Double Nickel Steakhouse
Last night, Steph mandated that I take her out to a nice steakhouse. We decided to try Lisa Wests Double Nickel Steakhouse (which, as far as I can tell, does not have any kind of website). I was expecting a good dinner, having heard some rave reviews of the place, similar to what I might get at a Ruth Chris' Steakhouse. Following is our experience.The place is located across from the South Plains Mall. I'm not sure if that is bad, or good, but it's the old Spanky's location (which Lisa owns, but this location didn't work out so well). When we walked in, the ambiance was quite "up scale", with dimmed lighting and tiled flooring in the entry way. Our hostess (and everyone else) greeted us as Mr. / Mrs. and plenty of "sirs" and "ma'ams" were heard. The waitress didn't sit down at our table (as they would at Outback or Logan Roadhouse).
Our first impression upon sitting down was "This could have been done better". A place with a $45 Porterhouse should have white table-cloth linens. Not patterned plastic tablecloths. Ours was especially nice, with several cuts / slices in it whereby it looked like someone set a hot pot on it and burned it.
Our waitress showed up and took our orders for adult beverages, and filled our glasses with water. I didn't notice at first, but the wrapped white cloth that she dropped off was bread. It was harder than I expected (the bread), and not as tasty as many of the other steak houses in town.
We ordered a shrimp cocktail ($9 or so) which came with 5 medium-sized prawns. Additional shrimp were $2 / each (our waitress didn't think we should order more). When that arrived at our table we had a few bites -- I wasn't expecting much, but it did taste like United Supermarket frozen shrimp, in my opinion. No flavor what-so-ever.
For dinner we each ordered the Filet Mignon, with the "Double Nickel Salad" and a side of Asparagus. I had a 12oz, and my wife had an 8oz. Our salads were great -- an infusion of spring mix salad with caramel apple tastes and blue cheese. The most surprising aspect of it was when you bit into an apple, a candied nut, and a blue cheese chunk at the same time. The taste is not ... traditional, but for those who are a bit varied, it was wonderful.
A few more minutes went by and our dinners were served, during which time we decided that the plates were very ugly. Obviously, that's subjective, but I thought that the plates and bowls would look more at home at a Chinese buffet table. The steaks looked and smelled terrific, but after a few bites into mine, I realized that the back half of the steak was cold. Cold like a refrigerated soda can. I called our waitress over, and she whisked it away on our butter plate (from the bread) to reheat it.
While I was waiting on a re-heat of what must have been due to one of:
- A pre-cooked and then cooled steak
- An errant cook didn't turn the meat, and that side was never directly heated
- They don't use hot plates to keep the food hot while waiting for the side items
I did like two of four sides. The creamed corn was very good, and appeared to have some sort of molasses in it, making it sweet. The whipped potatoes were very good as well. The tomato slice was .... dubious. It wasn't great, nor horrible. I couldn't decide if it was pan seared, or baked for a few minutes, because it wasn't crisp, and it wasn't mushy. Something in between. The last side item was a deep-fried (I assume) cheese stick, which I didn't much care for.
Our tab ended up being around $100, plus another $20 for tip. I did notice that the combination of carpet, lighting, shoes, and college-aged wait staff meant that there were a lot of people tripping over themselves, and almost falling on their faces while serving people. This was more than humorous to me.
Overall, I'd say that it's probably one of the better places to have a steak in Lubbock. There's a plaque on the wall stating that it's the 9th best steak house in Texas, according to someone who ranks steak houses. I wouldn't go that far, but would say it has some of the tastiest food in Lubbock -- and is quite above the average franchise or chain that is so common in this town.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home