Porter House New York

Let me just start by telling everybody this critique is based on a dinner midst restaurant week.
The service and the food were below par, I would actually rate my meal as downright terrible. I ordered a NY strip that was literally the worst cut of "NY Strip" they could muster. This steak was so tuff and so hard to chew that at first I thought the blades on my knife were dull. Granted the NY strip is a tougher cut of meat, but I am very familiar how a good cut of NY strip is supposed to feel and taste and this was not one of them.
Now lets pick at the staffs shortcomings. I ordered a NY strip, What else could have gone wrong, you ask? Well, I ordered medium rare and I received medium. When all the food was being distributed they put this big steak in front of me. Much to my dismay I came to the realization that my mashed potato's were not on the way! Well I had to scout out my server so he can do me the favor and get me the mashed potato's I had asked for. To his credit he did apologize but to my vexation I was nearly half way done with my meal until I had a side dish to indulge on. I am a big proponent of always having a steady supply of beverages when I eat. Yes it was a big deal to me but not so much so for my server as he neglected to ask If I needed another drink. When I finally made requests for additional drinks there was an unreasonable wait for them to actually arrive. Water was refilled only once towards the end of our meal. This was around dessert. Unfortunately this could not be done satisfactorily as only three of the four glasses were filled. This occurred in the presence of our server, I suppose he overlooked it. With all that said my friends fillet mignon was excellent and so were some of the side dishes such as the risotto, and the spinach with bacon. The table next to us had ordered the Porterhouse for two that looked very appealing and I would assume this as their signature dish.

Pros: Spectacular environment and view

Cons: Poor service and quality of food

Posted 02/02/09

went there for restaurant week and had a great experience. the wait staff was very attentive and our water glasses were never empty...they also gave us a complimentary side of vegetables. nice atmopshere w/ a lot of windows and a nice view of the city. the salad was absolutely delicious, the steak was good but not as good as other steak houses i've been to (like aj maxwells - amazinggg steak) although, it could've been that it was from the prix-fixe special and i ordered off the normal menu at other restaurants so idk if thats a fair comparison.

Pros: great value! they offer the $24 prixe fixe 3 course lunch all yr!

Cons: steak came w/ fries?! i would've expected a baked or mashed potato from such a nice restaurant

Posted 08/12/08

It's so nice to have a comfortable restaurant like this in the Columbus Circle area. You can sit for hours in this place and not want to rise, and there is plenty of space between diners. That is not something you can say about most places in NYC. Of course, there are great views as well from the tables fronting the Circle. Although the steak is not the greatest I've ever had, it's very good. I've also really enjoyed their halibut in the past. Love the thin french fries! The desserts are awesome. I particularly like the homemade cookies, but the other dessert offerings are delicious as well. To cap it all off, the service is extremely professional and attentive.

Pros: Good food, excellent service, extremely comfortable surroundings

Cons: None

Posted 12/18/07

based on some of your reviews, i was expecting an overpriced good meal with poor service. i'm sure going on Tuesday helped but i was pleasantly surprised. The Porterhouse was super [also huge] and the service was very good. The cost was in line with BLT Prime and Bobby Vans. The bar was nice too. What bothered me was that when i called they said that dress was"buisness casual", jackets preferred. The 1st guy at the bar has on a white T-shirt and levis and was a regular there.

Posted 07/30/07

I don't know what happened with the last reviews but went to Lunch here yesterday and service, decor, view and food were perfect. Plus, they had a restaurant week lunch special for $24.07 for app, entree and desert.

I had the Caesar, Hangar Steak and Raspberry Sorbet and all were great. Steak was perfectly cooked (ordered medium to be safe and served on the rare side which was great) and served promptly. Service was fantastic with an attentive waitress whose name unfortunately escapes me. If you can, definetly reserve a spot by the window as views of the park are gorgeous.

On a normal night you will pay for steaks but I've yet to have a bad one.

Pros: Views, Service, Buttermilk Onion Rings, Steak

Posted 07/18/07

I'm not the kind of person that minds spending money on a good meal, on the contrary I have spent exorbitant amounts of money on great restaurants and quality steak houses through out NYC. While there was nothing horrible at this place, there was nothing at all outstanding!..... The first thing that comes to mind on my 2 visits to this place is.....way overpriced. The food.....There were no fireworks in my palate. The Porterhouse is pretty good but it seems that they change the prices very often as the first time it was like 80 bucks, now it's like 95 bucks......cmon ! I cant write anything bad about the food but I also cant write anything good or nothing at all great either. Both times I went it was over 150 bucks per person? The wine list had good signature stuff that you read about in Spectator or have been given great Parker scores, but of course at ridiculous prices. The sommelier on my first trip was on top of us and she was very pleasant I think they have another guy too. He was nice but his description of a Bordeaux was that it was "old world" in style.....really????The service was sporadic...it starts of as if your going to be recieving royal treatment and then....and then....excuse me waiter? Can I have more tap water. Their just not that sharp for my standards. Some goofy manager came over with a big smile and asked us how we were enjoying our evening-He could have just looked at our water glasses-we were enjoying it, but we were thirsty dammit......our bill for 4 people was without tip 900 bucks the last time! for 3courses and 2 bottles of wine for 4 people. Just not impressed with this place for the prices they charge and who they are trying to be. This place is an upscale Outback Steakhouse without the blooming onions....nothing blooming here! Oh I'm lying....your bill will be blooming!!!!

Pros: Hmmmm....let me think

Cons: Way overpriced.....nothing spectacular about this place.

Posted 06/06/07

The $76.00 steak was cold. the cream spinach was watery and cold. The funniest part is the salad was not cold. The service was good, and the place itself is nice, the view is spectacular. Too bad the food didn't measure up.

Pros: nice servers

Cons: horrible cooking

Posted 03/16/07

I tried the field greens, steak and rice pudding off the restaurant week. All were decent but not good. My friend had the butternut sqush bisque, salmon and rice pudding. The butternut squash bisque was pretty good but the salmon tastes exactly like the salmon i cook at home on my george foreman grill with salt and pepper. Other friend didnt order off the restaurant week menu. He had the Friday special (short ribs) and the mac and cheese. The short ribs were pretty darn good and it was HUGE. The mac and cheese, however, was very bland. I dont remember what cheese they said they use but...it doesnt work well. Service was decent but I could tell that the waiter didnt know how to pour wine properly. I expected more from this place. I guess the regualr menu items might be better than the restaurant week menu but i'm not going to waste my money to find out.

Pros: nice views, seated promptly

Cons: hard bread, bland food.

Posted 02/03/07

Just went back to Porter House for my third visit and it was as good if not even better this time around. we go to a lot of steakhouses, all the big names, and think Porter House is really holding its own. Its not only a great steakhouse with real deal prime dry aged beef, but it has so much more-- fish, seafood, great sides, potatoes. This time around we had a first rate dry aged prime porterhouse steak which was terrific. A generous and fresh, fresh fresh, starter of the cold seafood platter, you know, oyster, crab, shrimp, very fresh seafood.
We were a big group so there were some spot-on salads to start, the scallops with capers were great and the crab cake with creole sauce, too. First time we went, we ordered the Chili Rubbed Rib Eye, really great, and original too, and the best rib steak I have ever had. Dessert are a little bit of a let down though the Chocolate devil's food is excellent.
Great wine list, not overly large, but well thought out, good variety of selections. Wonderful bar for cocktails, very busy for after work drinks. Well made and generous drinks.
Service is very good, not too over bearing, they don't push anything on you, but good , solid professional service, with attentive staff.
Great atmosphere, love the room, very warm and welcoming wood and leather--
All in all an excellent experience--can't wait to return. definetly a new favorite place.

Pros: Great service, excellent prime beef

Cons: Still working out a few kinks on the reservation line

Posted 02/02/07

We went to Porter House for restaurant week expecting the same quality of food as their regular menu. However, our steak was over cooked and burnt when it was supposed to be medium well - it tasted something like I would get from Denny's. My jaw was hurting when chewing the steak. The fries tasted like they just purchased from McDonalds. The Mac and Cheese tasted like something you would get from a cafeteria. However, the view was beautiful and the water glasses were squeaky clean - that's why I was generous in giving this establishment a rating of 3.5 out of 10. In addition, we had to wait 20 minutes even though we had a reservation. All in all, I was expecting more from a restaurant that is located in the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle.

Recommendation - not worth the cost.

Pros: Ambience, nice view, squeaky clean water glasses.

Cons: Bad service, bad food

Posted 02/01/07

Went here on Monday night as part of restaurant week. My friend got the restaurant week set menu and I went off the menu a la carte. She had the ceasar salad, steak frites and finished with the devil's food cake. I had the crab cake to start, then the chilli rubbed ribeye and shared her desert :-)

Salad was very tasty, MAYBE a touch too much dressing. The crab cake was very good, very fresh. Her steak frites was also very good (I think they used a strip steak to make it). My chilli rubbed ribeye was very interesting. The chilli was maybe a TOUCH too salty, but the heat of it made an interesting contrast to the warm and tasty steak. Desert was good, not outstanding, but good.

This is a good sort of corporate setting (probably because of it's location in the Time Warner Center). There are other nice "power" restaurants like Per Se in the vicinity. I'd definitly recommend it if you like steak (they definitly know how to cook it!) We had ours done medium rare, apparently rare is red, but cool in the middle, and medium rare is red, but warm in the middle.

Overall, a very good experience. It ended up being about $50 for each of us (we just split the bill since we tried each other's food and shared). Not bad at all for the quality. I also had a martini though ($14) haha that was just good in general :-)

Pros: Food, service, location

Cons: corporate/mall setting

Posted 01/23/07

If you want to feel like you left the island of Manhattan and have traveled to Sin City, go to Porter House.
The room is beautiful and a very comfortable setting and staff very accomidating, though a bit overly.
We could have done away with the nasty comments by the hostess when we arrived and told her there was a change in number in our party.
The staff was a little slow and not very helpful when asked for recommendations, but the room, company and views made up for it at this point. As for the food, think they are confused it their concept, do they want to be a steak house or fine dining? The apps small but good and tasty.
Entrees arrived though most of them were cold, even the sides were cold. Never been to a steak house where the steak arrives (and other entrees) cold. We asked to heat up and they returned it just warm. The other steaks though decent were not cooked to the requested levels.
Desserts were okay. Cheesecake very good and would be better if not almost frozen.
The best part of the meal was the wine that was recommended, excellent choice.
Though everything started off fabulous with the room and service, we were even talking about taking clients back and out of town guests, spiraled down from the initial feelings.
Perhaps in time they will find themselves and fill the beautiful room.

Pros: room, views, comfort

Cons: service, food

Posted 11/01/06

WHAT A GREAT NEW PLACE FOR GREAT STEAK ALBEIT NYC HAS MANY OPTIONS. I TOOK MY WIFE THERE FOR HER BIRTHDAY AND PRETTY MUCH ORDERED EVERYTHING ON THE MENU. THE STANDOUTS WERE THE NY STRIP,4 MAC AND CHEESE, YUKON POTATOES, AND THE HUGE MUD PIE DESSERT TO FINISH US OFF. THE SERVICE WAS BETTER THAN MOST PLACES, FRIENDLY AND ACCOMODATING. WE ENJOYED IT VERY MUCH !!!

Pros: GREAT MENU TASTY FOOD

Cons: NONE

Posted 10/29/06