Dylan Prime

Let me preface this review by saying that I ate in the bar area, not the main dining room. The bar is currently running a special ($35 for their “tasting,” which is an appetizer, main course, and dessert). I went to Dylan Prime because Chris and I discovered that Il Mattone, one of our favorite places to eat, is CLOSED ON SUNDAYS. We had two choices: we could either go all the way to the east village for 99 Miles to Philly, or we could find something in Tribeca. Since we were close by and my friend Felicia mentioned she really liked the steak at Dylan Prime, we decided to give it a try.

The bar was absolutely empty (as was the restaurant) but we were hungry and didn’t think much of it. The $35 menu isn’t too flexible (we wanted to substitute fried oysters for the first course but weren’t allowed to), so we decided that we’d order one $35 meal and a la carte for the other dishes. I started with the wedge salad (from the $35 menu):

Anytime I’m out to a steakhouse for lunch (which is quite often, let me tell you), I see businessmen enjoying wedge salads and I just don’t understand the appeal of eating a huge chunk of lettuce. Not is it just lettuce, it’s ICEBERG. Seriously, what’s the appeal? We ordered the “salad” and it was actually pretty enjoyable – the bacon tasted like buffalo wings and there was enough bleu cheese to make me forget that I was eating plain lettuce. It’s not something I’d order again, but I can imagine that if I were REALLY lazy one day at home, I’d cut up a piece of iceberg lettuce, douse it with bleu cheese dressing, and make a meal of it. Sadly, this was probably the best thing I ate.

The next dish we ate was off the regular menu, the fried oysters:

Do you ever order something off the menu at a new restaurant because you like the way it’s prepared at your favorite restaurant in NYC and you think it’ll be just as good at this new restaurant? If you aren’t completely confused by my last question and know what I mean, let me continue. My favorite restaurant in NYC, Pearl Oyster Bar, makes fried oysters that are seriously out of this world. The tartar sauce combined with some hot sauce on top of the fried oysters is pretty heavenly (well, it’s even better when you know a lobster roll is about to enter your tummy in a matter of minutes). Anyway, I digress. The fried oysters at Dylan Prime were really tasteless and gummy. The fennel that it was resting on didn’t taste too terrible, but the oysters were not good.

The main course, steak, was next:

When the waitress described the steak, I was under the impression that it was still going to be in one piece when it came to the table. Instead, it was cut in the kitchen (if it’s not coming out on a sizzling plate, I’d prefer to cut the steak myself). Also, the steak was entirely too sweet because of the balsamic vinaigrette glaze on the steak. It tasted like the steak was rubbed in brown sugar and then someone put some Splenda on it for good measure. To be fair, the waitress said that the sauce was slightly sweet, but I didn’t think it would be dessert sweet. The steak was tough, there wasn’t enough marbling, and it was not worth finishing.

Fries came with the steak:

They were really greasy and clumped together, so I didn’t bother eating them. Okay, I ate half of it, but it was only because I was hungry and it was the second best thing to eat!

Our side, the truffled macaroni and cheese with lobster, was something I was looking forward to:

The macaroni was entirely overcooked and there was barely any lobster in the dish (isn’t lobster really cheap these days?!) The truffle oil was noticeable, but not overpowering (nothing like the truffled spinach at The Strip House).

For our dessert, we ordered the apple galette with cinnamon ice cream:

Probably the second best thing we had (next to the iceberg lettuce) – ice cream is pretty difficult to mess up and the apples weren’t overcooked. What a positive review, right?

So I know that people are going to say that I didn’t give Dylan Prime an honest chance because I ate at the bar and didn’t enjoy the full experience, but seriously, some of the dishes that we ate were served in the main dining room as well (the worst dish, the lobster mac and cheese, is a popular dish in the main dining room). Maybe I’ll head back one day, but there are so many better steakhouses in the city that I probably won’t even bother.