A big downtown letdown
Written: Feb 26 '03 (Updated Feb 26 '03)
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Pros: excellent wine service (including numerous half-bottles); validated parking
Cons: zooishly busy; food quality doesn't come close to justifying the prices
The Bottom Line: How bad was it? We had an offer from their Website: you present the voucher with your check, and they mail a coupon for two free entrees. We didn't bother.
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| anitaepler's Full Review: Union Square Grill |
My husband and I went to the Union Square Grill for dinner last Friday. Before we even sat down, I knew the place had serious problems. They had lost our reservation (I was glad I had the confirmation email with me), and the place was so mobbed there was a five-woman line for the bathroom!
Our starters -- two different salads with two types of lettuce -- were both sodden with none-too-tasty dressing and made with freezer-burned lettuce (it happens sometimes when a head of lettuce sits on the bottom the the fridge or too close to the condenser -- it gets simultaneously tough and limp, with overlarge, dark veins). Mine included some hazelnuts that were close to rancid; certainly off-tasting and soft enough to show they were well past their prime. The bland blue cheese crumbled over my husband's salad was so hard it was feta-like.
My steak, the Prime Delmonico, was pretty good: properly charred, nice temperature, good beefy taste of well-aged meat. Was it a $45+ steak, though? Nope. I've had better at upscale chain steakhouses. My baked potato tasted like it had been spent some serious time in a steam table after its stint in the oven, and the accompanying asparagus was overcooked to the point of grey-green limpness.
My husband's experience was even worse. He ordered the Prime Porterhouse, the signature steak and the most expensive item on the menu at around $50. It was terrible. Measuring well under an inch thick, you could tell it was bad even before the waiter even put it on the table. It was a pale grey diner-style steak almost flopping over the edge of the plate. My husband said it tasted gamey, like horsemeat, and when I tasted it myself... he was right! It had no crust, it wasn't warm, and it had a terrible texture. Someone in the kitchen should have spotted this turkey a mile off; barring that, the waiter should have noticed something was amiss. I couldn't believe that it had come from the same restaurant as my own. He didn't get a chance to taste his garlic mashed potatoes before we sent the whole mess back, but they looked gluey to me.
He ended up eating half of my steak and some creamed spinach, which we ordered as a side. It was too watery (like it hadn't been blanched and/or drained before going into the cream) but overall was very tasty.
Good things: the wine service was excellent, and they had many good wines by the half-bottle. And if you go after 7:30 (when the crowds clear out for the theatre) you can have the place to yourself. They validate parking in the Union Square Garage. And the manager did really seem to care about the bad steak.
At these prices, though, you really do deserve better. Even after they'd comped us for my husband's steak and salad, we still left more than $100 lighter.
Recommended:
No
Kid Friendliness: No
Vegetarian Friendly: No
Best Suited For: Business
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Epinions.com ID:
anitaepler
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Member: Anita C.
Location: Seattle, WA
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
Professional travel writer/editor for a major travel website.
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