Real Kato Blog: Restaurants: Stripsteak

A high end steak place at the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas.

First, here's why we went to Stripsteak at all: our usual annual Vegas restaurant, Craftsteak, told us that this year, we would have to pay a deposit and sign a contract, and agree to a minimum per-person bill of $105. We told them to go frak themselves.

Stripsteak is a Michael Mina restaurant. Mina is the chef behind the restaurants Nobhill, Seablue, and Michael Mina Bellagio (go figure) in Las Vegas, as well as other places in California, New Jersey, Florida, and Michigan.

The top steak on their menu was a $195 six-ounce Kobe filet mignon. The cheapest steak was a $36 twelve-ounce Angus skirt steak. There were a variety of other steaks in the $50-$70 range, including several "American Kobe" selections. On top of that were a bunch of $20-ish appetizers and side items. Yeah, it's an expensive place. I chose the American Kobe ribeye cap steak ($64), on a suggestion from our bartender.

For that kind of money, we expected some mind-blowingly good steaks. And frankly, we were a bit disappointed. The first thing everyone noticed? Salt. All the steaks we tried were absolutely encrusted with salt. You might expect that kind of heavy-handed seasoning on a cheap piece of sirloin, but on a marbled and delicate piece of Kobe beef? You gotta be kidding. The salt was so overwhelming, I couldn't tell if there were any other spices on the steak. Geez, the Outback does a better job of seasoning meat than this place does.

It wasn't all bad. The appetizers and side items were splendid. The duck fat fries (yes, potatoes fried in duck fat) were absolutely delicious. We also had a trio of different flavors of whipped potatoes; they were delicately flavored and buttery-smooth. And the service was, on the whole, outstanding.

But come on. If I go to a high-end steakhouse, I want high-end steak. And this steak was just, well, middle-of-the-road. When I rate restaurants, I consider them against other restaurants in their category and price range. And so...

Rating: 3/5

Permalink 1 Comment

Posted by Ken in: food, reviews

Comments

Comment #1 from Phil (Guest)
2007 Nov 8 - 9:24 pm : #

Bummer about the steak. That's a cow got whacked for no good reason. But duck fat fries? Oh yeah, baby. That sounds even richer than the poutine I didn't try while visiting Canada last year.

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