Clean, but too dark inside. It was difficult to see the menu or take proper pictures of the food without additional lighting. Service was excellent, and the server was knowledgeable, although a bit too eager in trying to push specials that he kind of ran over himself getting all the specials out without really giving people time to fully understand what was being offered without having to repeat it twice. Bathrooms were nice and clean, but could also use some brighter lighting.
4.5 out of 5 for food, because while mostly everything I tried was exceptional, there were some areas they could improve on.
The complimentary bread came out hot and fresh, but was under salted. Dipping my bread into salt, plus butter or soup, was a 10/10, but like a 6/10 without it.
Lobster bisque was fantastic as well, but also needs the fresh cracked black pepper and also more salt, but you can really taste the complexity in the flavors instead of it being one note, plus there were actual chunks of lobster in it. One bite was enough to know it was good when I got the warm, buttery, creamy, slightly sweet, and slightly salty flavor with a briny finish like tasting the sea. The splash of sherry helps add that slight nutty flavor, and really helps bring the lobster bisque together, but it did need additional salt added before it was perfect.
The sides we ordered were all well seasoned and perfectly salted and buttery. The potatoes au gratin were very cheesy and had that certain Louisiana flavor that is kind of reminiscent of a crab boil flavor. Not only that, but every side we ordered, like the broccoli and spinach, were all very large portions, maybe three times as big as a normal portion, but for the same price at any other upscale place.
The steaks and lobster tail were all excellent. The lobster tail ($140) was 14 oz of meat I believe, and it was perfectly salted, buttery, plump, and rich, with that slight briny ocean aftertaste. It was perfect with a touch of black pepper.
All the steaks I sampled from the 18 oz prime ribeye, a4 miyazaki ribeye, ny strip outpost 76, akaushi beef, mishima reserve were high quality cuts of beef. Everything came out cooked as requested except for my prime ribeye that I requested as medium but came out partly rare and medium rare. Ribeye is a very fatty cut of meat, and to properly render the fat I would say the ideal temperature is medium, because the fat on my steak was not fully rendered. I brought it up to my server’s attention, and he did offer to cook it a little more for me, but an upscale steakhouse should not be making this sort of mistake with their main attraction point, the steaks. I still enjoyed the cut of meat, but it definitely diminished the full potential of the steak, which would have been acceptable if the fat was fully rendered but still cooked medium rare.
My favorite cut of the night though, from all the steaks I ate, was definitely the a4 miyazaki ribeye which was elevated to another level with that okonomiyaki sauce. In terms of a single bite, that a4 ribeye was the best that I had tonight, and would definitely come back again to try the a5 next time.
For dessert, we had the 24 layer chocolate mousse cake, which I wish could’ve been served warm or hot. The chocolate chips or crisps were very good, and absolutely delicious, but the cake itself, because it was cold, there was a very prominent “refrigerator” aftertaste that was slightly unpleasant, otherwise a fairly good but not exceptional chocolate cake.
It’s a well known steakhouse in the Houston area for a reason, and I will definitely be coming back to try more