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Os Mutantes - "Baby" |
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Sunday Paul and I went out to Acme Chophouse for Dine About Town, hoping to get a taste of some expensive steak for cheapy. Ha! Once again, the normal menu tempted us, what with its fresh local oysters and wood-grilled filet mignon. So we started with a dozen Hog Island oysters, which were amazing. Oysters are often described as tasting of the ocean, and most oysters do have that wonderful briny taste, but slurping these little guys was like drinking seawater straight. This is not a bad thing. :) They had a fresh, clean taste to them, and were great with a little lemon. They also came with a sharp mignonette, which is not my favorite dip for oysters but was pretty good, and a cocktail sauce that was more chili sauce than anything--I would have preferred just some freshly-grated horseradish instead.
They offer three steaks. In descending order of price: Ribeye, filet mignon, and a cheaper butcher cut. Sunday's butcher cut was flatiron, which was also the steak choice on the promotional menu. We both ordered filets. They arrived quickly, and came with a small frisee salad and three sauces: chimichurri, bearnaise sauce, and blue cheese-shallot butter. The steaks were absolutely perfect, nice and crunchy on the outside and beautifully medium-rare on the inside. They had such a great flavor by themselves that Paul didn't even need to salt his, which is nothing short of a miracle, but we tried the sauces anyway, because, hey, who doesn't like sauce? I actually didn't like the bearnaise, but it was the first time I'd ever had it so it's quite likely I just don't like bearnaise sauce (just Googled the recipe--it has tarragon in it? No wonder I don't like it). The chimichurri was great, though, and the blue cheese-shallot butter had a very nice bite to it. And speaking of bite, I was rather surprised to find I liked the little salad. I generally hate frisee because it's so bitter, but this wasn't bitter at all. I don't know if they did something to it or if frisee is just better in California, but I was impressed. Like all other high-priced old-school steakhouses, you have to order your sides separately at Acme. They had your standard steakhouse sides: fries, creamed spinach, mashed potatoes, etc. Paul got the mashed potatoes, and I tried to get the scalloped potatoes, but Paul reminded me that not everyone likes potatoes in the massive quantities I do, and that we were at a new restaurant and therefore should be trying a variety of things, so I got the creamed spinach instead. Both were excellent, but the creamed spinach was especially good. Perfectly cooked, perfectly creamy, and like the frisee, surpisingly not bitter.
For some reason we both thought we had room for dessert, so we took a look at the dessert menu. Bad idea. I am physically incapable of resisting the charms of a s'mores sundae. I got that, and Paul got the bread pudding with caramelized apples and vanilla ice cream. My sundae was a work of art, with homemade graham cracker triangles, strips of homemade marshmallow run under the blowtorch so they were nice and half-burned, and a square of brownie, all arranged precariously atop a scoop of ice cream. It was very, very good, but I didn't even get halfway through it before realizing what a bad idea ordering dessert was. I really think I should just stop ordering dessert in restaurants from now on, it's always too much. I tried a bite of Paul's bread pudding, but the sweetness of my sundae was so overwhelming I couldn't taste much of his. He liked it, though.
It was a wonderful meal, and I'm already craving the creamed spinach again, but I don't know if we'll be going back, because it was rather pricey. With oysters, steaks, sides, dessert, and a glass of wine each, it came out to be about the same as a weekend dinner at Chez Panisse, for a little less food and a lot less wine. I don't mind paying for good food, but I'm not sure that particular meal was quite worth the price. Of course, if we leave out the oysters (which were definitely a tad overpriced at $2 apiece for local shellfish), and skip dessert next time... :)
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