Empire Steak House

Summary

We were looking for a decent steak place that was walkable from where we were. The best steak house in my opinion in the city is Keen’s Steakhouse, so expectations were set pretty low. This venue is fairly nice. It’s close to Smith and Wollensky and located inside some hotel. This was one of the few steakhouses at this time that had hardly any people, so one can only think that this place wouldn’t be that good.

The appetizer was just a simple mixed green salad. It came with a variety of lettuces, some cut tomatoes, parmesan, and a really good vinagrette. It’s a little expensive for what it was, but I thought it was refreshing, and it felt healthy.

We ordered the porterhouse for 2. It’s actually a pretty good sized portion.

I usually dislike the filet mignon side, but this was really good. In some ways, I was quite surprised at how tender and flavorful this was such that I preferred this over the New York strip side. Typically, the filet would feel dense with less flavor but soft. But for whatever reason, with the way they aged this porterhouse, it was very tasty. The strip side was OK at best. It was tender in some parts, but slightly medium in others such that it was a little chewy. Still, I think this place is pretty good comparatively to other steak places I’ve been to in the city.

The creamed spinach was also pretty good. It wasn’t overly creamy like other places, nor did it turn into gunk when it cooled down. I’d have to say amongst many of the steakhouses I’ve been to, this place’s creamed spinach is pretty good for the lack of popularity it has.

Final Verdict

It still doesn’t beat Keen’s, but it’s pretty good.

Yelp Jabs

I will preface this by saying that this is the second time that I have been here (also for restaurant week previously). My first experience of it was pretty great so we decided to come again for restaurant week 2019 with some friends.

Reviews for a restaurant during restaurant week should be grouped into the compost review section.

I’m confused why this place has 4 stars on Yelp. I don’t know if the quality is just lower for restaurant week, but based on my experience on Friday, I would not want to come back.

It probably has 4 stars because if you came with decent expectations (i.e. don’t rate based on restaurant week), you might have had a reasonable experience.