joe whitmarsh blogs
I love Restaurant Week.
Primehouse (381 Park Avenue South) - Restaurant Week, Wed 7/13/11
After reading some great reviews and drooling over their restaurant week menu, I was really looking forward to this meal. Went with a couple of friends from work; Sam, Joe and Steve, and caught a 6:15pm dinner. The place was really clean and sleek but maybe a teeny bit stuffy. It was only about 1/3 full when we sat down but started picking up as we were finishing.
Appetizers - While the Watermelon Gazpacho with green tomato & shrimp salsa was good - better than Blue Smoke’s but not on Perilla’s level - the Crispy Pork Belly with Spicy Apricot Glaze and Cucumber Slaw was amazing and takes the early lead for RW best appetizer. It looked like an extra fat slice of bacon and had a really crispy outside (a strict requirement for my bacon). The actual meat was super smokey and melts right in your mouth.
Entres - It’s too tough to pick between the 7oz New York Strip (w/ Buttermilk Fried Onion Rings and House Made Steak Sauce) and the Grilled Hanger Steak Surf & Turf Oscar (Lump Crab, Asparagus, Béarnaise), but I’m going with the latter. Both steaks impressed us (and the house sauce for the strip steak was great) but the béarnaise and crab gave the hanger steak such a powerful and unique flavor. Sam thought his actual steak was superior, and he might be right, but I thought his dish as whole just wasn’t as interesting. Honestly, you can’t go wrong with either one.
Desserts - The Liquid Chocolate Cake (Gooey Soft Centered Chocolate Cake, Summer Cherry Compote, Coffee Crackle Ice Cream) blew the Key Lime pie out of the water. I’m not even a coffee fan but the ice cream was a perfect with the cake. Just look at the pictures.
Primehouse did not disappoint to say the least, and I will definitely be back for more of that Surf & Turf Oscar. Beyond the stuffy-ish atmosphere, I loved this place. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys some good ol’ red meat - 9/10
Next up: Cercle Rouge
![Sacha Baron Cohen in The Dictator.
[Sacha] Baron Cohen plays a ruthless dictator who heads to the U.S. for a meeting at the United Nations and finds that his number two has replaced him with an unsuspecting sheepherder lookalike. As the dictator wanders the city, he meets the owner of an organic food store… She turns around his dictatorial thinking, and there’s a little romance in it as well.
via /film.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lmjeplFlgi1qzkdhzo1_1280.jpg)
Sacha Baron Cohen in The Dictator.
[Sacha] Baron Cohen plays a ruthless dictator who heads to the U.S. for a meeting at the United Nations and finds that his number two has replaced him with an unsuspecting sheepherder lookalike. As the dictator wanders the city, he meets the owner of an organic food store… She turns around his dictatorial thinking, and there’s a little romance in it as well.
via /film.
