Welcome to Redding California we're going to visit Market St. Steakhouse. It will be nice to step out of the 110 degree heat and smoky skies to enjoy a nice dinner. Redding experienced a devastating fire several weeks ago and only today the fire is finally in the last stages of containment. My In-laws had several very tense days when the fire got way to close for comfort. Throughout the town are signs thanking the firefighters. We are hungry and it is time for diner.
Redding California is not known for fine dinning and Market St has a reputation of being the best steakhouse in town. We walk through the doors to a dimly lit welcoming air conditioned establishment. It takes several seconds for our eyes to adjust to our dinner destination. Our host is friendly. This is a recurring theme through out the dinner. Everybody is extraordinarly nice and always willing to make sure our dinning experience was perfect. We ordered dinner and some complimentary bread and a fancy oil/vinegar combination accompanied. The oil and vinegar was a nice touch to some not so fresh bread.
The steak selections were USDA Choice grade that is perfectly acceptable and I am sure tasted fine. They also were priced at Bay Area premium rates and when I go out to a steakhouse I expect prime for my dollar. They did offer several steaks labeled as 'Prime" and called them "Wagyu Prime Cuts". This raised a red flag in my mind because true 'Wagyu" steaks are not rated by USDA standards and the term 'Prime" would not be used to grade a steak. I asked our waitress the origin and if she could tell us anymore about these Wagyu. She needed to ask somebody. She returned and said her manager did not know either but they called the meat distributor. They were sourced from a ranch in Colorado and were considered American Wagyu crosses. I ordered a 12 ounce fifty four dollar New York Strip steak. My dinner included several choices of sides and I chose pesto rissoto and a salad. My sister in-law had shrimp linguini and my bro-in-law lobster. We were living large tonight.
My In-laws loved both of their dinner choices. My steak was topped with two dollops of melting butter. This reinforced the buttery flavor of my steak. It was fantastic. This so called Prime steak was tender and the actual beef had a Umami type flavor that has a buttery like nuanced essense that makes you crave your next bite. My side of rissoto was cold. My server immediately went back to the kitchen and returned with a piping hot side of pesto rissoto. The rissoto was filling but did not have any elements that rocked my world.
I want to mention the service again. The service was top notch. The great service overshadowed the several dinning flaws of our dinner. (bread, rissoto). Market St Steakhouse might be the best steakhouse in town. We enjoyed our dinner. In closing we would like to extend a shout out to all the firefighters and first responders. Thank You!
Glad your steak turned out fantastic. I just can't spend that much for a meal of any kind - I have a similar problem spending $100 for a place just to sleep for the night.
ReplyDeleteBig Dude, It is a lot of money. It is about average for big city steakhouse prices. I did not expect this from Redding Ca. We enjoyed our meal and that was important.
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