The Happy Return of Restaurant Week

Yes, my absolute favorite time of the year is back!  Restaurant Week!  Because I'm trying to save pennies, I only made two reservations for this summer's iteration.  We'll see if I can resist the temptation of trying more restaurants...

One of my bosses enjoys trying new restaurants as well.  When I saw that a Food Network Iron Chef (are they ever bringing Iron Chef America back to the air?  I hope so!) has a new steakhouse in midtown and that they were participating in Restaurant Week, I knew that place had to get one of my slots. Steakhouses aren't normally my thing, but RW is a safe time to try new places, and it has been forever since I've had a good steak.  American Cut has a location in Tribeca as well, but I think this midtown spot is relatively new.  I e-mailed a PDF of the lunch menu to my boss and he agreed it sounded great, so off we went.

Well, there were a couple of reservation snafus.  I couldn't get the website to work for me at American Cut at all.  It kept telling me all of the reservation slots were filled.  So I got on the phone and called the restaurant (sigh, SO old-fashioned) to see if they were indeed full for the entire three weeks of the promotion.  The very nice gent on the phone said they were not full, and he would be happy to take my reservation.  Not having a confirmation e-mail made me a tad nervous, but when I got a call the day before my lunch confirming the reservation, I breathed a sigh of relief.  When I got a call on my cell phone as I was walking to the restaurant (we were about five minutes late), I was a little annoyed.  Aren't they supposed to hold your table for fifteen minutes?  And when we got there, it wasn't even full!  But I'm going to chalk the reservation issues up to the restaurant being a new one and won't let it affect my opinion of the spot as a whole.

American Cut is alongside the Lombardy Hotel on the east side.  It's a lovely spot, all chrome and wood, very airy and not too loud.  I liked all of the banquettes on the side, they were very roomy and made a nice homey atmosphere.  Before we went to American Cut, I had sent my boss the lunch menu.  When we arrived last Friday, we were a little surprised to see that the menu had changed a bit.  I was a little disappointed, because a couple of things I had really wanted to try were no longer available, but oh well.  Our very pleasant server told us that homemade biscuits were being made for us and would come shortly.  My boss and I both ordered the same three-course lunch, surprisingly, and I added the special RW glass of wine.  It was an additional cost, but I do enjoy a glass of red wine with steak. The malbec was perfect.

For our first course, we got the OG 1924 Hotel Salad, which was basically a caesar salad, with lots of parmiggiano reggiano, croutons and a soft egg.  It was delicious and slightly spicy.  I think my boss was a little disappointed in the size of the salad, but it was just right for me.  He and I often have discussions about 'big plate restaurants.'  I don't think American Cut falls into that classification - and I was proved right by our second course. Oh, and disappointingly, the biscuits did not arrive until after the salad course, but they were delicious, with caraway seeds and maybe some honey, and piping hot out of the oven.  Maybe they're still working on the timing.

We got the skirt steak with chimichurri sauce.  We were both entitled to a side dish, so we got two to try more food (our server's suggestion, since the sides come in a small chafing dish separate from the main course).  We got the tater tots (hello, there is no possible situation on this planet where tater tots are on a menu and I don't order them) and the glazed carrots with mint and Maldon salt.  This was seriously a substantial and delicious portion of perfectly cooked steak.  It was tender and juicy and the chimichurri added just the right note of herbs and fat.  Yum yummy.  The tater tots were great, of course they were, and the carrots were also delicious.  Perfectly al dente, creamy from the (I think) butter glaze and the mint and the salt added just the right amount of savory to go with the inherent sweetness.  Just a delicious meal, but not heavy, just satisfying.

Dessert was where they changed the lunch menu most disappointingly.  When we first saw the menu, there were two choices, one of which was a Cracker Jack sundae.  When we got to the actual lunch, it was changed to salted chocolate chip cookies.  Tasty, I'm sure, but nowhere near the ballpark of wonderfulness that a Cracker Jack sundae would be! But our server told us we could order off the dessert menu, it would just cost extra.  Since I had ordered an extra glass of wine (which paired amazingly with both the salad and the steak), my boss decided to go ahead and order that sundae and we could share it. Hurray! And boy, was it worth it!  Popcorn ice cream, caramel sauce, peanut brittle, and caramel popcorn.  Shut up.  Incredible.  And so large, it was a good thing we shared it, because it probably would've been a little too much to eat the whole thing.  Well, for me, anyway. Hearing those ingredients described, you would think the sundae would be a sugar bomb, but it didn't taste like one.  There was enough saltiness from the peanuts and popcorn that they counteracted all the sweetness of the caramel.  Thumbs WAY up for this dessert!  And our server brought us our cookies anyway, which were prepackaged, so we could take them home!  I had them over the weekend and they were quite tasty!

All in all, I really enjoyed going to American Cut and would be happy to go back, even with the timing issues and the reservation snafus.  Their fish of the day sounded delightful and the AC burger also sounded delicious.  Maybe for next year's Restaurant Week, a return visit would be in order...