BLT Steak

When it comes to juicy steak, I like it the way it should be, medium rare and nothing less ! There are only a handful of places in Hong Kong which I would go and order a nice juicy steak confidently, namely, Morton's, Ruth Chris, The Steak House @ Intercontinental Hotel and possibly Wolomoloo Steakhouse @ LKF. This is my "steak" list in order of preferences as of this moment and hoping to add some more into it. How's BLT Steak? Can it make it to my top 5 list? Where should I start ... humm

[ (added 12 Oct 2009: Like to add Jimmy's Kitchen to the above list)]



BLT Steak opened recently @ Ocean Terminal and it is famous for its use of a state-of-the art charcoal broiler to grill those steaks. We arrived at about 7:30pm and was escorted to the table near the end, a table for two. This place is considered a fine dining location but I have to disagree already because the tables are small, I can reach the lady sitting at next table without really stretching my arm at full length. Casual dining yes, fine dining? No way. The environment does not give you a fine dining experiences. Anyhow, we waited for almost 10 mins for the menu to be delivered. A decent selection of steak sand loved the diagram of the cow on the back of the menu. A nice touch indeed. (the lady sitting on the next table was close enough to me that she was reading off the cow diagram I was holding up) Anyhow, my friend and I ordered the following items.



(1) Tuna Tartare (2) Selections of Oysters (Coffin Bay) (3) Australian Rib Eye 12 oz (that was my steak only, cannot comment on my friend's steak) (4) Creamed Spinach (5) Carrot Cake with Ginger Ice Cream

Before going into individual dishes, we were served with some breads, a special bread indeed. They called it the Popovers which looks like a exploded muffin with some cheese on top. Texture is more like Yorkshire pudding if you ask me. As instructed, it should be eaten with butter and some sea salt (the silver container in the picture) over it. No surprises there but the little tag / label that came with it did. It is a cooking recipe for the Popovers. Nice touch indeed. Within minutes of the Popovers being served, the Tuna Tartare and Selections of Oysters have arrived, abit too fast, too quick. I just finished taking some pictures and had my first bite of the Popovers !




(1) Tuna Tartare
The tuna tartare tasted like everyone else's tuna tartare which means it was fairly well prepared. What made this different from others have to be the following 2 items or additions to the dish. One was the fried garlic dices on top of the tartare which made it rather refreshing in terms of texture due to its crispiness. Two was the ice tray it placed under the dish to keep the tuna tartare cool. These two factors made the dish rather different than everyone else's tuna tartare.



(2) Selection of Oysters
Not the best oysters out there. Why would they call it selection of oysters when there was only one choice of oyster, which is Coffin Bay? o well, as long as it is fresh I am okay and it was alright. I had better ones elsewhere particularly at Su Casa / Casa Fina which I will review the next time I go again (which should be very soon hopefully). What my friend and I hate about this dish was its presentation. Just look at the picture, the very deep tray was placed on top of a high stand on top of the table top; I can't even see the sauce and my friend can't even see the oysters from his eye level. What is that? I am fairly tall already and I was having difficulty reaching for the oysters and sauce. I was not happy about that !!



(3) Australian Rib Eye 12 oz & (4) Creamed Spinach
Once again, the steak came very soon after the starters. What was the rush? This is supposedly a fine dinning place and you are rushing me off? Anyhow, the steak was served on a sizzling plate first and we can transfer it to the plate if we like. There was a "Med Rare" label stick on the steak indicating how it was done but I never trust those things based on experiences.



The best way is to cut it open and so I did. (see pic below) It was pink in the middle, just the way I like it, it beautiful. Texture and taste wise, not bad at all, you can taste the distinct taste of using a charcoal broiler to grill. One thing I have to mention is hat they have a long selection of different sauces to go with the steak, instead of going for the normal sauces like peppercorn or BBQ, I opted for one that I have never tried or heard before. The sauce is called Chimichurri which is a combination of garlic herbs, olive oil and white vinegar. Good that it came on the side because it was really sour to my liking. Some might like it but I should have ordered the normal sauce or even the blue cheese one. As for the Creamed Spinach, it was alright but wished it can be more creamy.



(5) Carrot Cake with Ginger Ice Cream
A very very sweet dish. I should have ordered something else for dessert because I had similar thing for dessert and it was overly sweet as well. The ginger ice cream did not help much because it was overly sweet as well without much ginger flavor. I think I has enough sweet food for the day, enough is enough!



Can BLT Steak make it into my top list? I am sorry but I am afraid the answer is No because of the overall dinning experiences. The steak itself was very good but as I mentioned before, it is the whole dinning experiences that matters. The staff was friendly and helpful but the atmosphere was too crowded and the fast was served too quickly to really enjoy the whole meal. This is more of a casual steak house at most and would be an excellent choice for steak over other self-claimed steak houses like Dan Ryan's.

Likes:

• Steak made the way I ordered it !
• Popovers' little recipe

Dislikes

• Noisy Environment
• Packed Seating
• Food Served too quickly, being rushed to finish
• Ridiculously high tray for oysters

Avg Spending: HKD 300 - 500 per person

On a clear night, you might be able to see such a view from your seat. I took this right outside the restaurant after dinner.



BLT Steak

Shop G62, Ground Floor,
Ocean Terminal, TST
Tel: 2730 3508

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