Hearing the New York Steakhouse was running ‘ New York Restaurant Week’ promotion we quickly booked a table. We’ve eaten at all of the outlets at the Marriott Marquis and they are very good but this was our first visit to the Steakhouse. I thought at lunchtime on a Monday it would be fairly quiet but was surprised that several tables were occupied. We were quickly seated in huge, comfortable leather chairs and given menus. The restaurant is very nicely designed with dark wood, an open kitchen and a bar area. It felt like the kind of place you could spend a good few hours with good food and wine.

  
Lloyd, our waiter came over to take our orders and explained that the steak on the promotional menu had not been delivered so if we ordered steak we would be served an Argentinian cut instead – fine with us! Orders placed the bread basket arrived swiftly. A warm, soft, thick sliced loaf and deliciously crunchy rosemary bread sticks. Just enough to whet our appetites.

For starters we ordered french onion soup and salt and pepper calamari. The portion sizes were quite large. The soup was delicious, piping hot, well seasoned with soft onions and a cheesy, soggy bread lid. The calamari was also good, really crunchy from the semolina however it lacked the salt and pepper seasoning.

After a suitable wait our mains arrived – ‘ wows’ all round. An impressive thick cut of tenderloin steak, a slice of lyonnaise potato and a little pot of pepper sauce. The plate did look like it was missing some green though, perhaps some spinach or broccoli would add to the presentation. All of our steaks were cooked perfectly, my rare steak cut with no bleeding onto the plate but I felt mine needed a bit more seasoning – everyone else felt theirs was perfect. The potato was really soft, again well seasoned and full of the taste of fresh herbs. I didn’t have the sauce ( I’m not a fan of sauce on steak) but everyone else said it was subtle and delicious.

Dessert was a bit of a disappointment for me. Cheesecake is one of my favourites and when I ordered it I was told it was de-constructed. Mmmmm, OK……but it was odd. A very thin biscuit on top and bottom with a filling of what tasted like whipped cream. A single strawberry, a ‘soil’ of perhaps chocolate brownie and strawberry sorbet. To be fair the cream was fantastically light and the almost caramelised brandy snap like biscuit was crunchy and moreish but the sorbet didn’t work. Although I enjoyed the biscuit and cream it wasn’t, in my opinion, a cheesecake.

The sorbet and ice cream ordered for other desserts was good quality, I can recommend the peanut butter one!

Overall I think the menu is very good value for money and despite a few niggles it was very nice and we will try to go back for lunch before the promotion ends this week. The 3 course lunch is 95QR each, so for four people including water and a tip the bill came to 450QR which considering the quality of the food, excellent service and and the lovely surroundings is an absolute bargain.