Alexander's Steakhouse 2011 - Cupertino

While I wait for our much anticipated wedding photos to come out so I can give you recaps complete with pretty photos, I'm going to work on my backlog of food reviews from the past couple months. There are a ton of good eateries and dishes to present. It may not be as exciting as wedding stuff, but this is still a food blog after all. First up, just the other day I went to celebrate DN's birthday at Alexander's Steakhouse, a place I've heard so much about and have been so anxious to try.

Alexander's Steakhouse is a popular destination for business dinners and romantic Valentine's or Anniversary dinners. The restaurant has earned one Michelin star and a prestigious number of awards in the Bay Area. With its high price point, Alexander's is definitely a splurge and you can read further to help decide whether the splurge is worth it.

We begin the meal with the option of pinot noir or riesling. I was not able to get the brand. These are actually two of my favorites types of wines and I was rather disappointed that these glasses did not suit my taste. The pinot noir was a bit strong and tart for a pinot. The riesling reminded me more of a chardonnay.

After ordering, we waited quite some time for our entree but the wait time was made much more entertaining with little treats sent from the chef. This was the chilled corn soup with paprika cream sauce. So yummy. You are going to discover that corn is my new food of the moment and I've been craving it everywhere I go. The soup was in a tiny espresso cup and we literally scraped the bottoms with our spoon to get every drop. So good.

($8) Shishito peppers - Japanese sweet pepper, some hot, some not, flash fried with den miso (this must be the crunchy things). I ate these like popcorn, they were so good. Not spicy at all, except for one but it was manageable. There was a sweet and salty hoisin-like sauce on the outside.

($24) "The original" hamachi shot - hamachi with truffled ponzu, chili, avocado, frizzled ginger, wasabi greens.

Hamachi shot up close. This was really good but not my favorite just because there was one spice in there that was too much for me. It must be the chili because it was a sharp spice on the tip of the tongue, not like wasabi which hits the back of the throat. Definitely a must-try for all though.

($21) Shigoku oysters - from Willapa Bay, WA with ginger pearls and cucumber lime mignonette. The oysters themselves were really fresh and delicious but those ginger pearls were something else. The texture was like little tapioca balls you get in Asian desserts, and the taste was a very subtle ginger. Overall, can't go wrong with oysters. Loved it.

Up close. I added the extra topping of diced cucumber, it gave it the extra crunchy and fresh texture. yum yum.

The steaks came with the option of soup or salad, both of which were big enough to be their own dishes. I got the cold tomato gazpacho soup with hamachi cubes. The soup was unique and tasted really good in the beginning but after some time, it tasted bitter and the hamachi was too fishy for me.

JB got the Caesar salad which came with an egg on top. She says there wasn't alot of dressing but once you break the yolk of the egg, it becomes the dressing. However, it overpowered the salad. Other than the overpowering egg, she liked the salad overall.

I had serious food envy over VT's carrot and ginger soup, which I passed up for the gazpacho because the sound of ginger turned me off. The ginger was very mild and the whole dish entirely was subtle and smooth. Ugh, I made the wrong choice.

($9) Truffled french fries - white truffle oil, parmesan, black pepper. I've had truffled fries before but in these fries, I actually tasted the truffle oil and these were delicious! Even though its topped with my arch nemesis, parmesan cheese...

Raspberry gelee with ginger froth(?) - Another off the menu palette cleanser sent from the chef. This tasted like raspberry jello with a too strong ginger taste but it did the job, it reset our palettes for the main event, the steaks!

($52) Dry aged bone-in New York steak with shitake mushroom duxelle (this must be the pile of pureed shitake mushroom on the side). All of this was yummy, even the next day as leftovers for lunch. I was trying something new and venturing away from my usual filet mignon but after having the New York, and even though its as good as it was, filet mignon is still my favorite cut.

($54) Dry aged split-bone rib eye - this was JB's dish, cooked medium rare. I quote, she liked it because, "it had a little bit of fat in it and it was really juicy."

($110) Wagyu beef. I don't remember which one this was but Alexander's has 3 different Wagyu options, 2 from Australia. This was one of them. I had the pleasure of sampling a tiny bit and it was soo good. The meat is a little fatty and very very soft. It really just melts in your mouth. Probably the best steak I've ever had and I only got to try a sliver.

 

This might be the wet aged strip steak, I don't remember which cut or the price but the specialty was that it came with kimchi butter. LN seemed to really enjoy this. I didn't taste anything special when I tried. Kimchi is always good though. 

Not pictured is an array of side dishes which included corn and crab grits (my favorite of the night), lobster mac and cheese, sauteed mushrooms, green beans, and so much more that I forgot and couldn't photograph fast enough.

Between the steaks and dessert, I had to cleanse my palette again with some delicious $8 magnolia green tea served in a fancy Bodum tea dispenser and cup. I do admit that this tea was super good and even though $8 is overpriced for tea, it was kinda worth it because it was delicious and cleansing.

All desserts are $12 except one which was $15 and I don't remember which one. I also don't remember the item names. We basically ordered every dessert on the menu and had a sweets feast. Starting with this souffle which was even higher than  pictured before the servers poured in the cream. So yummy, definitely better than souffle at Morton's.

Preserved peaches with white? cake and smoked ice cream. The smoked ice cream was not too good. I prefer that my desserts don't taste like meat.

Chocolate cake and another kind of cake. There were 5 or 6 desserts so pardon me, I can't remember the details of all. This was just ok.

3 sorbets in assorted fruit flavors. All were delicious, especially coconut in the middle.

3 different ice cream flavors, all were good, especially mint chocolate chip in the middle.

All meals at Alexander's ends with house made cotton candy. Today's flavor was green apple and it was oh so good.

Happy birthday to Dee! Here's the gang with chef Jeffrey Stout.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

I've been waiting to try Alexander's Steakhouse for the longest time, and I must say that its worth the hype. If you were going to max out your card anywhere, Alexander's would be an extremely satisfying and satiating place to do so. Certain cuts of steak are better than others but they don't stiff you on portion size. The service and atmosphere are a little frou frou but not pointlessly so. They cook everything at once and serve it all at once. At times, our table had 5 servers bring out food. And the point is so that as a group we can all dine together and no one has to wait. Considering they attract a crowd of business people entertaining out of town clients, or friends and families celebrating important occasions, this kind of attention to service is neccessary. Our group stayed til the very end, practically closing down the restaurant but we felt no rush and no pressure to wrap up our fun time. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try and recreate those flash fried shishito peppers now...

Alexander's Steakhouse on Yelp