Frankie & Johnnie's Steakhouse

After reading several reviews my friend and I decided to go to Frankie and Johnny's for restaurant week. We were greated at the door and sat upstairs next to the fireplace which has a nice atmosphere. The waiter promptly took our drink order and returned with the wine. He then disappeared for quite some time. He finally returned and I ordered a shrimp cocktail and my choices off of the price fix menu. Now I have to tell you that the entree comes with absolutely nothing. I had ordered the petit filet mignon, a baked potato and a side of broccoli with the holondaise sauce. My friend ordered the same thing but got mashed potatoes and creamed spinach. My shrimp cocktail arrived a few minutes later with only four shrimp. At $18 you would expect to get more. They were however very large and tasty. We then got our salads, nothing to write home about but hey it's salad. Some time later our entrees were brought out. The steak was a little on the small side but I expected that. The broccoli and the sauce were ice cold, and the steak was on the cold side as well. Now as anybody knows you can't heat up steak because you change the the wellness of it. Our waiter never came back to check on us and actually after our entrees were served we had different server take our dessert order. So who knows what was going on there. I am a former waitress and I know that service can make or break a restaurant. My assumption is that these servers figure oh great cheap restaurant week diners and don't think that we will be back on a regular basis once the event is over. I work for a very large firm and set up a lot of lunch and dinner events with clients. When I tell you this is one restaurant I will not be setting up any events at. If you want a great steak dinner and great service take it from, go to Del Frisco's.

I had a dinner with my family a few nights ago. In general I don't go to fancy restaurants too often - but when I do, I really don't mind paying a lot for quality. This was paying a lot for an ok- food, and ok- anything else. I think it's hightime these guys got their stuff together. The quality of the meat was average. I tasted better for less. Service could do better as well. In general - I don't think they'll be seeing me anytime soon.

Well, my experience failed to live up to even modest expectations. I recently (8/16/08) dined with my brothers at the 37th street location. We stayed very close to Capital Grille, but were looking for a New York steakhouse. Peter Luger seemed a bit over-the-top from what I read online and in my continued search I came across Frankie and Johnnies. I read reviews and looked at the website and it seemed to be pretty great. The disappointment began immediately. It's a pretty ugly location. I'm not sure why the owners decided on this particular spot, but it doesnt' do much to make the diner feel like throwing down massive $$$ for dinner. The staff was ok, not what I would call friendly, but not rude either. We ordered an appetizer which turned out to cost $110...absolutely not worth it. It was good enough (4 shrimp, a few oysters, crab meat, 2 lobster tails and 2 lobster claws), but definitely not worth the $110 it cost. My brother got the tbone and it was FAR from being cooked properly. He ordered it medium-well and large portions of it were rare, and it tasted "old" (I tasted it to verify what he said, and I can't explain it but it did just taste old). My other brother and I ordered the sirloin. Both of our steaks were cooked ok (for the most part) and had pretty good flavor, but had a lot of fat running through them. None of the steaks were anywhere near worth the prices (sirloins were $41 and the tbone was $46). My nephew got the shrimp scampi, which I tasted, and that was the best thing at the table. We had the broccoli with garlic and garlic mashed potatoes, and both of those were ok, though the potatoes definitely tasted like the instant variety. Sad to say that shrimp scampi was the best thing in a steakhouse. Dinner was so disappointing we didn't hang around for dessert. We definitely should have saved time and $$$ and gone to Capital Grille. I've eaten at Capital Grille numerous times and Frankie and Johnnies isn't even close on quality.

after a long day at work and then needing to go and deal with moving arrangements and signing a new apt lease..my boss calls me back into work but to my surprise it was for a private dinner meeting to congrat me on a well deserved raise and promotion...entree's were incredible and service was great!!! hey a $350 plus bill and two people is well worth it... Steak was ammmmmazing(and i have tasted some great steaks) bartender was great the entire expierence was Great!

Our interest in historic places and great steak took us to Frankie and Johnnie's over on 37th Street for an early dinner. Housed in John Barrymore's former brownstone, J & F's offers some fine food, albeit for a price. Started with one of the day's specials, a tomato arugula and fresh mozzarella salad that was expertly done. We really wanted to try the risotto w/porcini mushroom and asparagus, but didn't want to fill up on oversized servings of pasta . Our waiter graciously offered to have the dish split between the two of us as an appetizer - it was just the right size and delicious. We both opted for the surf (HUGE lobster tail) and turf (filet mignon) with a few sides. The steak was done exactly right, just melted in your mouth. Couldn't get over the size of that lobster tail - sweet and firm and oh so tasty. Waitstaff was attentive without being overbearing or making us feel we needed to hurry; they were extremely professional and accommodating. It's a typical steakhouse atmosphere - low lighting, dark woods, but not so dim you can't see the food on your plate. We really enjoyed our time there.

The only two negatives I can offer are: 1. The restaurant was a bit too warm. Seemed the a/c wasn't working. 2. The hostess seemed a bit too preoccuppied with her cell phone. She didn't ignore us, but I'm not too fond of people in service industriies who multitask.

As a special treat, J & F's on 37th didn't disappoint. We look forward to returning on our next junket into the city.