The meat-fest continues! To celebrate a birthday, MFM - or as I’ve been calling him lately, The Gimch, because he’s a gimp AND a grinch (he recently injured his Achilles, and let's just say he's been in better moods) put on nice clothes and headed to Alexander’s Steakhouse in Cupertino.
I first heard about Alexander’s on Bay Area Check Please, where one of the diners raved about trying a $250 piece of Kobe beef. Our pockets aren’t quite as deep, but our meal was just as good, and felt just as special.
The restaurant itself is somewhat deceiving, located near a rather unassuming shopping mall next to a Benihana. But you enter and the space feels dark, intimate, luxurious. Suburban shoppers are replaced with sharp-dressed business men, groups celebrating special occasions, and dreamy-eyed couples on date night. You know you’re in for something special.
And special calls for really doing it up. For a time, I went crazy for starting my meals with fried calamari. Then I moved on to anything tuna (tartare, poke and the like). Now it’s all about foie gras and theirs was served perfectly seared, with grapes, pistachios and a balsamic vinegar reduction.
I’ve also really been enjoying wedge salads lately. For $5 extra, our server recommended adding candied bacon, which was pretty much the best $5 one can spend. Meaty and salty with the perfect touch of sweetness, we could have ended the meal right there and gone home happy, it was that good.
Tomahawk is one of those words (like machete, or catapult) that’s inherently action-packed, and MFM’s Tomahawk Chop didn’t disappoint. Seasoned simply with herbs and butter, it must’ve been close to 3 pounds, providing 2-3 days of leftovers for most people (for MFM just one). I ordered their filet mignon, tender and melt in your mouth delicious, with a tarragon beurre blanc and demi-glace on top.
Doing it up also implies plenty of sides, and we tried the utterly perfect fries with truffle oil and a parmesan dip as well as the creamy and luxurious truffle mac and cheese. Then we finished off the meal with two desserts – chocolate cake, and to be different, their pastry chef’s ode to corn (corn cake, corn ice cream and corn tuille topped with corn nuts).
I forgot to mention we also had cocktails, an amuse-bouche of cheese and crackers and a palate-cleansing sorbet too. And just when you think you couldn’t possibly eat another bite, the check comes accompanied by a fluffy, irresistible house-spun cotton candy. It was grape! Yum.
Thinking back, this was more than enough delicious for just one meal. I would have been very happy with just the foie gras and wedge salad. Or the filet and mac & cheese. Or just a big plate of their truffle fries, with dessert. But put together, it all added up to one big, sigh-inducing, belt-loosening, bank account-draining, but totally unforgettable meal.
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