The Most Awesome Steak Place in Bergen County Is...

[zhelder]

Christian's Steak & Grill in Garfield! This place is awesome. You want great steaks for dirt cheap? Here's the place!

A few weeks ago, my brother took me to Steve's Sizzling Steaks in Carlstadt. Not a high-end place, but according to many people, a solid mid-range steak place. The steaks were good, but not great. Total meal was a porterhouse w horseradish crust and fries, a rib eye w fries, an order of onion rings, and two sodas. Total: $75, before tip.

At Christian's we got an nearly identical meal: a porterhouse with mashed potatoes & vegetables, a rib eye with fries & vegetables, a bowl of chicken orzo soup, and two bottles of soda. Meat sizes were comparable (about 20 oz for the rib eye, probably 24 oz for the porterhouse). Total: $44, before tip. And, the steaks were significantly better than at Steve's! A lot more flavorful and tender.

How do they do it? Well, the owner, Cosmo, in addition to being a great friendly guy, is also a genius. There are no waiters at Christian's. You place your order at the counter, and Cosmo shouts out to you when your order's ready. You pick it up, leave your dishes on the table for one of the army of cooks/buspeople to pick up, and pay when you're done at the counter. Cosmo does have a tip jar at the counter, and he and his crew deserve every tip they get. The place does look a bit like a cafeteria inside, but it is bright, very clean, and comfortable (Steve's had everyone packed in like sardines).

Christian's may not have steaks as great as highbrow places like River Palm, but the steaks there can easily throw down with any steak offered at any low to mid range joint in the area. Plus, you'll probably pay 1/4 the price of what you'd pay at a high-end steak place (heck, it's almost half the price of the mid-range joints)! This is now my go-to steak place! Check it out!

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Christian's Steak & Grill
24 Outwater Ln, Garfield, NJ 07026

Steve's Sizzling Steaks
620 State Rt 17, Carlstadt, NJ 07072

[menton1]

When you see the first line of the OP, "great steaks for dirt cheap" you just gotta know there's a catch somewhere. If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

[cosmic_charlie]

Good info peeps... thanks!
Ill ll be sticking with Steves' Sizzling Steaks (salty sauce on the side, please)

[tommy]

I wouldn't recommend that, either.

[fourunder]

To be fair, My Rib Eye at Christian's was better than any steak I have had at Steve's in the past few years, with regards to tenderness. I do not believe Steve's is a destination place either, but only an option prior to a Meadowlands event.

[fourunder]

I went here this past week for lunch and here's my review. In a nutshell, the place is worth a visit if you are in the area, but it's not a destination place by any means. ...

Last week on a bright sunny day in the low 70's, (I'll explain the relevance shortly), I stopped in for lunch. The place is a nice and seemingly newer storefront with comfortable seating. As the OP states, you view the menu board and place your order. When it is completed, you grab you meal and bring it back to your table. At first when I entered, there were six large men seated, all eating steak platters. I noticed some rib eyes and some other thin steaks, not flank or skirt cuts.

While viewing the board, I asked the person behind the counter cooking the steaks, who I later deduced was/and realized was Cosmo by entering patrons greeting him, I asked him a few questions. ..

* What steak cut is used for the Steak Au Poivre .....Strip Sirloin
* What steak cut is used for the Butcher Steak.........Butcher
* What steak cut is used for the Romanian Steak......Butcher
* Is the Butcher Steak, Top Sirloin....Butcher
* Is the Butcher Steak, Skirt Steak....Butcher
* Is the Butcher Steak Top or Bottom Round.....Butcher
* Can I see the Butcher Steak before it is cooked........Ehhhh, NNNOOO, trust me, you will like anything you order.
* Me.....Yes, but I would like to know the cut of the meat......

* Cosmo.....it comes from the Filet Mignon......

* Me.....Thank you, I'll have the Rib Eye.

What I received was a steak about 10-12 ounces, sightly under 3/4 inch thickness, with Steak Fries(frozen), a medley of fresh broccoli and carrots and 1/4 slice of garlic toast( half a piece of the bottom of a steak roll). My steak was no where near the 20 ounces mentioned by the OP. The meat presented to me very faint grill marks and no char whatsoever. The fries were crisp and well done as ordered and the vegetables were good, but a tad overcooked. The garlic toast, forgettable. The meat though slightly cooked more than the medium-rare temperature requested, was excellent and very tender. Priced at $14.50, I deemed this to be very reasonable and coupled with a bottle of soda, the final tab with tax was $17.89.

I would like to add, that while I was seated, six people entered....four patrons had the Grilled Chicken Hero and two patrons had the Steak Hero. The table adjacent to me said they were popular items and they were frequent visitors. He also added that they passed a number of places to eat there, so they must have a loyal following like the OP.

While I did not receive the warm and friendly reception the OP received, I would go back and give it another try if I were in the area. While I cannot explain the difference in portion sizes I received from the OP's, I can only surmise a month's time in operating has yielded some hard operating and management decisions......oh, and the purpose of stating the weather and temperature.....it was terribly warm/hot inside the restaurant and the air conditioner was not activated.....all that sun comes through the windows and it was like a greenhouse inside.

[tommy]

'butcher steak' is generally from the flank, but is sometimes used interchangeably with flap, which comes from the loin. There is no industry standard that people follow, so the term is almost meaningless.

However, it can't "come from the filet mignon", as 'filet mignon' describes a cut of meat from the tenderloin. It's not part of the animal.

Something is fishy. If the guy knew what he was talking about and was willing to share that information I'd be more apt to give him a visit.

[fourunder]

However, it can't "come from the filet mignon", as 'filet mignon' describes a cut of meat from the tenderloin. It's not part of the animal.

Something is fishy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bingo.....and thus my decision to order the Rib Eye.

[tommy]

i'm with ya. wasn't correcting you, just adding to the discussion. although it could have been construed that you don't like tenderloin, thus your decision.

[fourunder]

I'm with ya too....and I did not take that you were correcting me with any of the specific points of your comments. Bingo was my way of agreeing with you.....he should have been more forthcoming. When the owner responded with the filet mignon explanation, I simply gave up and knew I wasn't going to get the correct information.... or more apprpriately, the information I was seeking.

[tommy]

bingo. bingo.

[menton1]

Christian's Steak: P-A-S-S.

[tommy]

Well, I just had the butcher steak. Not sure what cut it was. It was very very thin, and could have been a pounded out hanger. It had a garlic herb butter on it, so it was tough to discern the flavor.

The fries are of the steak fry variety, likely frozen and from a supplier. Steamed vegetables were obviously way overcooked and limp.

The place is interesting, but I really can't imagine that anyone would have a difficult time making a better steak at home, for the same money or less. For a few extra dollars, you could buy a much better steak at Fairway or any number of stores, and grill it yourself (just about everyone has a grill these days, no?). I'm relatively confident that the steaks are Choice, not Prime, which you can get anywhere.

Seems like banquet or diner food. Edible, but certainly not worth a special trip.

[fourunder]

t,

I may actually answer my own question.....but out of curiosity, what compelled/prompted you, to take one for the team.....especially in ordering the Butcher Steak. Did you consider any other items on the menu?

[tommy]

curiosity. and i ordered the butcher steak to try to figure out what it was, and because it was the only out-of-the-ordinary cut of meat on their menu; i can get rib steak and sirloin anywhere.

since i immersed myself in a discussion on the place, and i had 15 dollars in loose change in my couch, i figured it was the right thing to do, for me. and if it was notable i'd have something to blog about. interesting places are few and far between these days.

had the fries and veggies been notable in any way, i might have come away with a different feeling. it reminded me, somewhat at least, in theory, of a place in Playa del Carmen (called HC de Monterrey), which started as a butcher shop and ended up being a small restaurant that pretty much just serves grilled meats. If this place lost the Sysco fries and steamed veggies, and instead served grilled jalapeno, a half a lime, a half an avocado, and a whole grilled onion wrapped in foil with a bit of Maggi sauce, i would have walked away more impressed.

and I wanted an excuse to walk through Piast in Garfield.

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Piast
800 River Dr, Garfield, NJ 07026

[fourunder]

Piast.....now we're talking about something dear to my heart.......Have you been to the new spot?

[tommy]

nope. just to the one up the road to the north. the place is magical.

[NJfoodLover]

My Husband loves meat, meat and more meat. I will have to check this place out. We can't do $200 steak dinners all the time but for the price this place might be a good casual steak option.