We have been meaning to go to Quality Italian Steakhouse since it opened. We loved our meal at Quality Meats a few years ago, and I really loved General Assembly (even though it closed) which are both from the same restaurant group (Fourth Wall Restaurants, who also has Smith & Wolensky amongst others).
On a night before a Broadway musical, we decided it was time to finally try the (in)famous restaurant.
I actually hadn’t realized that “Steakhouse” was part of the name until I saw the awning upon entering.
The inside had the industrial chic feel that I’m a total sucker for.
And I really liked the little details, such as the “QI” on the edge of each tablecloth, right where it hung off the table.
They served parker house rolls, which were pretty good, but not my favorite version of them.
As we were browsing the menu, the table next to us had a live flambee, which wound up catching the entire table on fire for a moment. It was quite the spectacle, but was handled with grace.
We decided to split a few things in preparation for the Chicken Parm that they are famous for (more on that later).
First we tried the Artichoke Maccheroni, which was like baked macaroni and cheese with artichokes in it. It was delicious, but as a total artichoke lover, I was hoping for more big chunks of artichoke.
And of course we had to split the corn creme brulee, which is always my favorite part of the other restaurants. This one was very good, but not quite up to the same quality that I have come to love. If this was my first time trying it, I would have been impressed. But I know how good it CAN be, so I was a bit bummed that the corn creme was a bit loose and the brulee was a bit charred without being as crispy as I have come to love. But I’m being far too picky, because it was really lovely.
Our table was then set with a stand, ready for the chicken parm, with some extra greens and seasoning below.
And then out it came. Before I could even flash a picture, they were slicing it up and serving us pieces. (To be honest, the man who was serving our food, not our waiter, made me uncomfortable. I felt like he was in a rush and was very annoyed that I was taking pictures, so he managed to shove spoons in the sides and a pizza cutter into my shot each time… grrrr).
We were served a slice each.
And boy oh boy… this was so good. It was everything you wanted it to be. Perfectly juicy chicken with a crispy outside that wasn’t made at all soggy by the thick layer of slightly charred cheese and crispy leaves of basil. I am pretty sure I moaned as I ate this.
At one point during our meal, our very nice waiter offered to serve us another slice. When we said we could serve it ourselves (to be polite), he said it was actually much easier to serve it from a standing position. We questioned this until Mike tried to serve the next piece himself…
It was a tragedy to see that beautiful piece of chicken parm hit the ground. I wiped a tear. A waste of very good food.
I absolutely loved that chicken parm. It was a HUGE portion for the two of us (we had it for dinner the next day) so it almost made it worth the $29 per person price tag. Yes… you read that right… we spent nearly $60 on a chicken parm.
And you know what? I have 0 regrets.
I have to dock a little bit of points for the weirdly rushes service and for the not quite as great as I’ve had it before corn creme brulee, but that chicken parm… man oh man… I want some more RIGHT NOW.
Total Nom Points: 7.5 out of 10
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