Uncle Jack's Steakhouse — Restaurant in New York

I haven't eaten here since shortly after they've opened, quite few subtle changes and now they are well known, they put themselves against the likes of Peter Lugers, Frank's, Ruth Chris, & Delmonicos. When they first opened I went there and there was literally no menu only several items on a board above the kitchen, when I asked the waiter what they have he said that they will make whatever I like. That blew me away however you have to remember nothing is cheap here. At that time the waiter was bragging about his crab cakes being the best there was, got one and it was huge the flavor very good, but perhaps Frank's at that time tasted a hair better, that being said the sauce on that crab cake was the best I ever had in my life quite euphoric, like pavlov's dog I drool thinking about it. Fast forward to today, now the place has become well known, the pretension level has gone up and they have a full menu, everything is ala carte which they've taken to the extreme, want a baked potato it's $7 for a good size potato, but don't expect anything on it, you can get truffle butter for your potato only $12 more. The host takes your orders and brings your drinks unless he's too busy everything else gets delivered to you by combination bus/wait staff. I had the special appetizer which was described as giant scallops wrapped in bacon served with cauliflower, the person I was with ordered crab cake and lobster avocado salad. The giant scallops turned out to be 4 medium scallops surrounding a fair amount of cauliflower and 2 x 3/8" think pieces of bacon, 1 of which had a lot of meat the other was just a piece of fatback, I ate the meat off the one piece and didn't bother with the fatback, the 4 scallops were tasty as was the cauliflower even though I don't really like cauliflower. The crab cake was nothing like the original one years before, it was your standard hockey puck size, tasted mediocre, the sauce was good but no longer the sauce of my dreams. After the appetizer the busboy/waiter brought us 2 salads, I explained I hadn't ordered a salad, he told me they made it for 2 so I was cool with that, what we got was a mesclun salad with a bit of lobster and even less avocado that had been very lightly drizzled with a nice sherry based dressing, wish they had put more on. For entree I ordered a 12oz filet medium & a baked potato and my partner a 10 oz lobster tail. The steak was a true 12 oz piece of meat perfectly cooked medium, these days many places claim a certain size of meat and what you get is actually less, here it was definitely 12 oz.. The meat was grizzle + silver skin free and of decent consistency, the potato was a good size but I had to use some of my partner's drawn butter from her lobster tail. The lobster tail was quite tasty. When it came time to pay the bill I noticed there was a cash price and $7 more if you pay by credit card. This is chintzy as can be when you are already charging hundreds of dollars for a meal. For those that don't know a few sleazy restaurants started charging a fee for using a credit card and they didn't tell their customers, a few of the customers figured out their Bill's were higher than the total of their meals and filed complaints with NYC consumer affairs. Consumer Affairs issued a ruling allowing restaurants to charge a credit card fee but that it must be prominently posted, However in the case of Uncle Jack's the fee is not prominently posted and you get a surprise on your check so they are in violation.Rating the restaurants I named I would put Delmonicos at the top as the gold standard, a certain amount of pretense but the finest service and top food without anyskimping.Peter Lugers has the best tasting meat you can find anywhere, no pretense just good food, they don't take credit cards though and never have.Frank's low on pretense, good food, though an 8 oz steak may actually be 7 oz. They provide side dish with meal service is decent, they've been slipping though. Uncle Jack's would now beat Frank's if not for CC. Ruth's Chris is all about pretense go here to be seen not...

We've been here twice; both times fantastic. Decor is old-school New York steakhouse. It's a pleasure to take in the scenery. There's space between the tables so you're not eating on top of other diners.

Waitstaff is nearly perfect. Busboys and servers are efficient and mostly unobtrusive. Waiters are old-school NYC waiters, almost a dying breed: slightly older gentleman, intense NYC accent, strong but friendly NYC personality, and a wry sense of humor. Competent. Both times our waiter took the order without writing it down and got everything correct. Nice! Only negative comment: please be more mindful of not interrupting table conversation. That's beneath the quality the of Uncle Jack's Steakhouse experience.

The manager is perfect. We arrived at an awkward time between lunch and dinner (1st visit). We wanted to order from the lunch menu even though the kitchen had stopped serving lunch. The manager snapped his fingers and made it happen without us even asking. He saw the need and made it happen. A true professional. On our second visit he gave my daughter ice cream, gratis. He's obviously a proud Dad who loves his kids because only Dads think of this kind of thing.

I won't lie, the prices are steep (charging for bread is a misstep, IMHO, that will anger some people) but that's the price for exquisite food and service. If the price is bothersome, you should be going to Gustavo's Diner. I think the prices are commensurate with NYC steakhouse. In fact, more than fair -- food quality and prices are on-par with Peter Lugers, but the service at Uncle Jack's is MUCH better, and Uncle Jack's accepts credit cards!

Baked Clams: A- Nice and garlicky. Lots of sauce with a half lemon in cheesecloth to catch pits (nice touch!). Breadcrumbs are like a garlicky bread pudding. We were given 9 or 10 clams. I wish they were a bit larger.

Skirt Steak: A+ This was still one of the best skirt steaks we've ever had. In fact, it was cooked so perfectly that we ordered a second dish to take home with us! Juicy, tender, and beefy without being too fatty or oily. It was a perfectly cooked steak.

Hamburgers: A+ Perfect charbroil on the outside, medium rare on the inside: Perfect! The bacon is thick slab smoked bacon, the cheese is beautifully sharp cheddar. A perfect American hamburger.

Prime Rib Chop ("Fred Flintstone"): B Slightly underwhelming. I ordered medium rare and it came mostly medium. The very center of the cut was medium rare, but the rest was dry, indicating that the meat was cooked at too high of a temperature. They need to cook the chop at a lower temperature to allow the entire chop to cook more evenly. However, there was enough au jus, the cut was beautiful, and the outside was nicely grill charred (perhaps a bit too much charring, but that is a subjective point.)

Boneless NY Strip: A+ This is a winner. Perfectly grill-charred. Insanely soft. Obviously an expensive cut of meat, meaning it was aged for several weeks before being sold. This is why you order steak from a place like Uncle Jack's rather than a diner. If you want a perfect NY Strip this is it. You can't do better.

Kurobuta Pork Chop: A You get two very thick, nicely charred pork chops, soft, fatty, and succulent, as Japanese meats tend to be.

Wagyu Kobe Meatballs: B As of July 2016, only one restaurant in NYC serves real kobe beef, and it's not Uncle Jack's. Any other NYC menu that says "kobe", including this one, is a lie. I lived in Japan for a year, and know kobe beef. This is NOT kobe beef! In fact, using real kobe beef for meatballs would be a sin: kobe is known for marbling -- you would grill kobe beef as a steak, not grind it up for a meatball! Meatballs are still good, even though they're not real kobe beef.

Creamed Spinach: B- Too much nutmeg. I like my creamed spinach chopped finer.

Mashed Potatoes: A Nearly perfect. They obviously use some kind of cream here. It would be an A+ if the potato skin was left on (I really like the skin for rustic mashed potatoes). Consistency is perfect...

Ok so let me first start off by saying I booked a reservation for 5 for 9:30pm. The person on the phone told me the place closed at 11, but he still took my reservation. So two of my friends were there on time and put in our names to be seated. Me and my other friend came about 5 mins after them cause parking over there is very hard to find. The last friend who came was much later, but she didn’t even order food. Food was ok, I had the catch of the day, and the lobster Mac n cheese which was subpar, my friends all had steaks, which they did enjoy. Problem is, we waited almost 30-35 minutes for our meals to arrive. When it did arrive, which was around 10:45, someone came to our table around 10:50,10:55, to inform us that we only had 5 mins to eat. How? How was it our faults that our food came to the table so late? If you were gonna rush us to eat, you should have never agreed to take my reservation for 9:30. This very rude, very unprofessional person then tells me, ‘your table came late, I told you to get here on time’. I’m like ‘sir, we checked in at 9:30 which was our reservation time and the other 2 people that came in came only 5 mins in afterwards. He was so rude and so nasty. That’s not how you treat a group of people that spend about $400 on the bill. It came off as prejudice, because we were a table of 5 African American friends and the gentleman who spoke to us was an older white man and I don’t believe he gave the white group there as well the same attitude he gave us. I’m giving 2 stars solely on the fact that the gentleman who served us did come back to the table and apologized multiple times for the other guy’s hasty behavior. He also gave us all free dessert to take home since we didn’t have enough time to finish our meals. I appreciate that he did that, but I would NEVER go back, because I was already highly offended from what the...