Best steak house ever. Alexanders by far is the best steakhouse I've ever been to. The service is outstanding and the food is absolutely the best of all the restaurants I've eaten at. They serve a variety of beef that can't be beat. They serve outstanding Kobe beef, and other excellent breeds of beef. They have a wide range of steaks so you can be conservative or go all out depending on what you wish to spend. They have an outstanding variety of side dishes, appetizers, and a great atmosphere. I've been there a few times, and everything has been consistently wonderful. Just writing this review makes my mouth water for another visit. You can't go wrong by going to Alexanders.…
Sometimes a little restraint is neccessary..
I wish I could give this place one more star at the very least. It came highly recommended from zagat (for service) and from some of my friends either through 2nd hand knowledge or first hand
knowledge. However, at some point, the compulsion to make things "special" or "unique" can really make something that has the potential to be amazing, just...ok.
When we arrived at the restaurant it was surprisingly unassuming from the outside. But once inside, you see a window into their t-bone steak drying rack. I stopped in my tracks and gawked at the meat on display.
We were seated and our server introduced us to the menu, the special steak menu, the drink menu, and the wine menu. He then proceeded to tell us he came here the day before on his day off and all the amazing things he ordered.
We ordered the following items:
Dirty Martini (for my date) - the 1st was amazing, the 2nd was not so good we think the 2nd was made with sub premium vodka.
Sidecar (for me) - one of the best sidecars I've had. they put 3 brandied cherries into it. I ate one, and the flavor of the cherries was definitely a good addition to the drink but not meant to be eaten.
We shared everything else:
Hamachi shooters - a little bland but overall yummy.
T-Bone steak with three salts and grilled lemon - very well done and the pairing with the salts was very appropriate. I disagree with some of the other reviews, this place definitely knows its way around a steak. The steak was perfectly prepared to our requested medium rare.
Tony's potatoes - greasy, heavy, and the bacon chunks were overpowering, bacon to potato ratio was 1:1.
Corn Succotash - the best part of the meal. sweet, savory, fresh, and the perfect side dish for the steak.
Plum Panna Cotta - not really plum flavored but it was accompanied by this lovely sorbet.
With your meal, you get an amuse bouche, a intermezzo, and another palate cleanser. Our amuse bouche was much to my squeal-y delight was a foie gras mousse with an apple foam. I'm not a foam fan but the foie gras mousse was...AWESOME. The intermezzo was a white asparagus soup. It was the best asparagus soup I've ever had. A perfect balance of cream and the fresh floral asparagus flavor. The palate cleanser was a truffled passion fruit granita. I was very amused by this restaurants obsession with foie gras because it matches my own unabashed loved for the ultimate indulgence. However, my date and I were less impressed by their overuse of truffle oil. It was in the hamachi shooters, the mac and cheese, the granita, and the fries. (we didn't order the mac and cheese and fries because of that.)
This brings me to the headline...sometimes you don't need to go over the top. Sometimes the best dishes are the ones where you don't add that extra touch. Our favorite items of the night were the most simple. The soup, the steak, and the corn succotash.
The service is amazing. They are incredibly attentive there, sometimes annoyingly so because you can't finish a topic of conversation without the guy hoovering to see if you're enjoying every bit of your meal. He made it up to us though, by giving us the asparagus soup intermezzo and dessert on the house. (btw, we asked them to put the ginger puree from the dessert on the side. again because it wasn't needed.) We ended the night with their cherry cotton candy. A very nice touch.
We were seated in between two tables where the guys were obviously trying to impress the women. The women were definitely enjoying their foray into fine dining. Alexander's is IMPRESSIVE. It is also Pricey...and a bit over the top.
I would go back if I needed a foie gras fix but other than that, I don't think it's as good as it could be. I guess I'm annoyed by the fact that they try to do everything "unique" but the extra stuff isn't always a good thing. Sometimes just because you can...doesn't mean you should.…
Best Steak Around!. Love, Love, Love this place! Yes, it's expensive, but the food is well worth it. The service was fast and friendly and the ambiance is great. I had the kobe beef which was fantastic, and the mac n cheese with truffles is the best I've ever had. The cotton candy for dessert was a nice touch too.…
NAME CHANGE NEEDED - REMOVE THE WORD "STEAK".
The glass wall at the entrance where you can see the aging meat is impressive. The Asian-inspired appetizers and first courses are very good. The truffle fries were good. But the porterhouse steak
was mediocre. The claim was that it was aged 28 days but it tasted just like fresh cut meat from a supermarket.
As a big fan of Bryan Flannery's 60-day aged meat, I guess I'm spoiled, but if you have the word "steak" in the name of your restaurant, you should have good steak.…
Terrible Service Ruins The Meal - too many similar comments along these same lines.
Alexander?s is a lovely restaurant where I have come to expect first-class food and service; unfortunately, last night?s experience was dreadful. The waiter was obtuse and pompous; the food uneven.
From beginning to end, from the tedious explanation of what a tasting menu is until we received our truffle fries that arrived when the three of us were nearly finished with our meals, the service was truly awful, the meal mediocre -- greasy short ribs, cold veggies.
Perhaps it was a mistake to interrupt the waiter?s pedantic definition by mentioning we had recently done Robuchon?s in Paris and a tasting menu was more food than we wanted, for instead of letting us order, he continued with a list of the ?world famous? tasting menus he had eaten and he then firmly informed us it was not about the quantity of the food but about the experience?followed by several more tedious minutes informing us of how small the portions are, and again, what a dining ?experience? is?blah, blah, blah.
I?m perfectly sanguine with occasionally uneven food and the sides were generally ok; however, I have a serious problem with snotty servers. (Unfortunately, I do not know his name.) Interestingly, our waiter?s assistant (I believe, named Steve) was charming and gracious. Perhaps instead of Steve assisting, our waiter could shadow Steve, for this might show him the people skills absolutely necessary for a positive dining experience.
I sent my comments to the restaurant only to receive a curt email asking for my mailing address. I assume they were going to send me some kind of incentive to give them another try; however, nothing ever arrived. If the goal was to get me to return, a sincere apology would have gone much further than a 10% off coupon.
The waiter was right, it is all about the experience: Alexander's is an experience to be avoided.…
