Eat Well, Spend Less
How to Stave Off Steakhouse Sticker Shock
In 2007, luxury meateries stampeded onto the dining scene to cash in on what seemed like an unslakable appetite for $80 New York strips and premier cru Bordeaux. (Apparently, slakability is a tricky thing to predict.) Two years later, even as disposable incomes have shriveled up like so many overcooked filets, steakhouses show little sign of adjusting prices downward. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still indulge in old-school grandiosity. You just have to indulge smarter.
1. AVOID THE CROWDS. Look for deals on the slowest nights, usually early in the week. On Mondays and Tuesdays at Ken Oringer’s KO Prime, all-you-can-eat prime rib costs just $24.95. Split an order of the terrific mascarpone creamed spinach ($8), then hunker down, tap your inner Dr. Atkins, and go cow-wild.
90 Tremont St., Boston, 617-772-0202, koprimeboston.com.
2. GET THE STEAK WRAPPED. Much as we’re loath to admit it, some of the best tacos in town get plated at Bonfire, Todd English’s Latin-themed steakhouse. (We’re especially taken with the succulent skirt-steak variety.) And now that they’re a dollar apiece on Thursdays from 5 to 7 p.m., they’re no longer a fix to feel ashamed of.
50 Park Plaza, Boston, 617-262-3473, bonfiresteakhouse.com.
3. OR, DON’T GET STEAK AT ALL. At a comparatively low-rent $26, the Morton’s chicken Christopher—bread crumb–crusted cutlets sautéed in butter and smothered in garlic beurre blanc (French for “lots and lots of butter”)—will wean you off that $45-rib-eye addiction in no time.
699 Boylston St., Boston, 617-266-5858; 2 Seaport Ln., Boston, 617-526-0410; mortons.com.
4. KEEP BOOZE BILLS DOWN. On Sundays and Mondays, Grill 23 sells fine vintages from a rotating list for $23—a discount, on average, of 50 percent off the sticker price. There’s no better place to sip a cut-rate cabernet, at least until a Grill 14 opens up within stumbling distance.
161 Berkeley St., Boston, 617-542-2255, grill23.com.