Grand Central Terminal, America\u2019s greatest railroad nexus,\u00a0deserved a great American restaurant.\u00a0 Brand-new Palladino\u2019s Steak & Seafood is it.<\/p>\n
The space was sadly dark after a kitchen fire destroyed\u00a0Michael Jordan\u2019s Steakhouse seven long years ago. Now, walk past a blue millwork bourbon bar and the main dining room on the north and west balconies boasts views of the terminal\u2019s throbbing, vaulted concourse. Amidst the grandeur, you\u00a0can almost hear the whistle of the long-gone Twentieth Century Limited. \u00a0 <\/p>\n
The carpeted, white-tablecloth luxury of David Rockwell\u2019s design with Art Deco accents evokes the glamour of the streamliner era as well. Banquettes and booths, velvet-upholstered in green and blue, are so comfy you don\u2019t want to leave.<\/p>\n
Chef Sam Hazen carves prime rib from a tableside trolley at Palladino\u2019s, a grand new steakhouse at Grand Central. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n
Prime rib from an Iowa ranch is slow-roasted and\u00a0herb-coated with just enough peppery crust to set off the beef\u2019s lush, underlying flavor. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n
The house has been packed day and night since it opened a few weeks ago \u2014 remarkable, considering that owner\u00a0Joe Palladino\u2019s name is little known in New York, although he was born in the Bronx and was an NYPD cop before he moved west to launch restaurants in Texas and Las Vegas. (The dining room\u2019s blue trim is meant to\u00a0reflect his past vocation.)<\/p>\n
The menu by chef Sam Hazen, formerly a prime mover\u00a0in the Tao empire, is worthy of the setting. It\u2019s a something-for-everyone lineup, from a cute little $25 burger to a $260 olive-fed ribeye.<\/p>\n
Hazen turned out so many excellent dishes, it was hard\u00a0to keep track of them. All are from the classic American steakhouse stable but with enough tweaks to set them apart from the herd. <\/p>\n
A foie gras and filet mignon slider from Palladino\u2019s Steak & Seafood is served with a stack of fried potato cakes. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n
Shrimp cocktail ($34) is served two ways. The cold pair catch fire with Holy Schmitt\u2019s cocktail sauce; the hot ones are butter-poached. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n
Dover sole goujonettes ($62), lightly battered to a golden turn, put an elegant twist to fish and chips. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n
Shrimp cocktail ($34) is served two ways. The cold pair catch fire with Holy Schmitt\u2019s cocktail sauce; the hot ones are butter-poached. They\u2019re equally succulent. Dover sole goujonettes ($62), lightly battered to a golden turn, put an elegant twist to fish and chips.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s\u00a0a steakhouse, and the cuts I had placed in the league of Daniel Boulud\u2019s great La Tete D\u2019Or.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Prime rib carved on a tableside trolley is sometimes more spectacle than a hungry diner wants, but Hazen\u2019s boneless number from an Iowa ranch is slow-roasted and\u00a0herb-coated with just enough peppery crust to set off the beef\u2019s lush, underlying flavor. Served with classic horseradish sauce, the $125 giant was more than two of us could finish.<\/p>\n
The main Palladino\u2019s dining room on Grand Central\u2019s north and west balconies boasts views of the terminal\u2019s throbbing, vaulted concourse. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n
The same care went into the 24-ounce prime \u201ccowboy\u201d steak ($112). The meat, cooked perfectly medium-rare, was properly \u201crested\u201d for fifteen minutes before carving to promote the absorption of juice, resulting in deep, mineral-rich flavor uniformly spread throughout the cut. A brushing of butter, pepper and Balinese sea salt completed the package and a trio of sauces \u2014 tangy, chimichurri and au poivre \u2014 were icing on the cake.<\/p>\n
Our only minor disappointment was a \u00a0$72 \u201csteakhouse board,\u201d a fussy little plate that included a solitary shrimp,\u00a0filet mignon tartare, a slider and marrow, none of which blew us away.<\/p>\n
Truly sweet was a giant wedge of seven-layer chocolate cake ($28), star of the dessert lineup. It was the rare version of the overworked staple where the layers actually tasted different from one another, thanks to alternating bands of dark, milk and Dulcey (blond) chocolate \u2014 all of them soaked in La Colombe coffee<\/p>\n
The seven-layer chocolate cake ($28) is the star of the dessert lineup Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n
A soft-serve sundae at Palladino\u2019s comes with fun toppings on the side. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n
The holidays are a great time to visit Grand Central even if you\u2019re not chasing a train, and Palladino\u2019s is the crown jewel in the terminal\u2019s \u00a0culinary collection that includes the sparkling Grand Brasserie and the historic Oyster Bar downstairs. \u00a0<\/p>\n
But this is Palladino\u2019s moment. Sip some bourbon from the bar or wine from the great list and you might even hear the 20th Century Limited to savor with the steak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grand Central Terminal, America\u2019s greatest railroad nexus,\u00a0deserved a great American restaurant.\u00a0 Brand-new Palladino\u2019s Steak & Seafood is it.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[289,3955,232,9,56,63,65,64,4403,821,25196],"class_list":["post-67323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-food-drink","tag-grand-central-terminal","tag-lifestyle","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-restaurant-review","tag-restaurants","tag-steakhouses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}