Primal Steakhouse — Restaurant in Winchester

Where do I begin? Saturday evening, just finished my three twelve hour shifts, decided that we needed to unwind and enjoy a good meal and drink. Little did we know that this JEWEL was right under our noses. Literally 0.6 miles from work. Located at The Boulevard mall, it was a pleasant surprise, that we would never regret! It instantly became our to-go place after work!

By the way, this place is perfect for dates and hosting large groups too.. The ambience is dark and romantic with lots of cool lightning and real candles..

The vibe is versatile regardless of the occasion. We were greeted by the beautiful and friendly host, then our awesome waiter Chad! He was really attentive, funny and just so outgoing! Checked on us frequently, yet not too much..

Now for the food! I ordered the Primal burger which was HEAVEN on a bun! It's a Ribeye burger 😳🤤🤤🤤 Honestly, it was hands down the BEST thing I've ever eaten!!! Soooo MOIST AND JUICY!! I'm getting chills just thinking about that entire experience! My taste buds and body was going through all soughts of desirable sensations 😂🤣🤷

My friend ordered the Filet mignon ,and it was also amazing, but she tried my burger, and immediately was lost for words! She was like dam! I should have ordered that too! That just means that we HAVE to come back!!

I already told half of coworkers at the hospital and my friend's! They know I'm a foodie, so they believe and trust my judgement all the time!

We also ordered the shrimp scampi: these were five jumbo shrimp served with a toasted buttered sourdough bread. They also have a complimentary tomato and bacon based jam that's also served with the buttered toasted sourdough bread 🤤🤤🤤.

For dessert, we had the chocolate lava cake, this is served with a house made vanilla ice cream!!( Made fresh, per order, so you have to wait, worth every calorie 🙃) Absolutely refreshing, yet not too sweet! We both inhaled every bit of it!! 🐷

Then there's the dranks : I forgot the names of the drinks, but just ask for the top two popular drinks! One is served in a horn, yes, I said horn! There's smoke coming from the horn where the ice sits. Then the other drink is served in a smoky tray. That drink was a little bit stronger than the "horn drink" The drink that's served in a horn is more vodka based, and is a creeper.. The smoky drink hits you instantly, causing sudden hairs on you chest! 😂😳 Writing about the smoke isn't as fun as the experience.

I love having food experiences, and just experiences in general! And this restaurant hands down was definitely an Unforgettable experience!! Our attentive waiter Chad informed us that they also served Tomahawk steak. They're different sizes, and it's served sliced. Perfect for 2 and more people. I'll definitely be back to try that!

While we were about to leave, we were looking for Chad to thank him again for being so awesome and ran into the Owner/ Executive Chef Mr Angel Lopez who gave us a mini tour of the restaurant and showed us his sword collection. That was Soo COOL! By the way the theme of the restaurant leans towards the Game of Thrones concept ( Never watched it, but my friend said that) Mr Lopez was very passionate about what he does, I saw right away why the food was made with LOVE! He gave us a brief history of his journey, no wonder the food was PHENOMENAL!!! They opened last year October, and business has been picking up daily..

FYI: There's 18 % Gratuity that's automatically included in the bill..

If you're in the mood to be BLOWN Away and gain a true food EXPERIENCE, Just head to Primal Steakhouse!!!

You wouldn't be disappointed!!!

As always: I'll be back! In my Arnold...

My experience at Primal was rocky, to say the least. The atmosphere of the restaurant is amazing. The medieval type theme could have been cheesy but it was actually really well done and balanced a cool vibe with a high end restaurant. After being seated my party was quickly greeted by the manager. He was very friendly and helpful. After he left, service from our waitress Arianna was very slow and we had to wait a while to put in our food order. After a time we received our appetizers and drinks. We ordered bone marrow, shrimp scampi, and one person had the wedge salad. The appetizers and drinks, especially the Viking punch, were outstanding. After the appetizers, our waitress did not check on us once. My reservation was at 7:30pm (we were about 5 mins late and called Primal to inform them) and by 9:00 we still had not received our main courses. There were multiple tables that came in after us that had already received their food. My husband got up to speak with the bartender because Arianna was nowhere to be found. He assured us our food would be out shortly. Another 10 or so minutes went by and our food finally arrived. A new waiter came over and said that our order got put behind some of the “bigger tables”. We were told about these bigger tables multiple times. We were a party of 5 and most of the parties present were less. Even if there were multiple big tables, it’s unacceptable that my party wasn’t treated with the same respect. However, the food was amazing. I had the Delmonico steak. It was the best steak I’ve ever had. My husband ordered the 50 oz Tomahawk and the rest of party ordered steaks as well. We were all in agreement that the food was fantastic. The manager came over after we received our food to apologize. He also took our first round of drinks off the bill and said he would send out a few deserts. He tried to make things right, which I appreciated. But by this point I was so upset that it didn’t really matter. A few of the group had to leave early because of prior engagements that we thought we could attend but since the service was so slow part of our party missed it. I was also so looking forward to the poached pear and crème brûlée but we received the lava cake and another chocolate desert. My husband and I planned our trip to Las Vegas for MONTHS and this restaurant was supposed to be one of the highlights. We looked at the menu over the months because we were so excited. We read reviews and watched YouTube videos. Before the manager took drinks off our bill, it would have been over $600 before the tip. I begrudgingly still tipped 15%. My husband’s steak alone was $155. This was the nicest restaurant I’ve ever been too, but besides the manager, it was one of the worst service experiences ever. I’ve had better customer service at McDonalds. I’m still just so disappointed. I’m not sure if I would...

I’ll preface this with saying I’m not big on fancy restaurants and I’m by no means a foodie, but I am quite a steak snob.

With that being said, I think this was the best restaurant I’ve ever eaten at. The atmosphere was so unique and interesting; many describe it as a set for Game of Thrones and I’d agree with that. When we walked in, there was live music (a violinist playing violin covers of a lot of good songs) and the lighting, while very dim, is adequate and fitting for the theme.

The bar was nice and bartenders were very attentive as we waited for our reservation (we were early). I tried a draft of the Lexington Vanilla Cream Ale and thought it was great, but I’m also not a big beer guy. I didn’t catch the bartender’s name (short tattooed blonde) but she was very nice and made great suggestions!

We enjoyed the shrimp scampi as our appetizer and they come served with five large shrimp with a nice piece of bread (I think it was their house sourdough?) and it was excellent. They also served up two piece of the house sourdough with a bacon dip of some kind. Personally, I wasn’t crazy about the dip but it wasn’t bad and the bread was great by itself.

For our main courses, my wife got the 16oz smoked New York (which came out encased in glass with smoke) with potatoes au Gratin and I got the 24oz dry aged New York with a baked potato. The wife LOVED her steak and also enjoyed the potatoes. I tried some of her steak and it was incredibly tender and flavorful, but not too strong with the smokey flavor, just right. My steak was also amazing and the baked potato was very large and covered with butter and chives. I will probably get the 16oz smoked New York next time just because I preferred it, but you truly can’t go wrong with either.

The only thing close to a negative I could say would be that the two person tables are placed (or were for that night) somewhat awkwardly in the path of the bar and didn’t leave much room for guests and staff to move about. The tables were also a very awkward stump cut style table (wild edges and shape) which were beautiful, but made it difficult to communicate with my significant other and the chairs at those tables were kinda hard and uncomfortable. However, a normal square table freed up and our waitress let us move over there, which was much, much better.

All in all, my experience was phenomenal, I am beyond impressed and pleased. This was an excellent way to spend a birthday and our waitress Arianna was excellent, even bringing me a nice little dessert with a birthday candle in it. My wife couldn’t stop talking about how much she enjoyed dinner, how it was the best steak she’s ever had, and how we can’t wait to come back.

Thank you to everyone at Primal for such a neat experience, amazing food, and a great birthday. Can’t wait...