Delmonico's Steakhouse in The Financial District

So we made it to Delmonico's Steakhouse, the famous restaurant in the Financial District that gave us the Delmonico steak as well as the Delmonico potatoes that I saw few times on restaurants' menus. This old school steakhouse is an institution and steak lovers cannot miss trying it, similarly to going to Peter Luger. Delmonico's is located in an amazing building on Baxter St, and when you enter inside, you are mesmerized by the decor that can seem heavy, and gives the impression the atmosphere will be stuffy. It was not the case and the patrons were from various backgrounds and dressed in many ways: elegant to casual. One thing I truly appreciated was the noise level that was perfect, allowing us to have a nice conversation while enjoying our food.

The only small inconvenience was that we were seated next to the wine cellar and we kept having the staff going back and forth in it. Otherwise, everything was on point: good service for sure and food to our liking. As I was going to have a steak, I paired my meal with a glass of Pinot Noir from California La fenetre "a cote" 2013.

Glass of Pinot Noir La Fenetre "A cote" 2013 California at Delmonico's Steakhouse in The Financial District

So, after we ordered, they brought us a bread basket with some whipped butter, fairly standard for a steakhouse.

For appetizer, I went for the blue crab cake and bacon. I thought it was a good idea to combine two popular steakhouse items in one single dish: it makes the choice for appetizer easier as I love both. And these were perfect: the bacon was deliciously smokey, fatty, with a crispy outside and the crab cake was really letting the lump crab shine, avoiding stuffing the whole thing with fillers.

Blue crab cake and Billy's bacon at Delmonico's Steakhouse in The Financial District

We were then ready for steaks. They have two sections: staples with their signature Delmonico steak, as well as on the bone.

Steak knife at Delmonico's Steakhouse in The Financial District

Jodi decided to go for the filet mignon:

Filet mignon at Delmonico's Steakhouse in The Financial District

On my side, I really hesitated between their Delmonico steak that is a boneless ribeye and their bone-in ribeye. In all cases I wanted the ribeye and finally decided to try their signature dish.

Delmonico's steak at Delmonico's Steakhouse in The Financial District

Both steaks looked fantastic and had a nice char. The ribeye was topped with fried onions. In term of temperature, mine was perfect, medium rare, but Jodi who ordered her filet medium got a cut cooked more medium rare.

Both cuts were delicious, tasty and juicy, as well as very tender. We accompanied our steaks with a succulent bearnaise sauce. You can add toppings to your steaks, like foie gras, lobster, etc. and my only regret was that there was not any bone marrow...

Bearnaise sauce at Delmonico's Steakhouse in The Financial District

As a side, we went for the onion rings with buttermilk blue cheese sauce, lots of blue cheese sauce with delicious chunks, definitely a side I recommend.

Onion rings at Delmonico's Steakhouse in The Financial District

Last was dessert. We decided to go with their signature: the baked Alaska. Created by Charles Ranhofer 1867, it is made of walnut cake, banana gelato and meringue, and served with apricot jam.

Baked Alaska at Delmonico's Steakhouse in The Financial District

The presentation was fantastic with the meringue nicely flambéed. It was sublime, at the exception of the walnut cake that I thought did not go well with the rest. So guess what? I ate everything except the cake...

It was overall a good dinner, a bit pricey, but good. I was glad to try such institution, but was not as enthiusastic when I left as it was the case with similar old school establishments like Peter Luger or The Old Homestead. Would I go back? Not sure: there are so many steakhouses out there that have much better steaks at lower prices. I prefer continuing my exploration of New York steakhouses.

Enjoy (I did)!

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