Primehouse. Good food. Terrible meal. Twice.

I’ve waited to post this to see if there would be any effort to rectify this situation. As it’s been 10 days, I’m thinking that’s enough time and that nothing will be forthcoming, so here goes:

My girlfriend and I originally went to the opening party and loved it. Shortly thereafter we decided to try it for dinner and we encountered a few problems with our meal. I order mooing. She orders medium to medium well. When it was served, both were very rare. That's fine for me, but not for her so we sent hers back. It came back a second time rare @ best. We sent it back a third time, and it came back med rare. By this time our sides were cold and our wine gone. Three times. Three failures. I basically ate alone as she watched. I did share the outer margin of my ribeye w/her as that was closer to med rare.

The manager on duty that nite was rather mortified and smoothed it over to our satisfaction. Very gracious actually. Took us on a tour or the dry aging room, took her filet off the bill, comped deserts and gave me his business card and promised that if we would ever see fit to give them another chance, he would make sure we had a wonderful evening.

Cut to about 2 wks ago. My girlfriend’s birthday. She’s a major carnivore and wanted to go back to David Burkes and give them a second chance. So now 3-4 months later, I contacted him as instructed and he made the reservations for us. We went back in good faith that we would have an enjoyable evening.

Unfortunately, we had a carbon copy repeat of the first meal we had there. I had the ribeye, which was fine, but they just don't know how to cook a filet medium.

Once again, three tries all undercooked, not one correct, plus after the second attempt a condescending attitude by the manager on duty (a different one). "What do you mean by medium?" How about pink like we originally told the server when we ordered it, not the 3rd time we get it back wrong again?

I was not being difficult. I detest customers like that and rarely tell people I'm in the business or throw that fact around casually to waitstaff. While I may critique a dish to my dining companions, I virtually never send anything back. If I don't like it, I just don't return. Far too many places to spend my money where I know I'll get a good meal that we can all eat together, but I made an exception here because of the managers original (idle) promise.

They tried to make up w/desserts etc... that were not really appreciated as the food once again, was 1/2 eaten while waiting for it and cold by the time we got it. No offer to warm anything up. No questions as to why we weren't eating any longer after a 1/2 hr of pushing our food around the plate while waiting for the birthday girls meal to arrive correctly and then finally asking for doggie bags. We poured our own wine throughout. Oblivious service. We ended up taking it home and I was fuming. This time though they did not see fit to take the entrée off the bill. We were with a friend so I reluctantly let it slide instead of pursuing it @ that time.

I have no problem paying for premium. I do expect to get it in return though. Service as well as food and I'm more than aware when it's not forthcoming. In fact, I'm hypersensitive to that issue. It's hard to be a civilian. But this was not a throwaway drop in the bucket meal for $30 that I'd let a few glaring errors slide. This was an expensive $263 incorrectly prepared meal with additional service glitches on a second try for a special occasion and something they were told about a wk in advance. @ This point, I’ve spent nearly $500 on two substandard meals @ David Burke's Primehouse.

Emails to the original manager I contacted have been met with similar obviously half hearted lame apologies like after the first debacle, although no mention of fixing it in any way. As if I’d give them a third chance. I feel I’ve donated enough to the cause. I can’t imagine dining there without them doing something more than apologizing, ie. comp a meal.

While I can’t fault the quality of the food, the meal was a miserable failure.

Wonderful... I just made a 7:15 res for Friday for me and the folks (visiting from Connecticut). Hope things go better than they did for you Allen.

just don't order anything medium. it seems to escape the kitchen's abilities. erring on the side of caution just gets annoying after the 6th time. truthfully, i'm not the only one that has had this experience among my friends. i'm just the only one that went back for more.

In that case, I feel a bit better. I'm a rare steak guy (just skin it, hold a Zippo under it and put it on a plate ) and the folks are mid-rare people so we should be OK. It still seems crazy that a Chicago steak house that takes the time to dry age their own beef in-house (and, understandably, charges a pretty penny for it) can't find a grill cook that can get his/her temps right.

i very much agree. coincidentally, immediately after posting this i got an email from the nra inviting me to meet david burke @ a booth @ the show next wk blah blah blah. since it had his contact info, i fwd'd the link to him. think he'll respond?

I find this an interesting thread, and as much as people have opinions on favorite steakhouses, this seems inexcusable service to me. Even at Sullivans they bring fresh sides if your meat is undercooked.

nicinchic wrote:I find this an interesting thread, and as much as people have opinions on favorite steakhouses, this seems inexcusable service to me. Even at Sullivans they bring fresh sides if your meat is undercooked.

Funny you should mention Sullivan's. My family visited the Naperville location on Sunday after a wake and for Mother's day. The food was good, but the best service we received was on our way out the door when my mother tore a hole in her pants on an exposed screw on her chair. Overall, one of the worst service meals I've ever had.

Jazzfood,

I've never been to DB's. How thick is the filet? If it is over an inch thick it would be almost impossible to cook to medium using their high temp broilers without turning the entire outside to charcoal. Did the server or manager recommend butterflying the filet?

Flip

If it is over an inch thick it would be almost impossible to cook to medium using their high temp broilers without turning the entire outside to charcoal.

that's no excuse. i'm sure the kitchen is equipped with ovens. they could easily sear the meat in the broiler and finish it in the oven. this is SOP for medium and above.

in addition, most good steakhouses have double or triple-deck broilers that they keep at different temps. higher for searing and for rares, lower for finishing when customers request the meat more cooked.

a steakhouse should never have to butterfly. if someone requests it, fine, but the restaurant shouldn't present it as if it's impossible to cook the meat to the requested degree of doneness without butterflying.

Flip wrote:I've never been to DB's. How thick is the filet?

Flip,

How thick is it? Very damn thick.

Primehouse Bone-in Southside Filet


I'm on record as being a fan of Primehouse, though it certainly seems someone from their organization owes Jazzfood a phone call.

Enjoy,
Gary

that would be restaurant 101. basic procedure. but that also includes common sense.

jazzfood wrote:coincidentally, immediately after posting this i got an email from the nra inviting me to meet david burke @ a booth @ the show next wk

He's challenging you to a duel?

their product is wonderful. i have not issues with that. i wanted to like them. i gave them a second chance after a prior catastrophe. look @ the picture gary has posted. i know a bone in filet can be tricky, i've used it for quite a few years now myself, that's why you have trained professionals cooking your food aka "grilldogs". the person working that station probably gets 200 orders a nite. maybe more. that's just not my problem though, especially @ the 40 odd dollars you're being charged for it.

while i've butterflied well done w/the customers permission in the past, mainly for time savings, i've never had this type of issue w/medium. regardless of how thick or tricky. all i say is if they're not afraid to charge for it, it should be correct and failing that, taken care of correctly. we litterally bagged the remains after the third mistake and left.

had they even taken the offending entree off the bill i would have stopped there. i emailed the manager and got another apology. period. but @ this point, i think it's just wrong. if this had happened in one of my places, and it invariably does, i'd try to smooth it over as best i could, not handle it as it's been handled. i just feel taken.

Personally, I like my meat bloody. I think the great thing about ordering a steak in Chicago is that it is one of the few places where rare really means rare. I have heard people recommend that visitors to our city should order one step higher than they are used to. However, lately when I have dined with people ordering medium or medium well, I have noticed a tendency to under-cook the meat even more. This has happened recently with steaks, lamb and even burgers. I wonder if it is defensive cooking on the part of the kitchen. If a chef is being judged by number of spoiled plates he or she is producing, he or she may figure it is better to under cook a piece of meat and have it brought back for more cooking than to overcook it and throw it away. You would think that at the level of Primehouse, any of their cooks should be able to cook any cut to a specific temperature while blindfolded. You would also expect that , being in a hotel, they get a few orders for well-done (shudder) steaks. So, do you think it is corporate policy to under-cook the higher temp orders to avoid spoilage?

i think david burke is a wonderful chef and i support and respect him 100%. i also know that sometimes you have people in place that you think have your best interests @ heart but don't actually have your back. very common, ask anyone that's ever consulted on anything in any area of business. that's where the weakness lies.

d4v3 wrote:I think the great thing about ordering a steak in Chicago is that it is one of the few places where rare really means rare. I have heard people recommend that visitors to our city should order one step higher than they are used to. However, lately when I have dined with people ordering medium or medium well, I have noticed a tendency to under-cook the meat even more.

The best way to order a steak is to do exactly what jazzfood did - don't just specify rare or medium or whatever, but describe what you mean. As he described above regarding his second visit there, he didn't just say "medium", he also added that he wanted it "pink". That should be enough for the server to understand exactly how he wanted it, and to translate that to whatever instructions the kitchen needs to cook it that way.

A good steak restaurant should be able to accommodate the preferences of all diners, from the rarest to the most well-done. Sometimes the menu will state what each term means (e.g. "Medium - pink center"). If there is the possibility of any confusion while ordering, the server should know enough to ask any additional questions to verify how it should be served.

Anthony Bourdain's latest book (The Nasty Bits)'s first chapter (System D), talks about shortcuts and McGuyvering to keep a kitchen running smoothly, and among the techniques he will not permit in his kitchen, but he has seen done elsewhere:
* Putting your entire body weight on a steak to squeeze out enough liquid that it will cook to Well faster
* Microwaving a piece of meat before putting it on the grill "just to warm it up"

The horrors, the horrors.

Truly, though, Medium should not be a challenge, it should be the benchmark around which Well and Rare are variations. I mean if Sizzler can manage it with reasonable accuracy (admittedly with a thinner piece of meat), a high-end place should not have this kind of problem.

jazzfood wrote: My girlfriend’s birthday.

@ This point, I’ve spent nearly $500 on two substandard meals @ David Burke's Primehouse.

While I can’t fault the quality of the food, the meal was a miserable failure.

well clearly the solution here is to get a new girlfriend!!

dddane wrote:well clearly the solution here is to get a new girlfriend!!

Dddane,

I've met Jazzfood's girlfriend, that's not an option, at least not an option any reasonable man would consider*.

Enjoy,
Gary

*She's quite nice and very good looking

JoelF wrote:Truly, though, Medium should not be a challenge, it should be the benchmark around which Well and Rare are variations. I mean if Sizzler can manage it with reasonable accuracy (admittedly with a thinner piece of meat), a high-end place should not have this kind of problem.

My thoughts, exactly. I'm a medium+ girl, having worked enough in a microbiology lab to be terrified of undercooked meat, and if Outback steakhouse has never had any difficulty bringing me what I wanted (and clarifying how "pink" I want my meat) why on earth can't Primehouse?
This place was on my "to do" list, but now I think I may take it off.

I have been there once - I wouldn't go back - it really was nothing special

What I think is really interesting about Chicago steakhouses is the variation of opinions. Just about every popular steakhouse has a lot of fans but at least a few detractors. There is no consensus on which one is "best".

Compare that with New York, where you can ask a lot of food-knowledgeable people which steakhouse they like best, and 90+ percent will respond with Peter Luger's.

That's because New Yorkers are deathly afraid of giving what others will regard as the wrong answer.

Jazzfood,

Your experiences with DB Primehouse are almost identical with mine. I ordered mine medium and it was rare at best. I shoveled it down to be polite but my wife's filet was uneatable. Sound familar?

We went back there a second time (not by our choice) only to have the same thing happen.

At least you got a manager who seemed to care the first time, as we didn't even get that. We had a drink comped and that was it.

I don't know why but Smith and Wollensky is the only place I can recommend for great steak (cooked as close to what I would like then anyplace else) and service too. The Capital Grille is a close second. Wildfire though nowhere near the quality of S&W or the CG is third.

Every other place we've been to (Chophouse, Gibsons, Mortons, Sullivans, Sam and Harry's) seems to have trouble cooking anything correctly.

John

Just want to add that I've eaten at Primehouse 6 or 7 times and I've never experienced any problems with the service or execution.

My wife and I have been to Primehouse twice this year, and my wife ordered her steak medium-well both times (no, she doesn't hate freedom). Each time, her steak arrived medium-well, as specified.

OK, I'll dissent(sort of): my visit, my filet was requested rare-rare+ and arrived medium(definitely not medium rare---or lower medium rare as I'd hoped...um not blue or mooing, but bleeding). So...the opposite experience With friends I didn't wanna be "difficult."

Also...memorably good service.

Of course admirable dining companion #1's nascent exploration into realms beyond well(he's been experimenting with "pink")...arrived perfectly medium rare(and he ate it after I assured him they'd take it back and make good). So...what am I saying here?

Reading through these posts it appears that Primehouse(my favorite steakhouse in the city) has consistency issues. Not summing up pedantically...merely observing...

no doubt 1,000's have eaten well and enjoyed their meals there. i'm not one.

Count me as a fan. Went Saturday night. Loved the lounge area of the hotel for a pre-dinner cocktail. We both ordered the 40-day, dry-aged ribeye. Wowsa! Great flavor and I could truly cut it with a fork. Best steakhouse steak I've had in Chicago. Wonderful service, great wine suggestion and great desserts. Next time, it's the Porterhouse for 2...

there's many fans... but if you had my experiences, which were mishandled and that they are well aware of and have done nothing about, i doubt you'd be saying this.

JF,
I'm not doubting your experience one bit...just relaying mine. If I had your issues, I'd cross it off my list. I had similar issues at Fulton's on the River and won't go there again. Interestingly, I thought about your issues and asked for a clear explanation of the cooking temps before ordering my steak medium instead of my normal med-rare. It was cooked just how I like it.

it was two experiences @ just under $500. identical problems both times, regretfully ignored by those w/the power to do something about it. it's more about the mishandling of it, than the quality of the food.

we also described how we wanted it when we ordered, which was not forthcoming. or the service glitches that were not in line w/the price tag, which you can read above.

they're well aware and have done nothing. bad form that leaves a bad taste in my mouth regardless of how the food tastes when cooked correctly, which is the issue here. not fixing it is what i'm talking about. kind of arrogant to ignore in my opinion. after all, they've got my money, why should they bother?