iron | Johnny Prime

AMERICAN CUT OVERALL SCORE: 94

After having one of the best meals of my life at Marc Forgione, I had to check this place out when I heard the iron chef was opening a steakhouse. Staying true to his innovative spirit, Chef Forgione excited us in every course with his unique dishes and menu items. Everything – from the cocktail menu at the bar, to the apps, entrees and desserts – has his envelope-pushing signature on it. I love that about his food. See below:

Flavor: 10

I had the NYC cut rib eye, which was a 20oz bone-in cut that was seasoned with pastrami spices (mainly mustard seed and rye seed). It was definitely different and unique. I loved it for the first half of the steak, but on the back end I was kinda just craving a regular steak taste. But the meat was cooked perfectly, it was juicy and tender, and it had great char and crust. Bravo for thinking outside the box on this cut. On a second trip I shared the rib eye for two with a friend and my wife. It was perfectly cooked, and absolutely delicious. I also got to taste a bit of the filet mignon from another friend who ordered it. Very juuicy and tender, with great seasoning.

20131025_185137_LLS — new york cut (pastrami spice)

Choice of Cuts & Quality Available: 10

The quality is all fantastic from what I could tell; all aged for many weeks. They had several different steaks for two to choose from (rib eye, porterhouse), a standalone strip, a standalone rib eye (the one I had), a filet (plus one on special), a hanger steak, and a wagyu rib eye.

Portion Size & Plating: 9

The sizes here are good: 20oz for the rib eye, 14oz for the strip, 10oz for both the hanger and filet, 42oz for the rib eye for two, and 40oz for the porterhouse. Plating was nice – basic, elegant, but not overly fancy. A word of caution: the rib eye for two has a lot of bone on it – tomahawk style. I could probably take it down by myself, but if you load up on apps and sides, you will be okay with sharing it.

Price: 9

The steaks are very fair in price ($44 for the rib eye), but I thought some of the apps were a little too pricey. For example, the chili lobster was $27 and it was, at best, a half of a 1-pound lobster. I’ve had bigger and better lobsters for $3.99/lb from my local grocery store; it WAS really tasty though, and you are paying for the work that goes into the preparation of this dish. Also the bacon – two thick cut slabs is $16. A bit expensive. Both dishes were yummy though (see below). On the plus side, I had $100 from a contest I won on Tabelog for my restaurant reviews, so I used that toward the bill.

Bar: 9

The bar is nice here. It’s set back behind the greeting station, but it’s a good set up, and it attracts a lot of people who are out for the night, regardless of whether they are eating at the restaurant. It’s a fun place. They have a great cocktail menu with some really nice, interesting things. My wife tried a fig margarita and an artichoke sour. Both were good in my opinion, but the artichoke cocktail was a little too bitter in the back end of each sip. They mixed a good martini, but the martini could definitely benefit from some better quality olives. With dessert I tried the homemade sambuca: it was nice and potent, with strong hints of vanilla, ginger and coffee.

Specials & Other Meats: 10

Our waitress offered us three specials: a baby greens salad with squash, a 7oz filet with hunter’s sauce (reduced red wine, bacon, mushroom), and a brussels sprouts with pearl onions side dish. We didn’t try any because we were too enticed by the regular menu items. In the “other meats” department they offer a braised short rib; lamb, veal, and pork porterhouses; a clove chicken; and as I said above some wagyu and alternative cuts like hanger. I guess I’ll mention it here – why he fuck not… the steak sauce was nice and tangy, and would go well with any meat. My steak was heavily spiced with the pastrami stuff, so I didn’t use it, but it might be good on something like chicken. I like the cool old-timey apothecary bottle it was presented in too:

Apps Sides & Dessert: 8

We started with three items: bacon, octopus, and steak tartare. The steak tartare was a bit too tangy and vinegary for our liking. It came with a soft-boiled, pickled quail egg that sat at the bottom of the meat. It was served with toasted bread and homemade sweet pickles. Overall it was just too sour and salty for our taste, but we did eat it all.

The bacon was delicious. Crispy outside, soft and fatty inside, great flavor. Just a bit pricey as I mentioned before. It was topped with a nice sort of onion marmalade:

Here’s a shot of the bone marrow app, which my wife tried on a second visit. Gorgeous and stunning, and really fucking delicious:

The octopus was excellent. I’ve had better at a local Italian place on Long Island, but that place is hit or miss and I really liked the array of different flavors that came through with each bite here. Olive oil, shaved celery, roasted red peppers, lemon and garlic. It was great, and super soft:

On the side we had the sunchoked spinach. it was a nice take on creamed spinach. I love the flavor of sunchoke so I was excited to try this. They put some fontina cheese on top to give it the extra salt and cream, but I thought maybe half or three-quarters of the amount of cheese would have been plenty.

For dessert we tried the AC car bomb – Guinness ice cream on a bed of chocolate bread pudding and topped with a Jameson caramel. It was delicious, even though we were already stuffed.

On the second trip we had the crackerjack sundae – fun, but a bit too sweet:

Seafood Selection: 9

They had a lot to choose from for fish: planked salmon, swordfish, halibut, and a bunch of goodies over on the app side of the menu like shellfish and seafood platters. We tried the chili lobster, which seems to thread its way through both the app and main course sides of the menu. It had a great buttery, spicy flavor in the broth, but the app portion was a bit too small for $27 (as mentioned above, a half of a 1-pound lobster at best).

Service: 10

Everyone was great here. Our waitress Sonja was helpful, informative, friendly, and attentive. So were the bus men and the management. They all dress in nice grey suit vests with ties, and they swoop in like hawks when you finish up with a plate or if you need water or anything. At the start of the meal, they bring over some really nice, warm “everything biscuits” with a vegetable butter. Nice way to start the meat-a-thon. These things are addictive though, so be careful not to spoil your appetite before you even get your apps!

At the end of the meal they even had some nice snack sized freebies to munch on while paying the bill (think elevated girls scout cookies):

Ambiance: 10

The art deco decor was nice and warm for a change. The seating is all top notch, club style arm-chairs, and there’s plenty of room at the tables. The bathrooms are fitted with small circular tiles on the floor, marble all over the rest, with big, raised urinals and tall pedestal sinks. Very nice smell for a shitter too, I must say. The cutlery was nice too – take a look (his new knives even have his signature etched into the blade):

THAT's not a knife... THIS is a knife. — THAT’s not a knife… THIS is a knife.

AMERICAN CUT
363 Greenwich St.
New York, NY 10013

Iron Chef Marc Forgione’s restaurant in Tribeca is amazing. Recently my wife came upon an article that featured the pig face platter; a dish that comprises a half a pig face and some side items that vary with each week (our week was a taco theme, as is pictured in the article, with a ramp sour cream, jicama salsa, etc.). They don’t offer it every week, and when they DO offer it, it is only on Thursdays. Well, our anniversary fell on a Thursday this year – so it was perfect. With nervous anticipation my wife called several times inquiring about whether pig face would be on the menu. Yesterday morning they gave the definitive “yes.” We were psyched.

Look at this delicious face! The cheek meat was incredibly soft and juicy, and the skin all over was unbelievable; you know the kind… sticky and fatty on one side, crispy and savory on the other. Perfection.

For our meal we started with a nice octopus salad – really fantastic. Then we had the piggy face. Afterward we shared a massive 40oz french cut cowboy rib eye. Take a look at how amazing it looks (if only you could “see” how amazing it tasted too). I can’t rank Marc Forgione on this website because it’s not a steakhouse, but, if I were going to, this would get a 10 for flavor.

As you can see in this shot it came with side items (a composed dish, as they say): carrot juice glazed carrot, some roasted potatoes, and roasted bone marrow. The steak itself was topped with a chimichurri sauce and little blobs of cold rosemary butter, which was nice because it didn’t melt into the meat and drench the plate in butter. You could pluck them off and spread it to your liking.

It was a heavy meal, and would’ve been heavier if we started off with the fois gras instead of the octopus. The waiter, Jason, was helpful in making sure we didn’t have a richness blowout when he suggested we go with the octopus based on the other stuff we were ordering. He was great by the way. So were the cocktails. The service here in general is fantastic (definitely a 10). We even had a personalized “Welcome” / “Happy Anniversary” letter signed by Marc sitting at our table when we were seated, and at the end of the meal we had the pleasure of getting a glimpse of the culinary genius before we left.

We were also given a nice manager’s discount on the bill!

I hope Marc and his staff get a chance to see this post and this website. As a Carnivore Connoisseur, I think they would appreciate being mentioned as one of the best steaks in town, even when measured against establishments that ONLY deal in steak.

MARC FORGIONE
134 Reade St.
New York, NY 10013