Balthazar Bar Steak & Frites

As part of Maggie's farewell, we visited her favorite New York restaurant (and home of many a Thanksgiving dinner for her and her mom), Balthazar. The famed SoHo restaurant serves up out-of-the-typical-price-range meals, especially when the raw bar is involved, but as a special occasion dinner...well, it's pretty fabulous. Especially when you can get their perfectly cooked Balthazar Bar Steak & Frites for an easy $25. Not too shabby for a juicy cut of meat in one of the best restaurants in all of Manhattan. Paired with an $8 glass of Shiraz-Grenache, I'd say that this meal was a hit. 

I must tell you that when it comes to steak, I'm a 'medium' kind of girl. While Shaun will go all-out rare, I just find something so...icky?...about meat that's still moo-ing, if you will. And medium can go either way...too rare, too done...but not at Balth (as we like to call it). Here at this delightful French bistro, Balth serves up medium steak the right way...seared on the outside and decadently pinkish red on the inside.

Oh, and I should mention that it was topped off with a giant pat of herbed butter that melted right into the steak...it's the surefire way to make just about any dish sing (and clog your arteries to boot).

Along with the steak were the highly coveted frites. Frites, if you will, is the fancy French term for French Fries...but doesn't it just sound prettier? Frites. Anyhow, they weren't quite the shoestring variety that I enjoyed so much at Skinner's Loft, but Balth dished out crispy potato fries that were perfectly seasoned and oily. Mmmm.

I would be remiss not to mention the absolutely beautiful raw bar. Though the seafood platters ranged from $70 to $115, they were gorgeous and surely a great experience. We, however, stuck to our meat 'n potatoes. But isn't it pretty to look at?

So there it is. A round up of a fabulous meal at a New York staple. There was one downside to the meal however. As I finished my glass of wine (waste not, want not), I noticed peculiar sticks of sediment in the bottom of my glass. Though the matre 'd did remove the item from my bill, I can't help but be disappointed in a place like Balthazar serving sediment-laden red wine. I know that it happens...I was just hoping that it wouldn't in a place like Balth (where they do serve bottles of vino up to $450 a pop). I won't hold it against them in the long run...after all, the meal was that good. But next time? My wine will get a proper scan.