."   The porterhouse was quite good, with an excellent char and done as we requested (medium rare).  We skipped dessert and headed to Pinkberry.  

As we continue our tour of seemingly every steak house in New York, I'd have to put the Strip House somewhere in the middle.  Its fine, and it was pleasant to talk in.  However, when we walked out and saw the (somewhat less expensive!!!) Gotham Bar and Grill, I realized that my children were doing fine with steak and it was time to try to expand their horizons.

Mexican Style Flank Steak Marinade

Flank steak is another inexpensive grillable meat that, when seasoned properly, can be a tasty part of any summer get together.  Marinating it adds flavor, and also helps tenderize it.  It also helps to slice it real thin.  Although I claim no authenticity at all in this recipe, the meat tasted great on tortillas served with some salsa and my not for vegetarians black beans (below).  The marinade recipe here is useful for 6 pounds of flank steak; you can certainly half the recipe if you want.

INGREDIENTS

1 bottle of beer (I used Corona this time, but Negro Modelo works well, too)

3 limes, cut up and juiced

1 1/2 tablespoons salt

3 tablespoons olive oil

optional (teaspoon pepper)

Combine all of the ingredients and place in plastic "zip-lock" bag.  Add the meat, and store in refrigerator for about 45 minutes, turning occasionally.  

Before grilling the meat, shake off the excess fluid and salt the meat as you would if there were no marinade at all!  Really.  I think flank steak tastes best cooked medium rare to medium.

Skirt Steak Marinade is Good!

Unless you've been on Mars, or live on the rarified parts of the Upper East Side and don't care, you've noticed that food prices have been shooting up recently.  As they say, the cheapest thing for a dollar is a dollar.  With salt.  But I digress.  

I have always enjoyed braising or smoking less expensive cuts of meat, but the summer is coming and its getting a little warm in the MM kitchen to have the stove going for hours late at night.  Also, everyone gets hungry.  So I have been working with ways to make less expensive cuts of meat tastier on the grill.  The lovely wife likes skirt steaks, as do I, but they can be a bit tough and a bit greasy tasting if cooked with just salt.  Most of the marinades that I have seen seem overcomplicated and, to be honest, a bit silly.  So I tried my own.  And it was good.

MARINADE

1/3 cup white wine

5 cloves garlic, chopped fine

1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon thyme

1 teaspoon white vinegar

dash of white pepper

Mix all of the above together.  Put in plastic bag with steak, seal, and leave for 20 minutes to a half hour.  The nice thing about skirt steaks is they absorb the marinade quickly.  Dry off,  resalt, and grill to medium (medium rare if you are the lovely wife).   I used a cast iron stovetop grill, but I have a very good fan!   I learned on "Top Chef" not to cook skirt steak rare (its too tough if you do), and yet again, they were right.

Beer Marinade: Easy as Beer

Those of you who know me know that I am not normally a fan of marinades for beef. For better cuts of meat, the marinade is simply a waste of time and effort. Pepper, salt heavily and place under high heat and you are done. Having said that, several summer favorites, including flank steak, hanger steak and London broil do benefit from being marinated. I had a chance to cook all three (and some chicken, which received the same treatment) during our "Fiesta" over Memorial Day Weekend.

Marinating tends to break done some of the more sinewy meats, such as flank steak, and makes them more tender. For very lean cuts, such as London broil, marinating makes the meat more moist and also makes controlling the doneness easier. I have seen non-marinated London broil go from "blue" to "black" in a minute or two. Although these cuts of meat are less expensive than classic steak cuts such as a porterhouse, they are often more flavorful and need no help with seasoning because they already have a great beef flavor. Because of this, marinating should be an aid to cooking in many instances; not a substitute for proper seasoning or sauce once the meat is cooked.

Beer is my favorite marinade. I usually add a half teaspoon plus of salt to each can of beer (it should taste like salty beer, not salt. Sometimes, I add half a squeezed lemon or lime to each can as well. I try to marinate for at least an hour, but will do it for as little as a half hour or as much as four. I dry the meat off and salt it prior to grilling: this allows it to have a proper char and adds flavor.

Don't get me wrong. There are recipes I love, such as Korean short ribs, that call for a complicated and full flavored marinade. Having said that, a simple marinade can really help a less expensive but flavorful cut of meat shine.

Keens Steak House: Birthday Steak!!

Yesterday was my birthday. And, while others may like spa treatments, expensive gifts or lots of hard liquor to celebrate their birthdays, I have traditionally enjoyed steak. Although I am a huge fan of Peter Luger's, I often go to other steak houses. One day I will find a steak house closer to the Upper West Side than Brooklyn. And so on this birthday we all headed off to Keens Steakhouse on West 36th Street, right off the IRT and near Madison Square Garden. Its even closer than the Palm!

Keens is one the older New York Steakhouses. It was founded in 1885. There are three floors and multiple rooms. Like the Four Seasons, where you sit will affect your dining experience. We sat in the Bull Moose Room, named after Teddy Roosevelt and featuring a large moose head: which I am assuming is a gift from Teddy himself. Try to avoid sitting on the main room on thefirst floor, if possible. Sitting in one of their four "private" rooms is the way to go.

Keens is also the home of the worlds largest collection of clay pipes. These pipes were too fragile to move from place to place, and were kept where they were smoked. The whole place is decorated in pipes (look at the ceiling). Famous people's pipes, including Teddy Roosevelt, are prominently displayed in the front of the restaurant.

As for the food, well its ok. The best appetizer was a $45 chilled seafood plate, featuring half a lobster, shrimp, muscles, clams and oysters. Tomato and onion salad was fine, but didn't compare to Luger's.

We had the Porterhouse steak for 3 for 4. This worked well, although 3 of the 4 people were women. It was rare as ordered, and very flavorful. The texture was not perfect, but it was quite a good porterhouse steak. We also had fillet, which was as good as fillet ever is (I am not a fan of fillet). The creamed spinach was excellent. Mushrooms were good, but could easily be avoided. Their potato dishes were small, and not that exciting. Dessert was weak, even for a steakhouse.

Keens has an excellent list of whiskey. They have a wine list that has bad forty dollar bottles of wine. After that, the prices jump up to way the heck overpriced. Stick with whiskey!

Keens is a really pleasant place to eat. If you choose the right room, you will have plenty of space, no pressure to leave, and decent food. It would also be an interesting place to go before the Rangers. However, I still feel the need for the pilgrimage to Luger's in Brooklyn (or even Great Neck) for the perfect steak.



FLICKR PHOTOS: You can see food photos from Keens here.

Palm Too!

Yesterday was boy 2's birthday and so he, I, the lovely wife, boy 1 and the in-laws piled into two cabs and headed to the East Side to the Palm Too to indulge boy 2 in his desire for cow flesh and potatoes. He had originally requested Peter Luger's, which I totally understand, but even Male Martha could not wrangle a reservation in Brooklyn the week before Christmas and I was not going to Great Neck on a weeknight. In fact, even before I write about the Palm's food, the fact that it is on the Island of Manhattan gives it an extra 1/2 star; especially during the week before Christmas. MM does not like traffic.

We were seated promptly for our 6:30 reservation. The room is noisy and boisterous, with autographed head shots of various celebrities (we ate next to Billy Jean King and Chris Everett!) as well as the famous Palm caricatures. Our server was nice enough, but clearly had served one to many steaks in his life. Given the size of the food, we opted out of the appetizers. We had three different kinds of steak: the strip, the rib eye and (a special that night) the porterhouse. The in-laws split a monster lobster. As sides, we had the cottage fries, the onions, regular french fries and creamed spinach. Dessert included chocolate cake and carrot cake.

The bottom line: its still not Luger's but its not bad. Much better than Wolfgang's, and more fun than Smith and Wollensky. The Strip, which is their specialty, was clearly the best steak, although the rib eye wasn't bad. I would avoid the porterhouse in the future. The lobster was fine, and physically imposing, but I am still a believer in turf over surf. The onions and cottage fries are both avoidable, the french fries are good and the spinach superb. The potato was the idea of boy 1, and was as good as a $7 baked potato can be. As in most other steak places, I would not go for the dessert, although many liked the carrot cake. One other weak point is that they do not have their own steak sauce, but rather Heinz Ketchup and A1 Sauce. And while its not Luger's, it only takes 20 minutes to get home and take a Pepcid after you are done.

You can easilly take carnivores over the age of 7 without a problem. I noticed a lot of strollers with tiny babies at the place, but no one between 6 months and boy 2 was to be seen. And thats probably for the best.

One other cool thing: you can book the Palm restaruants on line: we did this and it worked!