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| - In honor of former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, known to eat at Independence-area steakhouses four times a week, I decided to grab one of the tables by the bar on a weekday night sans reservations to experience a glimpse of the high life and come to my own verdict.
I passed the free valet parking and instead grabbed a parking spot a scant 20 paces or so from the door. Once inside, I was warmly greeted by a host and equally warmly greeted by the restaurant interior: Not an intimate environment, but still comfortable and classy with high thirteen-foot ceilings, spacious and comfortable booths (a Dimora requisite?), and a soothing red glow from the bar lighting that pervaded the entire restaurant along with the ever-present buzz of conversation from the bar patrons. The wine list is probably less extensive than its peer area steakhouses, but it did feature an inordinately large and impressive selection of oversized bottles--from 1.5 liter magnums to monstrous 15 liter Nebuchadnezzars. I got a Noir Manhattan and studied the menu.
I started with the Sea Scallops appetizer--two small and rubbery scallops surrounded by bland butternut squash gnocchi. The dish was then "sprinkled" with fried sage (not bad) and ten tiny bacon-bit-sized pieces of pancetta (yes, I counted them). The whole thing was then covered with maple butter sauce, as if acknowledging the dish's shortcomings and making a last ditch effort to salvage some of the effort. Definitely opt for another appetizer (which one, though, I have no idea...).
Slightly better but still short of the mark was the "Award-Winning Lobster Bisque." The award they are referring to was clearly given for most cream in a lobster bisque. In my opinion, though, the extra heaviness did nothing to accentuate the lobster, so the bisque really wasn't much of an improvement, if any improvement at all, over the lobster bisque offerings at other area steakhouses.
While Dimora was known to go for a 23 oz. cowboy steak at Delmonico's, I opted for a nice 14 oz. USDA Prime Delmonico steak served medium rare. Unfortunately, the steak was clearly overcooked to upper medium if not medium well territory which was a major disappointment. To his credit, the server offered to get another steak after my unenthusiastic "It's...okay" response to his query. The vegetable accompaniment left much to be desired: cauliflower and parsnips added little to the taste or visual appeal of the plate.
All in all, while the environment and service at Delmonico's are quite good, the quality of the food simply doesn't keep pace with the top area steakhouses. I would easily put Delmonico's behind all my previously-reviewed Cleveland steakhouses: Morton's, Red, Hyde Park, XO, Cabin Club, and Strip.
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