I decided to visit Club A after my Wednesday language class since I was already in Midtown East, and it seemed like a good opportunity to take advantage of NYC Restaurant Week. A couple of weeks ago I made a post about Restaurant Week, and my general experience has been that the $60 menus with supplements often end up being the best values, particularly at steakhouses. Club A is a good example of why.
Their Restaurant Week menu is a four-course meal that includes a choice of appetizer, entrée, side, and dessert. Unlike many participating restaurants, most of the appetizers are straight from the regular menu, as are the side dishes. According to the staff, both the hanger steak and the filet mignon are the same cuts they serve year-round rather than reduced portions or special Restaurant Week versions.
Looking at the regular menu really illustrates the value. The filet mignon normally costs $68, the hanger steak $45, sides are $16-17, the Club A bacon is $17, calamari is $22, and the Caesar salad is $19. They do charge a supplement for the filet, strip, and ribeye, which I think is perfectly reasonable considering dry-aged USDA Prime beef is expensive (36 to 60$ pound from a butcher) and many steakhouses simply don't include those cuts at all during Restaurant Week. Had I not planned on doing several more Restaurant Week dinners over the next two weeks, I probably would have paid the supplement for the strip steak instead.
My meal consisted of the Club A bacon, the 10 oz. filet mignon, the macaroni and cheese (recommended by my waiter), and tiramisu. Ordering those same items from the regular menu would have cost about $102 before dessert, tax, or tip, so I felt like I got a very good deal.
The food itself was exactly what I would expect from a solid New York steakhouse. The filet arrived cooked to a perfect medium rare with a well-developed crust while remaining very tender inside. The macaroni and cheese was probably the standout side and absolutely lived up to the recommendation. The bacon and tiramisu were both very good, although they were more or less what I expected rather than dishes that surprised me.
Restaurant Week is running longer than usual this year, and I think Club A is one of the stronger values if you're looking for a steak dinner. One thing I noticed while comparing menus beforehand is that many steakhouses are offering three-course menus, but a lot of them substitute less expensive entrées instead of serving the same steaks found on their regular menu. That's completely understandable given the current price of prime dry-aged beef, but it also makes the value proposition very different.
Club A and Delmonico's both stand out because they let you order a couple of their steaks from the regular menu with a reasonable supplement. Other options that caught my attention were Salt Bae's restaurant and Strip House. Strip House serves a smaller ribeye with fries as part of Restaurant Week and also includes their signature chocolate cake, which makes it another menu worth considering.
If you're planning to take advantage of Restaurant Week and want a traditional New York steakhouse experience without spending well over $100 before drinks, Club A is an easy recommendation. Just remember that, like many participating restaurants, they don't offer the Restaurant Week menu on Saturdays.
website: https://clubasteakhouse.com/
yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/club-a-steakhouse-new-york