Ben & Jacks - quick review
My DW and I went to Ben & Jack's Steakhouse on the spur -of- the moment at 11pm on Friday night. It is was our first trip to B&J's and we have both been to Luger's a couple of times.
The service was professional and expectedly a little brusqe -part of the charm of a steakhouse in my opinion.
The room is very loud and charmless. We were seated in the middle of the dining room, so it is possible that the acloves are more intimate. The smell of steak is overwhelming, though it certainly peaked out appetites.
The apps were standard and good: A large good pile fresh crab-meat, and a flavorful plate of crisp thick-cut bacon.
Sides: Cream of Spinach, way too salty, inedible. Steamed Brocolli, fine.
Steak for Two: Honestly this the first Porter-house I have ever had that was tough from top to bottom, and side to side. Even the filet side was chewy. It is pretty inexplicable because it came MR in the middle (as we ordered it). The outside was so crisp that my DW was convinced they dropped to the whole thing in the fryer after they sliced it. The amount of grease (they call it juice) that the meat was soaking in seems to support her theory, though I suspect it was butter.
We may well have been the last table served by the kitchen that night, which may have caused caused this ($200 with wine) debacle, but the bottom line is that this was the worst steak I have had in NYC in a long time. I much prefer the Palm Too, Spark's, and Smith & Wollensky's Grill (even Jordan's)which are within walking distance of B&J.
