Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecôte

Way back in September, Groupon came out with a deal: $18 for $36 worth of food from Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecôte. A steakhouse with a couple locations in London and Paris that opened its first Manhattan location back in 2009, it is not your typical steakhouse in that it serves only one thing: their version of steak frites with an appetizer salad for $24.95. Since I have a problem with letting Groupons and similar deals get very close to expiration, I planned ahead with CT to go here a month or so before the deal expired.

The restaurant is in the heart of Midtown East, so after rush hour the neighborhood of mostly office buildings clears out. The place was lively but not super busy, so there was no wait to get a table. CT had been here before since it is in the lobby of her old company’s building. She mentioned that the service can be hit or miss. Maybe it is due to the fact that the waitresses wear French maid uniforms?

Our waitress was nice enough for a place that is all about turning tables. The only options to your meal are how you prefer your steak cooked, which she wrote on the table. Blue, Rare, Medium, or Well-done. After the both of us ordered “Rare,” she wrote “R” on the table as a reminder for her and the other staff.

I decided on a bottle of their house wine, Le Relais de Venise Cotes de Bourdeaux for $23.95. I figured a place that has been open for over fifty years (in Paris) and French would have some good wine. After a long wait, our wine arrived. Our waitress apologized as she thought someone else was going to bring it. The wine was drinkable, but I would probably splurge a couple more dollars on a different bottle the next time. Almost all of the wines on the short list are less than $30.

While waiting for our wine, the green salad with chopped walnuts came. It comes with an amazing mustard vinaigrette on top. Tangy and light. Too bad the recipe is a highly kept secret. Luckily, I make a pretty good mustard vinaigrette myself.

The accompanying bread proved very useful in sopping up every last drop of the dressing.

Not too much later our steak came out. Each person actually gets two servings. The waitress plates some slices of meat topped with their famous sauce and a pile of french fries. After you clean off some of your plate she returns with another round of both.

When the whole meal costs about $25pp, it is expected that the meat is not the best, but was still more than edible. Both of our steaks were cooked to a requested rare. I wonder what it is like to be a chef there? It must get pretty boring and monotonous cooking the same thing over and over again.

Round two.

At first, I found their famous sauce a little bland. CT warned me that it was like liquid crack. As I kept eating, I figured out exactly what she meant. The flavor got better and better as I went back for more. It was buttery with a bit of mustard and garlic flavor. By the end, I was using every last French fry to get more of the sauce. No, I didn’t lick the plate. The fries were good, but not as good as the ones at Les Halles.

CT says: I enjoyed my meal here – the steak is cooked well, the fries are crispy and the sauce is rich and delicious! Plus, they give you A LOT of fries. However, be careful with that sauce – it’s addicting but a few hours later, you still feel it clogging your arteries. I’ve been here a few times now and I have never had a bad meal (although the service can be spotty).

All in all, it was a pretty good meal at a reasonable cost. The true star of the place is the sauce. You could probably put it on an old shoe and I would still eat it. Le Relais is a pretty unique restaurant that deserves to be tried out at least once.

Stay tuned for Yvo’s experience here in this afternoon’s post.