Ben and Jack’s Steakhouse
A couple weeks ago, a marketing company contacted me regarding a new steakhouse, Ben and Jack’s, that recently opened. I was slightly intrigued because I love steak (see my reviews of Peter Luger’s, Dylan Prime, The Capital Grille, Del Frisco’s and Striphouse) and the two owners, Ben and Jack, used to work at Peter Luger’s. I didn’t do anything with the e-mail, but a week later, I received an invitiation to dine at the steakhouse (from the same marketing firm), so I rounded up the troops (David and Joe) and arranged for a dinner at the restaurant:
The restaurant is walking distance from Madison Square Park and is quite large (it’s two floors and 10,000 square feet) – quite different from Peter Luger’s, but kind of similar to Del Frisco’s. I knew exactly what I wanted to order (for all three of us, actually). The waiter started our meal off with some onion rolls:
The onion rolls were served with cold butter – I wasn’t that big of a fan, but I think it’s because there weren’t enough pieces of onion in the bread (something Luger’s has mastered). Well, I didn’t want to fill myself with bread, anyway, because our appetizers came out really quickly. What did we order, you wonder? Sizzling Canadian bacon:
I absolutely LOVE bacon (who in their right mind doesn’t?) and the pieces at Ben and Jack’s were AMAZING. I mean, MUCH better than the pieces I’ve eaten at Peter Luger’s. The bacon was leaner, juicier, and had a great smokey flavor. We all wanted to order more pieces (at $2.95 a piece, it’s kind of hard not to over-indulge, but I had to remind everyone that we were getting a lot of dishes so we should save room for the awesome food to come).
For our main courses, David and I shared the steak for two (although in all seriousness, I probably could’ve eaten the majority of the steak myself):
and Joe ordered the Strip steak (although we all shared everything so it wasn’t a big deal):
I also ordered two sides – the creamed spinach:
and the German potatoes:
A photograph of the three of us with all of our dishes:
The steak for two was served on a hot plate with sizzling butter and was tender, juicy, and cooked very well (medium rare for all the steaks we ordered). The meat was marbled very well and dry aged (in house). The waiter served us our first portions for everything and was very attentive – I felt like my plate just refreshed itself with steak, creamed spinach, and potatoes! The strip steak was also juicy (I almost think it was better than the steak for two!). Here’s a picture of David enjoying his meal:
David wanted me to mention that he really liked how the beer was served in super chilled glasses so the beer stayed cold the entire time. Here’s a pic of Joe using some of the signature sauce from Ben and Jack’s (similar to a cocktail sauce and I really disliked it the first time I had the sauce at Peter Luger’s, but for some reason, it just tastes right):
And me with a huge plate of food (the first plate of many):
A close-up of my plate:
The creamed spinach was also really delicious because it tasted more like spinach than heavy cream and butter (I didn’t OD on it this time like when I ate so much of it at Striphouse that I ended up violently ill). Our other side dish, the German potatoes, was another good choice – the dish is almost like and order of hash browns with onions and great pieces of slightly crisped potatoes.
After we finished our steaks, spinach, and German potatoes, David and I were still in the mood for something sweet. How did we fit so much food in our stomachs? I have no idea, but I was seriously in the mood for dessert, so we decided to share the chocolate mousse cake:
The mousse was very soft and fluffy and even though Joe said he didn’t have enough room for dessert, he probably ate the most.
Overall, we had a really enjoyable meal at Ben and Jack’s Steakhouse – the food was excellent and the service was attentive and not overbearing (and, to show that the owners have really put a lot of effort into the opening of their new steakhouse, Ben and Jack were both at the restaurant).
