two. ate.

We actually arrived early (by design) to have cocktails. A apple martini for Jan; a spicy bloody mary for me. Josh, our usual lunch bartender, made a truly kick-ass bloody mary. Lots of spice and vodka.

Once in the dining room (and it is large, although expertly hidden by the bar area), we found it to be a bit noisy but not overly so. And as you could guess, their forté is steak. Huge pieces of steak. Matched up with equally huge flavors. Since we both try and not stuff ourselves to the point of pain, we did a bit of "share" strategizing...

Our starters were a crab handroll and the lobster/shrimp dumplings. The dumplings were beggar's purses filled with a nice mix of the shellfish. There was a so-so lobster-based sauce and a pineapple-ginger relish scattered around them. Even though the sauce was just ok, the dumplings were very moist and packed with flavor. The pineapple-ginger relish added a nice sweetness but reminded me a little too much of pineapple upside-down cake. It was good in small dabs. The crab handroll was a pleasant surprise (it was a last-minute impluse order). A nice thick wad of dungeness crab rolled in a Vietnamese rice paper roll with nice, crisp vegetation and a little dab of vinegar-based sauce in a temaki (sushi handroll) style.

Our main was the 24-oz. Porterhouse steak with garlic butter and escargot which we shared. We got a prevue of the wild mushroom side in the bar so we ordered that plus "thumb" potatoes with Camembert.

There is much attention paid to pairings with meat at Alexander's that it nearly borders on annoyance. This was the story with the Porterhouse. The meat itself was *fantastic* - perfectly cooked rare. The garlic butter added a bit of punch but the escargot added nothing but fake extravagance. I don't have a dislike for escargot but I find them relatively boring and they don't really imply "fancy" or "extravagant" to me, although they do for lots of people. We should have had them leave them off. Fortunately, they didn't detract from the overall presentation.

The sides were pretty good as long as you ate them while they were warm. The potatoes and cheese were nice and creamy with that little Camembert bitterness. The wild mushrooms (market price: $18 (!) ) were pretty amazing. A perfect sauté with just the right amount of butter. With the meat, the mushrooms were a perfect compliment.

Speaking of compliment, we chose a half-bottle 1999 Chateau-Langoa Bordeaux. From the first sip, this was going to go very well with our selections. Although they brought it out just before the starters, we saved most of it for the meat course. It was smooth and velvety with that classic richness...a full mouthful with every mouthful. Worth every penny.

We opted for Alexander's dessert called simply "Chocolate". It was a chocolate crunch "cake" with layers of chocolate cake, chocolate mousse and a thin, crunchy layer of peanut butter. It came with a scoop of black pepper infused chocolate sorbet plus strips of vanilla and caramel sauces. There was a little dollop of white chocolate mousse on the cake. The greatest thing about this dessert was that it was just sweet enough and everything was nicely balanced. Even the black pepper in the sorbet was the little surprise in the mix - not too overwhelming at all. Alexander's also finishes their meals with a cone of pink cotton candy which we were enjoyed as well...

Service-wise, things were pretty smooth except the salad we ordered never came but our waiter offered to pack one up to go, free-of-charge. Since it was their fabulous iceberg with Shaft blue cheese (which I eat on a regular basis when I go there for lunch), we could not refuse. Other than that, everyone was attentive but not pestering. I must admit to being a bit wary after reading some reviews that specifically mentioned "poor" service.

Overall, a nice evening. Alexander's should stick to simple pairings because that simplicity won't obscure that they do best: steak.