Craftsteak - Review

Intro
Craftsteak - Highly Unrecommended
85 10th Ave, New York 10011
At 15th St
Phone: 212-400-6699

Like Ko and Aquavit, I had no desire to ever go to any of Colicchio's Craft restaurants for the same reason as my player-hating on David Chang before - media darling, way too many restaurants, etc. Whereas I was 100% wrong with Ko, it is the exact opposite at Craftsteak - this place is garbage. Service is terrible, food is way over seasoned, and the steak temperature was off. At Ko, I was watching the chef taste everything multiple times. The chefs at Craftsteak need to learn from the guys at Ko, since some of the food was way off (funny considering Chang worked at Craft before). Overall, I give the restaurant a 40/100.

My Menu (listing prices, since it's obscenely overpriced)
1) Benton's Ham, Pickled Peach and Summer Beans ($19) *
2) Salt Roasted Bone Marrow and Sauce Verge ($16) ---
3) Pork Belly, Smoke Coleslaw and Tomato Marmalade ($18) **
4) T-Bone 20 oz, Niman Ranch ($64) *
5) Spinach and Bacon ($12) ---
6) Rosti ($10) **
7) Onion Rings ($10) *

Rating System
--- What the F - in a bad way * Good ** Great *** What the F – in a good way

Dish Comments
1) A thinly sliced smoked ham (similar to serrano ham, but no where near as good) that's pretty tasty, but just a tad too salty - foreshadowing of bad things to come.
2) I absolutely love bone marrow, but this was pretty bad. First, the thing comes on a bed of salt, so sometime you get a mouthful of salt with your marrow. Then, on top of that, they serve it with capers which is completely unnecessary since it's salty enough as is. Garbage.
3) Redemption here, since the pork belly was flavorful, crispy, and slightly tender (could be more so). The winner was the combination with the tomato marmalade - great idea and great flavor.
4) Flavorful meaty steak that was cooked correctly (more on that later). A tad salty though and wish the temperature was warmer.
5) This was freaking terrible. Inedibly salty and when we sent it back there was absolutely no salt the second time around.
6) Rosti is a shredded potato and onion concoction cooked into a thick disc shape. I'm a big sucker for this dish and it was done perfectly. Crispy on the outside, moist on the insde. Great dish and the best of the night.
7) Giant sized onion rings that was pretty good. A tad greasy for me, but the batter and the onion were nice.

Overall Restaurant Experience (40/100)

• Food 6.0/10 – Steakhouse food should not be tough to do. Cook the steaks well and do decent sides. At Craftsteak, they f'ed up a lot of the sides, which is kinda ridiculous since the menu isn't that large. Others in our group had issues with their steaks as well - someone ordered medium rare and got it completely bloody rare. Someone else at our table (who is a chef) complained about the temperature of the steak as well.
  
• Service 2.0/10 – From the time that we were seated, the waiter didn't address us for 15-20 minutes. Then, I noticed that the knife that I hadn't used yet had caked on f'n pieces of steak! No apologies - the waiter just took it away and got me a new one. Food took a long time to come out and the waiter was an ass.
  
• Atmosphere 2.0/10 – Trendy looking place that had one table filled with a-holes. This particular table had 5 guys with their shirts basically completely unbottoned and they just looked like a bunch of pricks. The decor is ok with high ceilings and everything basically black and white. Got there at 8pm on a Monday and was seated immediately.
  
• Price 2.0/10 – $115 a person with basically no drinks and no desserts - we couldn't give any more money to this s-hole. Even with the crappy food, the quantity per dollar was ridiculously minuscule. If this was half the price, then it would maybe get a 50/100 but the price is completely ridiculous for the overall experience.
  

Closing Comments
There's a reason why I tend to avoid steakhouses - they're usually overpriced and it's a crapshoot for the quality. I'd rather go to a bistro any day. This place is ass and I've learned my lesson from giving Bobby Flay and Mario Batali second and third chances checking out their restaurants after poor initial experiences...I am 100% done with Colicchio's restaurants. If you need to go to a steakhouse though, I suggest Peter Luger's over any other. For a steakhouse that is in the similar vein as Crafsteak (nicer decor, higher quality sides, decent steak), go to Porterhouse.