Ok so I was really intrigued by the 150 and 220 day aged steaks reported by @Clayfu recently. Stopped by for dinner to check it out, inquired about it but I think I ended up concluding there was only 100ish day on the low end and the 365 day anniversary limited edition. Waiter seemed confused about the availability of the 200 day… oh well. Went with the bone-in 100ish day for $57
The good: The aging was tasty and better than one I ordered from La Frieda a few years ago. Definitely more mushroomy than bleu cheese. Good QPR for $57
The bad:
- steak came out medium as I ordered but looked like it received the count Dracula treatment. This steak was sliced very thin, salamandered without any fat and came out basically bone dry… The Luger thing does not have a universal application. Less is more…
- I had a tough time ordering a salad or appetizer, everything just sounded so heavy and overdone. I really just wanted a simple green salad… or some steamed veges. There really isn’t a lot of variety on the menu.
- The dining room, augh. This has got to be one of the most dark depressing places to be in - feels like they were going for a speakeasy / saloon type vibe but when the IDs presented the plan, they decided to significantly scale back on the budget. It really felt unfinished & cheap. & WTH is up with the window at the kitchen, you can’t see anything besides the heads of the chefs.The flow of the room was awful too. @Chowseeker1999 laid in pretty heavily on them too
I felt Maggiano’s is a much more pleasant place to be. - The stupid $950 knife. Seriously he wants to charge $950 for a knife maker’s trainee knife??? To make things worst, it really wasn’t very sharp. Someone was slacking off the sharpening duties. I’ll take my off-the-shelf Laguiole knife any day. Frankly would have cost him less money & sweat than forging his own knives and would have left a better impression.
- The place was basically crickets at peak dining hours… made the depressing room even more miserable. For APL’s sake, I hope this is an anomaly.
The same few adjectives keep ringing in my head throughout dinner - cheap, diner, cafeteria, austere, airport dining, bad hotel chain restaurant, theme park dining. Thank god I didn’t bring anyone with me. Honestly for a steakhouse that typically relies on expense account dining, APL really fell short. I’d be seriously pissed if someone brought me here for an expense account dinner. It was the antithesis of a steakhouse and not in a good way.
Left me bewildered given APL’s pedigree.