Club Paris — Restaurant in Alaska

Today's review August 14, 2017. Back again. Where to begin. You want a superb chunk of beef and the perfect cocktail or your whiskey neat? Club Paris is the place to be. Club P. is a well established restaurant that has "seen it all" over the years. It's weathered vegan and fusion. Presentation is clean and uncluttered.

A spiced apple ring and lettuce garnish is a pleasant homage to a by gone era. Your meal won't arrive suffocating in heavy sauce or lost in the weeds of some grated greenery.

You want pretension? You want foo foo fussy and frilly? Oh dear god. Please. Stuff that poodle in your man purse, sit down, and don't make it harder than it is to order and indulge in a great meal.

Club Paris is consistently excellent. Beef is their stock in trade. The Bar keep is an adult, experienced, and doesn't surprise easily.

Just place your order-- don't explain or apologize, he'll whip it out in a heart beat. Food and beverage is NOT complicated for the staff at Club Paris.

I ordered the petit filet, baked potato, and a dinner salad with blue cheese dressing. I reserved most of my blue cheese dressing for my baked tater.

My only quibble. Yes, a quibble but a wee little quibble... Is... Rare steak should be so rare the last gasp of the cow is exhaled with the first slice. I ordered rare. I expected a cool center, but it was warm. However, the steak blade sliced smoothly through the fillet, and there was juice to spare.

I was a cook for 20+ years. I always did steaks more rare than well. You can always sear that chunk of beef a little more. But, you can't ever fix over cooked. Even if they want shoe leather.

An icy cold gin and tonic trimmed out the spread. Chocolate sweet potato pie and a freshly brewed cup of coffee capped off my meal. I can't vouch that dessert was made fresh on site, I forgot to ask. Even though my steak was less rare than I anticipated, it was still delicious. Maybe I'm just a picky old broad.

Anyway, Club Paris didn't disappoint. Especially when I got to watch the Yankees Aaron Judge whack a homer off the unsuspecting Mets pitcher.

The review below is from two months ago. What's excellent:

Cocktails...classic martinis, gin/tonics, even blended pina coladas. That's right...a pina colada. And boy was it tasty. The bar keeps are expert and no nonsense. Want a good straight bourbon neat? you got it. None of this frilly dilly fancy schmancy stuff. Steaks. Any cut.

Fish? meh. The fish I don't order any more because it is just overcooked. The blackened salmon was so dry. Did I mention steaks? any cut. They will even cook it to shoe leather if you want...(please, please, rethink this option though). Medium Well is far tastier than shoe leather, even expensive shoe leather.

The only thing missing is the pall of cigarette smoke and booths full of attorneys and politicians from...

I must say, I was very excited to finally secure a reservation for this special event. My son is moving on to middle school next year, and he’s been eager to try a steak from Club Paris ever since we moved here 2½ years ago. Personally, I was also thrilled to experience this highly recommended restaurant, as I’ve yet to find an exceptional culinary experience here in Alaska. Maybe my taste buds are just different, coming from North Carolina!

Anyway, we arrived and I absolutely loved the ambience of Club Paris. The dim lighting and calming atmosphere were a refreshing change from our usual spot, Texas Roadhouse, which we love, but is always busy, overpacked, and loud. Even though Texas Roadhouse has great steaks, I was excited to see how Club Paris compared.

Unfortunately, the service didn’t quite match the atmosphere. Our waitress wasn’t very inviting, and I had to keep overwhelming her with kindness and repeated “thank yous” just to get a smile or some hint of personality from her.

When my son ordered, he wanted the steak and shrimp combo, but I mistakenly said he wanted the “steak platter.” There wasn’t any clarifying question from the waitress, and to be honest, I didn’t even get the name right—it wasn’t even called a platter, it was a combo! Long story short, my son ended up with a platter of fried zucchini and mushrooms, and a tiny bowl of dried, overly peppery teriyaki steak bites. The worst part? The halibut fish sticks—if you could call them that—were soggy, flavorless, and honestly worse than frozen fish sticks.

To make matters worse, because our reservation was for 8:30 p.m., the kitchen was already closed by the time we realized the order was wrong. I couldn’t reorder what he had actually wanted, so I ended up giving him my ribeye steak. I tried a few bites myself, and thank goodness, because it was probably the worst ribeye steak I’ve ever had. It was dry, over-peppered, and just an awful cut of meat. As a huge steak lover, this was beyond disappointing.

Maybe I should have known better than to make a late reservation when everyone’s tired and the kitchen is winding down, but having worked in the restaurant industry myself, I’ve seen many kitchens accommodate guests even close to closing time. Sadly, Club Paris wasn’t willing to fix my son’s plate.

Overall, the service was lacking, the atmosphere was fantastic, and the food was unfortunately subpar—except for their desserts! The peanut butter ice cream cake was absolutely divine. Another highlight was their cocktail sauce for the shrimp—it was loaded with horseradish and completely delicious.

In the end, I don’t think I’ll be going back to Club Paris. I’ll stick to Texas Roadhouse for now....

Coworkers recommended this place for dinner. They said the filet was great. I decided to take them up on their suggestion. I get there and they are primarily reservation. They told me it would be an hour before they could fit me in (I was the only one, not a party). I don't like eating at the bar, but it came up that I could sit at the bar and go ahead and sit. I was given the menu and saw that the filet is $65. There was also a New York strip that was $45, but the special NYS was $50 and it was a bigger steak (16 oz) with a raspberry sauce (figured if I didn't like the sauce, I'd scrap it off to the side...of course not all would come off by doing that, but I'd power through that) and came with an extra side (salad) and was a bit "fancier". I decided to go with the $50 special. I ordered medium rare with baked potato (and salad). I ordered a sprite as my drink. I wasn't told, but I got a 7-Up (you can definitely taste a difference). That's not a deal breaker at all. The guy that was sitting next to me ordered his smaller steak the same way...it came well done. He said something and they replaced the entire plate...very nicely done! Got my salad and it was tasty, but it's a salad and hard to mess up. My steak came and so I was leery and bit more concerned considering the other one I had saw was overdone. I get my steak and was perfectly cooked. I tasted the sauce and wasn't a fan, but it wasn't completely awful. I scrapped the sauce over to the side and was able to finish the steak perfectly fine (without steak sauce like A1). If I was comparing the food/steak and all to say Longhorn...Longhorn would have been a better price and better flavor (Outback though...Club Paris wins flavor wise). Would I come back, maybe if it was a company outing or someone else was paying, but for me...I'd get something better tasting and value for the price. They do not offer a...