My streak of terrible steak experiences continues...first with The Clocktower and now Quality Eats. I had always had Quality Meats on my list to check out but due to its Midtown location and the fact that I don't really eat steak all that often, I've just haven't gotten around to it. But when they opened a cheaper version in the Village called Quality Eats, I thought what the hell?
Quality Eats is touted as "discount" steakhouse which kind of sounds gross but I've always believed that cheaper cuts of meat and seafood can still produce great food if cooked correctly and you get to save a few dollars. You don't have to have a porterhouse or rib-eye to have a great steak meal.
Holly and I went super early on a Friday night because according to their website they only had an 11pm reservation left. Even though it's a steakhouse, it was very funky and casual - there were no white table cloths or formal settings. We got there at 6pm and they said that we could actually have a prime front seat table as long as we were out by 9pm. Easy enough. Most of the menu still had a regular steakhouse feel - shrimp cocktail appetizers, creamed spinach sides - as well as some non-regular steakhouse dishes like patty melts, scallops and grilled octopus. We started the meal with the crab and avocado ($16) and grilled bucheron cheese ($13). I had a really hard time deciding on which cut of meat to get but the waitress highly recommended the long bone short rib steak ($25) so I went with that and Holly got either the hanger or skirt steak (sadly I can't remember right now which one). We also got the haricot verts ($7) because we desperately need a vegetable as well as the baked potato monkey bread ($6) just because it sounded like a fun dish.
The crab and avocado came with nice lumps of jumbo crabmeat, slices of citrus and cilantro. There was no filler in sight and this dish passed my high MD taste test bar. The bucheron cheese (goat's milk cheese) was served like a baked brie dish and it came with Arcade Bakery's amazing pear baguette that you can spread the cheese on. I thought the cheese was a bit on the light side - I prefer much stronger and stinkier cheeses. I was excited for my steak and I could have SWORN when I ordered it she asked if it was ok that it comes out pink and I said yes but when it came out it was cooked all the way through to basically the point where it was very very well-done. It was totally brown. Now this is completely my fault for not saying something and sending it back like Vince did when we were at The Clocktower. Instead, I painfully tried to cut through this overcooked piece of meat and wept silently each time I did. There also just wasn't a lot of meat on the bone in general. I know this is not supposed to be a gluttonous cut of meat but I felt like I had about 3 bites and then the rest of the bone just had tons and tons of inedible parts to it. I've learned my lesson here and even if it's embarrassing, I should always say something if I don't like the food - especially if it's steak. Meanwhile, Holly's dish looked exactly like what I would have preferred, a nice pink fillet. She mentioned that it could have used some salt on it which is much more easily fixable than overcooked steak. As for the sides, I really didn't understand the monkey bread. The waitress had described it as a something between a baked potato with cheese and bread and that it was served with bacon butter. But when I tasted it, all I could tasted was bread - I couldn't taste the potato or cheese aspect of it. I did spread a bit of the bacon butter on it which was delicious but it was definitely felt like overkill. As for the haricot verts - they were actually may favorite part of the meal as they were perfectly tender and snappy.
Despite all this, we felt compelled to get dessert as well. So we opted for the Birthday Cake ($8). Taste wise this was quite yummy - it's got chocolate malt ice cream on the bottom with confetti birthday cake and then topped with vanilla icing. But execution wise this was super messy. It's all built on top of each other and it was served in a tiny ice cream cup with no plate underneath, so every time we tried to take a bite everything would come spilling out all over the table. Once we got a plate to catch everything it was easier to maneuver the cup and it really does bring you back to your childhood of having ice cream with confetti cake.
Overall, I was pretty underwhelmed with my meal here but honestly some of it was my fault for not calling out that my steak was overdone. It shouldn't be that my favorite dishes at a steakhouse are the haricot verts and dessert. That being said, I do like what Quality Eats is trying to do here by bringing more affordable cuts of meat to the public and making steakhouses less stuffy. Now knowing what I know about their meats, I would possibly still go back to redeem my meal but maybe stick to some of the more filleted meats or possibly even the scallops, which the table next to me got and it looked amazing. Total bill: $98/pp with tax, tip and drinks
Photo Credit: Yelp
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