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Review content:
I wish I could give this place one more star at the very least. It came highly recommended from zagat (for service) and from some of my friends either through 2nd hand knowledge or first hand knowledge. However, at some point, the compulsion to make things ""special"" or ""unique"" can really make something that has the potential to be amazing, just...ok.
When we arrived at the restaurant it was surprisingly unassuming from the outside. But once inside, you see a window into their t-bone steak drying rack. I stopped in my tracks and gawked at the meat on display.
We were seated and our server introduced us to the menu, the special steak menu, the drink menu, and the wine menu. He then proceeded to tell us he came here the day before on his day off and all the amazing things he ordered.
We ordered the following items:
Dirty Martini (for my date) - the 1st was amazing, the 2nd was not so good we think the 2nd was made with sub premium vodka.
Sidecar (for me) - one of the best sidecars I've had. they put 3 brandied cherries into it. I ate one, and the flavor of the cherries was definitely a good addition to the drink but not meant to be eaten.
We shared everything else:
Hamachi shooters - a little bland but overall yummy.
T-Bone steak with three salts and grilled lemon - very well done and the pairing with the salts was very appropriate. I disagree with some of the other reviews, this place definitely knows its way around a steak. The steak was perfectly prepared to our requested medium rare.
Tony's potatoes - greasy, heavy, and the bacon chunks were overpowering, bacon to potato ratio was 1:1.
Corn Succotash - the best part of the meal. sweet, savory, fresh, and the perfect side dish for the steak.
Plum Panna Cotta - not really plum flavored but it was accompanied by this lovely sorbet.
With your meal, you get an amuse bouche, a intermezzo, and another palate cleanser. Our amuse bouche was much to my squeal-y delight was a foie gras mousse with an apple foam. I'm not a foam fan but the foie gras mousse was...AWESOME. The intermezzo was a white asparagus soup. It was the best asparagus soup I've ever had. A perfect balance of cream and the fresh floral asparagus flavor. The palate cleanser was a truffled passion fruit granita. I was very amused by this restaurants obsession with foie gras because it matches my own unabashed loved for the ultimate indulgence. However, my date and I were less impressed by their overuse of truffle oil. It was in the hamachi shooters, the mac and cheese, the granita, and the fries. (we didn't order the mac and cheese and fries because of that.)
This brings me to the headline...sometimes you don't need to go over the top. Sometimes the best dishes are the ones where you don't add that extra touch. Our favorite items of the night were the most simple. The soup, the steak, and the corn succotash.
The service is amazing. They are incredibly attentive there, sometimes annoyingly so because you can't finish a topic of conversation without the guy hoovering to see if you're enjoying every bit of your meal. He made it up to us though, by giving us the asparagus soup intermezzo and dessert on the house. (btw, we asked them to put the ginger puree from the dessert on the side. again because it wasn't needed.) We ended the night with their cherry cotton candy. A very nice touch.
We were seated in between two tables where the guys were obviously trying to impress the women. The women were definitely enjoying their foray into fine dining. Alexander's is IMPRESSIVE. It is also Pricey...and a bit over the top.
I would go back if I needed a foie gras fix but other than that, I don't think it's as good as it could be. I guess I'm annoyed by the fact that they try to do everything ""unique"" but the extra stuff isn't always a good thing. Sometimes just because you can...doesn't mean you should.
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