Angelo & Maxie's Steakhouse

Note: Angelo & Maxie’s closed in March 2011.

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Angelo & Maxie’s Steakhouse offers a three-course lunch special for $20.99 till 3:00pm. For the appetizer, you get a tossed salad, caesar salad, or soup (today it was split pea). For the entrée, you get an 11 oz sirloin, an 8 oz filet, chicken breast, or salmon. I did not note the dessert options.

One of my super-scientific theories of fine dining is that you should never serve a salad with just one anchovy, as Angelo & Maxie’s did this afternoon. It looks like a mistake. The rest of the salad was competent, if you can excuse stale croutons, but there was one lonely, soggy anchovy. Had it wandered in uninvited from another salad, or was Angelo’s too cheap to put in another one or two of them?

One would guess that an 11-ounce sirloin is the black sheep of the steak family. The better sirloin cuts will have long since been taken by other restaurants, or for heftier portions at this restaurant. Mine arrived rare (rather than the medium rare I’d requested), and without the thick char on the outside that the better steakhouses have mastered. It was, however, a better hunk of beef than you get at Outback Steakhouse.

Well, what do you want for $20.99? Service was acceptable. The décor offers a nod to the faux art deco style, without actually committing itself to anything in particular. There is a cigar bar attached, which may be the most compelling reason to visit Angelo & Maxie’s. The restaurant is part of a six-city chain, and they’ve got their own brand of steak knives. If it’s great steak you want, you should buy a set, then take them up the road to Wolfgang’s.

A lunch special probably doesn’t show off Angelo & Maxie’s to its best advantage, so I’ll probably try it another time at dinner. But I won’t be in any rush.

Angelo & Maxie’s Steakhouse (233 Park Avenue South at 19th Street, Gramercy/Flatiron District)

Food: Satisfactory
Service: Satisfactory
Ambiance: Satisfactory
Overall: Satisfactory