Just took our Astrea team to dinner there last week. Pretty fun experience. Definitely cater a lot to the visual presentation aspect but they also grill the steak for you tableside. Have to let them know how you like it as from what I’ve heard from others is they tend to grill it toward medium as the servers are doing a million things at once.
We did the tasting menu with some add ons.
Curry with Spiny lobster was killer (add on) - mild spice but very rich as they use wagyu fat to give it texture and sweetness.I can imagine someone not liking this as much as I did as it does have a sweetness to it that is not typical of that style of curry, but it goes great with rice.
I really really like the Caviar/Uni/Tartare dish. I’ve had that a couple times now there and it’s a fantastic dish. Seems to be universally seen as their best non grilled dish.
Also their house ponzu for their oysters is really fantastic, this is coming from someone who typically eats oysters plain.
I thought the scallop was over cooked and a bit too much butter, that was my one critique my wife and I both shared on the meal.
I can’t speak to beef quality itself as I don’t eat beef, but we brought my 6 year old and another staff member’s 11 year old and they were clamoring for more beef the whole dinner. And all the staff seemed to really enjoy the dinner. But definitely make sure you watch them in regards to cooking the beef temp.
It was a long dinner though, most likely because of all the additional things as we added in four additional large items but it was close to 3 hours. Service is really warm. Servers are attentive. I believe they are still looking for more runners/support FOH as the bussers/runners were outnumbered by the servers so they were hustling all over the fairly large restaurant. Still training a lot of new staff so there were definite lulls between clearing plates/finished dishes/getting cocktails from the bar, but I think those things will be ironed out pretty quick as the restaurant group in general is really on top of these type of things.
standard disclaimer- they are an astrea client. We take our staff often to our client restaurants when able. I try not to shill and try my best to speak plainly and truthfully.
Thanks for the review.
This has to be some kind of a record (by miles) for number of yelp photos of a new place.
TMZ runs fewer JLo pics!
should be zero surprise that restaurants engage in promotion/marketing by offering free meals for reviews to high level accounts.
Not to be stickler but without disclosure of the free meal those reviews are illegal
I would be ok with the promo if the high level account was @PorkyBelly and not some random schmo on Yelp.
Unfortunately every yelp elite feels like they are porky lol
The trick is, it’s probably only illegal for the reviewer to not disclose it. Restaurant can get away (legally) for comped meals in exchange for a review, although it will be against Yelp’s policy. Enforcement action against individual influencers is probably not scalable, you could only really focus on the bigger ones and hope to make an example of someone.
Fortunately that’s not true but as you mentioned enforcement is lax and there’s just too much “influencing” and advertising to police.
Federal Register :: Request Access. Relevant sections below:
(d) Advertisers are subject to liability for misleading or unsubstantiated statements made through endorsements or for failing to disclose unexpected material connections between themselves and their endorsers. (See § 255.5.) An advertiser may be liable for a deceptive endorsement even when the endorser is not liable. Advertisers should:
(1) Provide guidance to their endorsers on the need to ensure that their statements are not misleading and to disclose unexpected material connections;
(2) Monitor their endorsers’ compliance; and
(3) Take action sufficient to remedy non-compliance and prevent future non-compliance. While not a safe harbor, good faith and effective guidance, monitoring, and remedial action should reduce the incidence of deceptive claims and reduce an advertiser’s odds of facing a Commission enforcement action.
Today I learned!
Anyone want to talk me out of going tomorrow? My logic is: A5 wagyu will be good no matter what they do to it.
Tell em no fruit sauce on your meat and it’ll be fine
Alright. Yeah if they put fruit sauce on my wagyu I will definitely be upset.
It’s fairly good, from what I’ve heard. (disclaimer: The owner is an acquaintance of mine)
Peony: I like the steak, but I’m not impressed by the other dishes.
Warrior: This is more of a baller restaurant than a foodie restaurant, but I’d go back. The food is fine. The wine list is good but absurdly skewed toward the super-high end. Like, one bottle of brunello and six bottles of Romanee Conti. Also, while I like the staff, the casual vibe is inconsistent with the luxury dining experience they seem to be aiming for. I’ve been to several steakhouses of similar or lesser food quality but a much more sophisticated feel. I didn’t meet the sommelier who serves the $30k Romanee Conti, but I’d believe it if you told me it’s a 20 year old bartender, or just the waitstaff.
wow they’ve really changed their concept.
I don’t see that that law applies since a Yelp review is not advertising. If a restaurant quoted a review in its advertising without disclosing that the meal was comped in exchange for the review, then the law would apply.
I don’t think the Consumer Review Fairness Act applies either, since the offer doesn’t require that the reviews be positive.
I’d probably take the technology transactions lawyer’s word for it…but enforcement is and will be lax for it regardless.
The rules also don’t specifically forbid giving legitimate customers a gift card for leaving a review, so long as they’re not required to express a particular opinion …
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/06/30/fake-reviews-online-ftc/