Prime Grill

December 5, 2006.
The much-awaited Prime Grill has formally opened to the public. We ate there on their second night and had an interesting but ultimately painful dining experience.
Our reservation was for 7:30pm. They had us wait in the bar/lounge area, which is beautiful, while our table was made ready. We ordered some drinks, which were okay ($15 for a berry martini, $16 for a shot of Talisker). For whatever reason, they do not allow you to transfer your bar tab to the restaurant tab so if you are enjoying a drink before eating you need to close out before going to sit down for dinner.
We were seated in the main dining room around 8pm. Even once the room was completely full, it was fairly quiet and didn’t feel like the typical kosher restaurant where you can’t hear yourself think. We put in our order for appetizers and asked the waiter to come back for our entrées as we were having difficulty choosing. They were not able to accommodate the request due to the confusion it might cause in the kitchen so we were rushed to come up with our mains as well. The women were brought little stools for their handbags - very classy touch.
The menu itself is extensive, some sort of steakhouse/Asian fusion style that is similar to the owner’s other locations in New York. For the most part we stayed away from the Asian part of the menu as we were there for steak.
We should have gotten the hint that the meal would take longer then expected when we waited 20 minutes for our appetizers. The steamed salmon dumplings that I ordered were substituted for fried beef dumplings (the waiter told me they were out of the salmon and offered me the beef option). I was a bit annoyed at the fried thing but figured, might as well go with it. They were horrible. Cohen’s frozen crepelach are superior to the dish I received. They were out of beef jerky so we substituted it for their homemade sausages, which were average. For some reason, they left the higher priced jerky on our bill (something we didn’t realize until today). The chicken tenders are the same little pieces of schnitzel you can get at La Gondola or Pats but with less meat, not worth the $12. The steak and scallion roll were little nubs of chewy soy flavored meat wrapped around some green onion. Nope. Our best appetizer was the duck confit spring rolls. The wrapping was delicate and crispy and they were stuffed with tasty duck that had been slow cooked in its own fat. The accompanying dip tasted like cranberry ketchup. On a spring roll meter of 1 to 10 with 1 being Chicken Chow and 10 being Abigail’s stuffed brisket egg roll, these were a 7. Our friend had the chicken minestrone soup and said it was delicious.
A team of 4 waiters and busboys removed all the plates and extraneous cutlery in one fell swoop. When I returned to the table from the restroom (very clean, incense smelling, fancy soap, printed napkins that feel like cloth but no rocks in the urinal) my napkin had been neatly folded for me. This was all very cool. Another busboy then proceeded to sweep off all crumbs from the table leaving us with a perfectly clean surface with which to enjoy our mains. Here came the problem. Our mains were not arriving. We waited and waited until maybe 40 minutes later they brought out our steaks.
All steaks were accompanied by a tomato mush and some crispy onion slivers. The waiter kind of expects you to order sides (I felt a bit pushed into ordering them). The caramelized onion “sauce” that I ordered for $2 was a bowl of lukewarm sautéed onions similar to what they put on your hotdog at Jeffs when you ask for grilled onions. There was no “sauce”. The waiter never put in the order for the sautéed Asian peppers so they brought us another steamed garden vegetables for free. They brought 3 additional sauces that showed up after we had all finished most of our steaks. The actual meat was solid. Unfortunately the menu doesn’t tell you what distinguishes each steak from another and the waiter doesn’t either (“his contribution was the Angus is the best and the Reserve is the second best”, huh?). Size is part of it but they all have different names and prices that mean nothing like Park Avenue, Reserve Cut, Ladies Cut, Prime Grill Filet. They are all rib steaks, which adds to the confusion. The menu states “all our meat is hand picked and either dry aged for 32 days or wet aged for 45 days….” Okay, which ones are dry aged and which ones wet? They don’t tell you. I got the Ladies Cut, an average 16 oz ribeye not nearly as good as the one from Shilo’s. The Reserve seemed juicier although it was much smaller. Why was it better, dunno. The Black Angus was excellent but at $60, way overpriced. They were out of the Bison which was supposed to be the evening’s special.
After all this you would think that dessert would be something great. They had 3 offerings. Fruit plate, assortment of sorbet and molten chocolate cake. The assortment of sorbet was actually one scoop of raspberry sorbet for $12. The molten chocolate in the words of one of the diners was “not as good as the one from La Gondola” which you can purchase frozen and any kosher market. Need I say more? The desserts were certainly a disappointment. They claim to make everything in-house so hopefully these will improve with time.
An interesting note - I saw a friend who is in the meat business eating there last night (he waited almost 2 hours for his food!). I asked if he is supplying them and he is for some of their meat. The rest of it they bring in from New York. I asked if it’s all Rubashkin and he seemed to think that the stuff coming in from NY is Meal Mart. Can you spell Satmar Shchita? Uh oh.
To sum it up, the Prime Grill is certainly the nicest looking kosher restaurant in Los Angeles. The décor is special and you could comfortably bring any non-jewish client or colleague there without shame. The food is really the same as the one in New York. I had forgotten how much I wasn’t impressed when I had eaten there a few years ago. I would still take Abigails or Le Marais over PG any day. With time their kitchen should work out it’s kinks and things will speed up however with things the way they were last night, I would not go back for a very long time.
One last note I want to add is that after going to PG, a restaurant in a family of restaurants, run by experienced people in the trade you would think that they have the system down and yet they don't. It makes me personally that much more impressed with Pat's where the food might not be amazing but they are consistent and with a packed house every night, they crank it out effortlessly.