If you are vegetarian, turn away now! This post is about our steak-hunting journey in NYC. If you have read my last post, you will know that our trip was badly affected by Hurricane Irene. We had made a dinner reservation at BLT Prime, but unfortunately the restaurant had to cancel our table due to unforeseen damage that the hurricane might cause. The restaurant had to put their staff’s safety first, which was the right thing to do.
This was bad news to a meat-lover like me, the steak dinner was supposed to be the perfect ending to our trip. With only two days left in NYC and no public transport available, we desperately phoned up every single steakhouse within walking distance from our hotel, hoping to get a lunch booking before the hurricane hit. Like BLT Prime, most of the steakhouses had decided to close due to staff shortages. We finally got through to Wolfgang’s Steakhouse in Tribeca, who said they would try to open for lunch, but that could change at the last minute.
It was a cloudy and windy morning, most of the shops were closed, with only few tourists wandering around. We arrived at the steakhouse at noon, all I could see was an empty restaurant, and some builders boarding up the windows to prepare for the strong winds. My heart sank, as I thought ‘Is this open?’...
But IT WAS! We were greeted by a very friendly waiter, who explained to us that there was only one chef working in the kitchen, so the food might be slow. He also apologised for the noise from the builders boarding up the windows, but I actually found it quite amusing because we pretty much had the whole restaurant to ourselves. The daylight sort of diminished throughout the lunch, which made us feel like we were in one of those disaster movies.
Moving on to the food, USDA prime is always my favourite kind of steak (after wagyu). In America, they take their steaks seriously, so most of the steakhouses have their own aging room. We ordered steak for two, a portion of broccoli and steak fries. The steak was served on a hot, sizzling plate. It was already cut into bite-size pieces when it was brought to our table. The waiter carefully placed it in front of us, then spooned the butter and meat juice on top of the meat. By that time, I was already drooling all over the place...
We requested the steak to be cooked medium-rare, it came exactly how we like it. It was very tender, although I would have liked it more charred on the outside. The sides were good too - crunchy vegetables and crispy fries. I did find the table sauce a wee bit too sweet, which slightly overpowered the steak itself.
We enjoyed our meal in Wolfgang’s Steakhouse very much, the warm welcome from the staff made all the difference. Even though they were short of staff, they still went out of their way to accommodate us. I am glad the hurricane is over now so they can back to a full house every day.
Wolfsgang's Steakhouse
Wolfsgang's Steakhouse
Our second meat feast was at the well-known Peter Luger steakhouse in Brooklyn. We decided to go there after we found out that we had two extra days in NYC. It was almost impossible to get through on the phone, but we managed to secure a lunch booking after trying for a couple of hours.
It was our second time visiting Peter Luger steakhouse, we had high expectations of this meal, because we were blown away by our first visit. The operation was exactly like three years ago, a waiter came to greet us casually, made some jokes then brought us the menu, together with a beautiful looking bread basket and the famous Peter Luger sauce.
We ordered a rib steak, a single steak and a portion of creamed spinach. We were not disappointed. The rib steak was perfectly charred on the outside, it was crispy and full of flavour. Judging by the colour of the meat (and the taste), it was probably more marbled than the one we had in Wolfgang’s. The single steak was a sirloin steak, it was also cooked nicely, although it was not as tender as the rib steak. The sauce was delicious, it tasted a bit like a mixture of ketchup, Worcester sauce and horseradish. The smokiness and sweetness together with the acidity of the sauce went perfectly with the steak.
There is no doubt about the quality of the meat we had in both steakhouses, it would be hard to find something of a similar standard in London. The best I can think of is Goodman Steakhouse, but in my opinion, it is still a long way behind what we had in NYC. I will just have to wait until next time for my fix of USDA prime!
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