I am a massive fan of beef. I am particularly partial to the popular Aberdeen Angus, but I also like the Rubia Gallega (Galician beef), the Belted Galloway, the Hereford, the Chianina, the Blonde d’Aquitaine and the Holstein. Nowadays, thanks to E-commerce, everything can be shipped to you from anywhere in the world, therefore there is no need to fly to a specific destination in order to enjoy their beef. Just order them online through reliable sources. And if you know how to search properly, you also have ranches and butcher’s shops across North America that can supply some of these meats . Anyways, once every 2 or 3 months, since I currently live in North America, I love charcoal grilling a nice 2-inch-thick dry-aged (the best effect, for me, is when it hits 35 days of Dry aging) 20 oz Bone-in rib eye steak of USDA Prime quality, cooked medium-rare with bold beefy flavor and a superb glass of red wine.
If a quality beefy steak of that sort is right up your alley, and you happen to live in Montreal, then buy it at a serious butcher instead of ordering it at restaurants because it’s now ridiculously $$$ to eat a proper 20 oz Bone-in rib eye steak at most restaurants in Montreal (they will actually, for the most part, charge you in between $50 to $70 ….not even for 20 oz..Lol..Nah…but for an 8 to 12 oz steak that is dry aged….absurd, I am telling you!!..)
And you, what about you? What is your little occasional luxurious home dining habit?
Dropped by Gallagher’s Steakhouse, a historical steakhouse, which, during the days of the prohibition, was the first illicit establishment selling alcohol where gamblers and stars of Broadway would meet.
In the incredibly competitive steakhouse market of NYC (perhaps, the steakhouse mecca of the world – I mean, do you know any other major city with that many world class steakhouses? Do you? ), you know you have reached the enviable status of a historic shrine at whatever you do when the NY Times writes romanticized write-ups with eye-candy photographs of this sort about you – .
At Gallagher’s Steakhouse, I ordered:
Platter of 12 oysters – Dabob bay from Hood canal (Washington) and Canadian lucky lime. Nicely shucked quality fresh oysters. The lucky lime had the advertised citrus-tone finish in evidence. The intertidal beach cultured Dabob bay oysters, quite briny for an oyster coming from the Pacific. The mignonette properly done. A platter of fine oysters. 7/10
The 20 oz rib eye steak (Grade: USDA Prime), dry aged for 28 – 32 days on premise in their glass-enclosed meat locker ( You can see it from the street – a sight to behold). The meat is grilled on hickory coals, a rarity in a city where most steakhouses do broil their steaks. Grilling meat over an open fire has always been my preferred grilling method for meats. The requested medium rare doneness achieved with utter precision. It delivered on flavor (the seasoning, exquisite – the steak as delicious as it gets) and was superbly tender throughout. The great grilling effect of the open fire in evidence to the eyes/smell/palate. Dazzling crust. My steak had its juices settled within the meat, therefore timely rested. A steak is not a moon landing mission and one can do great steaks at home, indeed, but what matters here is that this is a steakhouse and it is doing one of the better steaks in NYC. Easily the best rib eye steak I ever had at all the top tier steakhouses of NY. 10/10
The creamed spinach. Here too, the G seems to have the edge as the creamed spinach had superb taste and great balance between the cream and spinach flavours. Superb texture too. Just some delicious creamed spinach like few — surprisingly, indeed – seem to be able to pull out at the NYC steakhouses. Vibrant fresh and delicious flavours. 9/10
Even the crème fraîche to accompany the baked potato was not of the ordinary sort. The baked potato managing, somehow, not to be just an average piece of tired looking baked potato simply because most kitchen brigades keep such simple things for granted (as most diners do, actually), when, in reality, the sourcing of your potato and how you timed its baking makes a big difference. Here, they did care about that difference.
Bottom line: A very beautiful steakhouse (the warmth of materials such as wood and leather never failing to entice) in the classic genre. But the food was as great. Where many steakhouses seem to deliver tired renditions of classic steakhouse food, the G seems to find a way to make it a bit more exciting in mouth (even their homemade sauce to accompany the steak, made of tomato/garlic/Worcestershire sauce, was well engineered as far as balancing flavors go, its taste great ). A commendable steakhouse, indeed.
Overall rating: Food 9/10 One of the very best steakhouses of NYC. The steaks are great here, but everything else as well. For my taste, the G and Peter Luger are my No1 steakhouses in New York, with the G being a better all rounder, for sure. Furthermore, nothing beats the appealing texture as well as memorable grilling aromas of a steak that is grilled on open fire (a broiled steak looks unappetizing in comparison). Service 8/10 (superb service in the typical classic NYC steakhouse way). Gallaghers Steakhouse Addr: 228 W 52nd St, New York, NY 10019 Phone: 212-586-5000 URL: http://www.gallaghersnysteakhouse.com/
According to most connoisseurs of the Burger, New York has some of the very best burgers in the nation. It is an american food staple and you cannot visit NY without trying its finest burgers. They have all sorts of Burgers from the gourmet to the classic ones. I know my classic burgers well, but when I go out it is to enjoy how far a Chef did push his craft. Not to content myself with a basic classic burger. Therefore, I maintained the focus on some of the elaborate burgers among the most celebrated burgers of New York.
Admittedly, this is about the Burger. Not a landing mission on the moon. And we can all make world class burgers at home, too . And Yep, prices are inflated as we came to expect from NYC. But this post is not about that. This post is about some of the best Burgers offered at the restaurants of NYC, which the below mentioned burgers are reputed to be.
Emily – West Village‘s Emmy Burger Double Stack (LaFrieda dry-aged beef, EMMY sauce, caramelized onion, American cheese, & pickles on a pretzel bun – with curly fries).
-Did the house fulfilled the basic « ideal » requirement of having neither the bun, the patty nor the cheese being too disproportionate in quantity to one another? Nothing disproportionate (you take the bun and the patty -a big thick patty — and you put that in your mouth and you really feel the presence of the meat and the adequate quantity of bun that is necessary to call it a burger and not just a patty.
-Intensity of the flavour of the meat/patty when sampled with the bun and all the elements of the burger, without any condiments: ( ) barely noticeable ( ) Mildly beefy (x ) Densely beefy, and the flavor intensity is amplified by the delicious caramelized onions and aged Grafton cheddar cheese from Vermont.
-Doneness of the patty by default: medium rare
-How was the taste? Big chunk of patty that is more juicy than most of its competitors with a beefy taste that is at the fore. Amplified with their sweet caramelized onions and that cheese. Then the pretzel roll that contributes to the overall taste with its unusual (for a burger’s bun) pretzel flavour that’s actually adapted to a Burger in that sense that the bun is soft and the strong pretzel flavour that you came to expect from your classic pretzel is not in evidence (which is exactly what is required here as the normal pretzel flavour would have clashed with the taste of the patty) . So, as expected, lots of relatively (to your usual ‘white buns’) unique flavours.
-did it taste too ‘steaky’ for a burger given that it was dry aged? Well, it tasted of dry-aged beef, indeed. And I did not care about that. A quality fresh meat’s taste is better, IMHO, than the dry-aged flavour of meats used to make a burger’s patty. That said, this took nothing away from the top tier Burger that Emily’s Burger is. Indeed, one of the best Burgers of NYC. Emily West Village Addr: 35 Downing St, New York, NY 10014, United States Phone: +1 917-935-6434 My full review, here.
Overall rating: 8/10
Red Hook Tavern‘s Dry Aged Red Hook Tavern Burger (American cheese, white onion, frites)
-Did the house fulfilled the basic « ideal » requirement of having neither the bun, the patty nor the cheese being too disproportionate in quantity to one another? There is just a big piece of patty with its bun. And Yep, here too, the burger is designed to have a reasonably balanced ratio of patty to bun.
-Intensity of the flavour of the meat/patty when sampled with the bun and all the elements of the burger, without any condiments: ( ) barely noticeable ( ) Mildly beefy (X ) Densely beefy
-Doneness of the patty by default: They did ask me what doneness I wanted. I told them to go with medium rare, which happens to be what they also recommend.
-Did the dry-aging of the meat led to a taste that is more adequate for a steak than to a burger? NO! And there was no need for that, neither. Instead of annoying my nose and my palate with that damn useless aroma of blue cheese (aka the ‘funk’ fragrance of dry aged beef — yeah, I know, most want that nowadays), their dry aged meat delivered what superb dry aged beef should focus on: some superb beef flavour!
-How was the taste? They did what needs to be done to intensify the beefy flavour of a burger: blending several cuts of meats. Dry aged New York strip and chuck, in this case. They did opt for the American cheese as the sole adornment of the patty, a cheese that had proven to be a fine companion to the patty. The result is that it was flavour-packed with great pure flavour of beef enhanced by the fine slice of cheese. Apparently, this was inspired by the Burger at Peter Luger and the Burger experts of NYC do argue that the apprentice has surpassed the Master. I cannot talk to that because at PL, I always had the steaks. But RHT’s Burger had the bare essentials reviewed, covered and perfected (a bun that’s a benchmark of its kind, a patty that is using prime quality beef, a delicious cheese designed to elevate the patty’s flavour and not overwhelm it, an overall taste that stood out among the finest burgers of the city). My fully detailed review here. Red Hook Tavern Addr: 329 Van Brunt St, Brooklyn, NY 11231, United States Phone: +1 917-966-6094 URL: https://www.redhooktavern.com/
Overall rating: 9/10
Bottom line: All the burgers of this round-up fulfilled the basic « ideal » requirement of having neither the bun, the patty nor the cheese being too disproportionate in quantity to one another. Of course, this cannot be always respected in an obsessive fashion (for example to the mm), lol, but common sense was applied in their judgement of the ratio of those components as to avoid to bury the flavour of the meat. The meat was always served medium rare (the ideal doneness that allows the meat flavour to express itself at its best– as per my request), as it seems ideal to our North American palates, generally juicy and beefy and seasoned with the welcoming (not distracting, in these instances) flavour enhancer kick of salt most burger fans in North America are expecting from their Burgers. When there was cheese, it was always melting soft and adequately served as a enhancer to the burger experience. The above 2 burgers were created with an attention to detail of world class mention for a Burger. 2 world class Burgers. Interestingly, their respective restaurants do offer some superb non-burger items as well. The overall /10 ratings are to convey the level of joy that was invading my palate at the time of biting into those burgers.
Keens is an institution of NYC, a piece of restaurant history that started in the 19th century (established in 1885). Its dark wood walls are covered with a tasteful display of memorabilia (time-honored paintings, photos, cartoons). This restaurant could be an incredible shooting location for a movie.
The avid fan of history that I am had to find himself in this charming old world decor, espying what could have possibly been the pipe of Roosevelt over here (thousands of clay pipes of patrons who dined at Keens are on display on the steakhouse’s ceiling), climbing the same stairs as Einstein over there. Nowadays, Keens is one of NYC’s most popular steakhouses, attracting tourists, locals as well as many connoisseurs of North American steaks (as you will see below, their steaks did not « rest on their laurels »). But, with legendary places like this one, I am on my guard, always ensuring that the lore shall never be part of the lure.
On a previous visit here, over 2 years ago, I did try their fabled slow roasted lamb loin‘s saddle chop (aka the ”mutton chop“). It is not mutton, anymore. It is lamb that they do serve nowadays. The lamb is raised in Colorado, some of the most sought after lamb in the nation. Colorado does offer to its free-ranging sheep, vast swathes of vegetation to feed on, thanks to the numerous mountains and hills of the state. The sourcing of this piece of pasture raised lamb was of high level , its subtly earthy lamb flavor (milder than, say the flavour of lamb from New Zealand) dazzled. Boasting an enticing color, definely tender, this was as great as your roasted lamb loin‘s saddle chop will be if served to you at a top tier steakhouse. 9/10
Then last year I dropped by with a long time genuine connoisseur of North American steakhouses and we had the porterhouse. For anyone truly familiar with beef aging, it was easy to enjoy the great effect of the dry aging (they dry-age and butcher the meat on the premises) process that went into that piece of meat (great concentration of beef flavor). The thing about aging meats is to think about the right effect for the right meat. Sometimes, you see people dry aging then wet aging their meat (perfect recipe to cancel the benefit of dry aging that meat …), dry aging meat that has fat that is so delicate that it cannot ‘age’ well (highly marbled wagyu as in this case at Dons de la Nature, one of Tokyo’s leading steakhouses. It is the sort of fat that is way too delicate to benefit from dry aging — I will write, later on, a detailed article on what type of fat benefits from the aging process and why), dry aging fishes that have the taste of nothing if you age them (few fishes do benefit from the dry aging process, most do not…most fishes that are aged do simply fit in the ridiculous trend of aging the flesh for the pleasure of following a trend, as stupid as that – ). Not all steakhouses do master the dry aging of meats as obsessively well as, at, let us say, Le Divil in Perpignan, but the concentration of flavor of that porterhouse steak at Keens revealed some serious mastery of the dry aging of their meats. 8/10
This is my 3rd visit here, and this time I ordered the prime rib of beef (king’s cut – meaning that it’s bone-in), the medium rare doneness that I wanted was precisely achieved, and it came charred at my request ( I suggest that you do not order a charred prime rib. I did request it charred as I was looking for that specific effect on that evening, but prime rib is better in its non charred version IMHO), served with au jus. The loin end rarely fails to be flavorful once cooked, and yet, you realize how, in the USA, they have perfected its cooking with no shortage of dazzling renditions of the prime rib such as the ones you can enjoy at establishments such as the House of Prime Rib , Lawry‘s or Dickie Brennan‘s to name a few. But this prime rib at Keens was not out of place in that fierce competition, as here again, you had all the qualities of a stellar piece of North American steak (the quality of the meat really high as you would expect from a North American steakhouse of this reputation, the standing rib roast timely cooked, its delicious fat properly rendered, the seasoning competent, the steak craveable ). 8/10
I love Keen but I was NOT in love with my platter of a dozen of oysters: all had their superb maritime flavour in evidence, true, but some of the oysters were served a bit too cold than expected at a restaurant serving seafood. The shucking could have been better, too.
Our sides of creamed spinach , sautéed mushrooms and cooked broccoli did not tantalize both the Missus and myself : for both of us, this preparation of their creamed spinach did not enhance the taste of the spinach. And they did add a bit less cream than I would have preferred. Still, their way of doing it is one legit classic way of cooking the creamed spinach and I am fine with that. The broccoli, I need them to retain a vivid fresh appearance (I am not here to talk about cooking techniques but there’s a technique for that, there is a technique that allows your broccoli to be nicely cooked while retaining its perfect crunch and vivid looks, a technique that is widely documented. There is no doubt that the kitchen brigade at Keens knows how to do that, but, again, their choice is to remain classic, therefore they did use a more classical approach and that is to be respected. As for the mushrooms, they looked and felt as if they were sautéed a bit too long and served a bit too late, the taste of the mushrooms not in evidence.
The crab cake of the Missus featured fresh crab flavour, the seasoning well judged. The crab came from Maryland and it is in season right now, consequently its depth of flavour was remarkable. Of her crab cake, she said that it was about “”the full taste of the crab and not a lot of filler””, which was a good thing. 7/10
Bottom line: This article of the NY Mag had its author arguing that « The meat isn’t first class anymore, especially by the standards of today » at Keens…another one of the absurd and senseless suggestions of our so-called food journalists. A steak is first class if the quality of the meat is great, the cooking accurate, the flavours on point, the extra steps to elevate the taste of that meat making a difference (for example, my pieces of steak, here, at Keens, did benefit from the nuances that an educated palate would detect as nuances that can only come from a competently dry aged piece of quality meat). And you do all of that better than at most other steakhouses, which is the case of Keens. You stop being first class the day your steak costs an arm and a leg only to have the taste and feel of a generic-tasting piece of meat that you would buy at the supermarket (the case of one so-called legendary steakhouse right here in The old Montreal …). Keens has nothing to do with an outdated steakhouse. For his steaks, Keens is still one of NYC’s very best. I was not in love with the sides, but again, this was (more of) a matter of preference (at the exception of the mushrooms) rather than the sides being faulty. They need to control the temperature of those oysters, though. My number 1 North American steakhouse is still Peter Luger (the one in Brooklyn) , but that takes nothing away from the superb steaks of Keens. The service and ambience at Keens are also great. One of my preferred chophouses in NYC. I loved Keens steakhouse! Steaks (9/10), Appetizers (7/10), Sides (6/10 ), Service (8/10 ) – Keens steakhouse Addr: 72 West 36th St. New York, NY 10018 Phone: 212-947-3636 URL: http://www.keens.com
I am a massive fan of beef. I am particularly partial to the popular Aberdeen Angus, but I also like the Rubia Gallega (Galician beef), the Belted Galloway, the Hereford, the Chianina, the Blonde d’Aquitaine and the Holstein. Nowadays, thanks to E-commerce, everything can be shipped to you from anywhere in the world, therefore there is no need to fly to a specific destination in order to enjoy their beef. Just order them online through reliable sources. And if you know how to search properly, you also have ranches and butcher’s shops across North America that can supply some of these meats . Anyways, once every 2 or 3 months, since I currently live in North America, I love charcoal grilling a nice 2-inch-thick dry-aged (the best effect, for me, is when it hits 35 days of Dry aging) 20 oz Bone-in rib eye steak of USDA Prime quality, cooked medium-rare with bold beefy flavor and a superb glass of red wine.
T
An anonymous Montrealer's Michelin Star dinners 
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