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| - I was out here celebrating my birthday for the second straight year (yes, it's cliché - I'm perfectly OK with that) with my baby brother. We wanted steak, but didn't necessarily want to spend an arm and a leg. Well, we succeeded at the former, if not the latter, but we left very happy and very, very full.
We settled into the bar and I asked the bartender about the dry-iced martini. It was at that point I discovered the bar was much more about the fufu martinis rather than classic. I'm partial to the classics, so I was a bit disappointed. That said, that's E-Me - I should have checked out the menu in advance, or read a couple more Yelp reviews. (Take note if you're looking for a classic cocktail here, you won't find it.) I wound up going with the on the menu manhattan, which was very good, but not great.
Now it was time to settle into the real reason for going - meat. We had a bit of a conversation with the very friendly bartender about what was good and must-haves on the menu. We already knew we were having the bone marrow, which she did recommend. We talked steak and sides, when she insisted we have the brussel sprouts. Now, I'm not much of a brussel sprout fan, but given the recommendation that was given I figured we had to have them.
The bone marrow came out and it was two huge bones. I could have slid down them - I'd have been a very happy man if I had. The marrow was plentiful and delicious. You won't have to scrape just to get a little, you'll be scraping just to get the last little bit of all that wonderful marrow goodness.
Now for the steak. I did the bone-in ribeye, which came out perfectly rare - if not maybe a touch too rare, which is very weird for me to say. That said, it was amazingly flavorful and near melt-in-your-mouth. And the brussel sprouts - well, I'm not a true convert yet, but if you keep serving me more like these I might change my ways.
Then, on to dessert. A huge, and delicious, butter cake. We couldn't stop eating it despite the fact that we were absolutely stuffed.
In the end, and for the money, I do think there are better steak experiences to be had on the strip. That said, you absolutely can't go wrong with a stop to Mastro's.
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