Fleming's Prime Steakhouse

The last day of West Hartford Restaurant Week and I had a plan. I wanted to go to Fleming’s Steakhouse, which was already the most expensive special offered, and make it more so. They had upgrades of the special that allowed you to turn the $40 meal into $64 if you wanted to move to a 20 ounce rib eye and if you wanted to add trufle poached lobster too, its a mere $18.00 more. So my plan was to turn the restaurant week special that could be had for as low as $20 in a few of the restaurants into an $82 “special.” As crazy as this sounds, for Fleming this is a pretty good deal. 

There is an old saying you get what you pay for and at Fleming’s that is very true. And what you pay for is not only superior food, but beyond superior service. In fact as good as the food was, I was more blown away by the service. I am not sure whether it says more about the level of restaurants I tend to eat at, or the level of service in the restaurant industry overall that I am this impressed with the service we got. It has been many years since I have seen it’s equal, and the last two places I did, despite being several years back and in lower inflationary dollars still cost more than Flemings.

So before I get into what most people are interested in, let me tell you why as good as the steak and all the fixings were, it is that service that moved it above the others. First, I have to tell you is that unless I absolutely have to, I do not dress up to go out to eat. I am there to enjoy myself, and part of that is being comfortable. Now I don’t think I looked like a bum, but I certainly was not dressed in the normal fine steakhouse attire and certainly not Blue Back Square social ware. So one must assume they treated us like they would treat any drub off the street. 

With that preface, let me start telling you why I was impressed. Maybe you won’t be, but if you aren’t, give me a list of where you normally eat. The first thing is we were there a little before 5 as I didn’t realize they didn’t open until 5. I was aware that they offered happy hour from the time I was there before, so I am not sure if that was just a Monday thing or if people don’t get happy until later at Fleming’s. Now every restaurant I have ever been to if they open at 5 and you are early, you aren’t getting in until 5. Hell, you are lucky if you are getting in at 5:05, or maybe 5:10 if they are fancy enough to feel that if you can’t tell time you probably don’t deserve to eat there anyway. But here the doors were open, there was a hostess there to greet us and she seated us within a minute. I am not sure if the clock had struck 5, by then, as it was never even a consideration. We were there, we wanted to eat at their restaurant, of course they were going to seat us. 

Next our waiter came over shortly after we settled in. No long wait, but nor did he pounce. Like Goldilocks final porridge, just right. He did all the obligatory things that a good waiter would do, with specials, drinks, etc. He was courteous when my friend ordered a drink and just as courteous when I didn’t (I will give you a minute to pick yourself off the floor). This part was normal good, if unfortunately, often missing service.

I started taking a few pictures of the room, which since we were in early was still empty, although it started filling up quickly. One of the photos I took was of the wine room, where they kept all their fine wines in a temperature controlled room. It seems the only thing they treat better than their customers is their wines. At this point my photo taking caught the attention of the assistant general manager. Keep in mine I was using my cell phone so I wasn’t coming across as a professional photographer, and any of you that have seen my photos will attest to that. He came over and noticed I had taken a photo of the wine room, and offered to take me over to it and show it to me. So here I was sitting there with my glass of fine West Hartford tap water in my even finer Torrington comfort wear and he’s taking his time to give me a personal tour of the wine room. He must have figured he sure as hell wasn’t going to make a sale. I took him up on it and he proceeded to point out the various sections, in a friendly down to earth way. It was never pretentious, it was never boastful, it was just someone that was truly impressed with all the wines in the same way I was. and enjoyed sharing them. He even took the Louis XIII Cognac out of its case and held it in his hand so I could get a better picture of it, which at $95 an ounce is about as close as I will ever get to it. Later he came back over to check on how we were enjoying our meal and at that point the room was completely full.

Now back to the waiter. As I mentioned I planned on, and did order the rib eye and the side of lobster. When it came out the lobster was no where to be seen. I started eating the rib eye and when the waiter came over I asked about the lobster. He was very apologetic and said he would make sure it came right out. I said it was not a problem and continued to eat my rib eye. I was less than a third of the way through it when he came out with the lobster, again very apologetic. When the bill came the lobster was not on it. I called him over and told him they had left it off, because I honestly did not feel the small delay in getting it warranted not paying for it, and I didn’t want the possibility of the waiter being penalized for it if he forgot to add it. He informed me that he made sure that we were not charged for it because of their mistake and that they strive to make our dinner perfect. Most places if the meals was inedible they would begrudge giving you a free dessert even if you bitched about it and here they are comping the lobster because they forgot about it and it took five minutes longer to come out.

Finally, with service, as if that wasn’t enough, our water glasses were never below a 1/3 full and typically not less than 1/2 full, there was never any waiting for anything. They were right there. The one minor wait was when they had given me the bill and I had put my card in it and put it out, I could see our waiter was taking the order of a nearby table. They were taking their time and he was being a good waiter and taking their order intently. The second they were done giving their order he came right over to take the check to ring it out. This kind of service was received from every person that we came in contact with. So in closing I think Fleming’s is a great…. oh wait the food, you probably want to know about that too.

If you have read my reviews, you know I like bread with my meals, or at least before them. Fleming’s serves a warm crusty bread and offers two spreads for them. Both were delicious and I found myself bouncing back between the two. The appetizer was sweet corn chowder. It was wonderfully sweet and creamy, there was a drizzle of a slightly spicy oil across the top that contrasted with the sweetness and added more depth and flavor. As I have mentioned, I upgraded to the 20 ounce rib eye medium rare. This came out perfectly cooked. There was a peppercorn rub on it that gave a small kick, but did not take away from the pure meaty richness of the steak. The sides were served community fashion and consisted of creamed corn, much like the chowder sweet, creamy and heavenly, and Idaho russet mashed potatoes. Now I have already expressed my opinion of mashed potatoes needing to be swimming in butter or at least mixed with horseradish, garlic or something to not bore my taste buds. But these potatoes were surprisingly tasty without any of these. They were just good quality potatoes, cooked well, with the right touch of seasoning and butter. Who knew moderation and quality could do such justice to potatoes? 

Finally, except for dessert, the slightly late lobster. The first thing you notice is its small. But to be fair their full lobster tail is normally $57 and this was only $18 if I was paying for it. The second thing you notice when you take a bite out of it is that it is delicious and a perfect rich side. I could lie and say its so rich that I wouldn’t want more than that size as a side or that I was too stuffed to eat any more with that rib eye. The truth is I was stuffed, but it was so good if it was the size of the normal lobster tail, which a person at a nearby table had, I would have force myself to eat it. I was so completely enjoying the lobster meat, that I didn’t even notice the caviar, which I only had once before, and probably that time wasn’t good quality as I didn’t like it. I am embarrassed to say this, but as I was writing this and reading the description from the menu and it said caviar, I was sure I didn’t get any. But pictures don’t lie and you can see it on my photo of the lobster. I assure you it wasn’t there when I was done. Which means I ate it as part of the lobster and its sauce, never realized it and just enjoyed the whole damn thing.

As part of the special the waiter came over and said dessert was some walnut concoction. I thought to myself well everything can’t be perfect (I hate walnuts). But this dessert was great too. Needless to say it didn’t taste like walnuts. The cake portion did have a nutty flavor, just not walnuts, thankfully. It was topped with apples and whipped cream and was as delightful as everything else. By this point I was in food heaven and forgot to take a photo of it until I had made a mess of it that Ken would have been proud of. I didn’t add a photo as, well if you have eaten with Ken and seen what he does to his food, you’ll understand.

In conclusion, Fleming’s is expensive, especially for someone from Torrington, but it is worth every penny of it and I will go back special or not, even if I have to give up on a few other restaurant meals for a period to do so.