It had been awhile since I had made it out to the Hurstbourne corridor to visit one of, if not my favorite steakhouse in Louisville. My wife received a generous gift certificate for her birthday, so this gave us a perfect opportunity to revisit the restaurant. So off we went last Saturday night.
The first thing I always notice in any restaurant owned and operated by Merzhad Sharbaiani is the level of service and hospitality. If he is not the best in the city in this regard, he is on a very short list. It is warm, attentive, and exacting without being overbearing. This starts with the management and is carried on throughout the wait staff.
We started off by sharing several of their chilled shrimp that are offered individually. These are U6/U8 in size (this indicates that it only requires 6-8 to make up a pound) and are basically the size of baby hamsters. I've been getting these for years at Z's and very much looked forward to them. When they arrived, I was surprised to find that the texture was a bit "mealy" and upon further inspection, discovered that the center was borderline raw. I always hate to complain (it's a being in the biz thing), but when my wife too agreed, I decided to send then back. Dustin, the General Manager, quickly arrived at the table and removed them. When he arrived with a fresh round, he mentioned that the Chef agreed that they had been under cooked and hoped I would find these prepared properly. Indeed they were...accompanied by some of my favorite cocktail sauce dressed with fresh, shaved horseradish.
For entree's, my wife had the whole trout stuffed with a jumbo lump crab cake and topped with a balsamic brown butter sauce with pecans. She absolutely loved it, finding the fish perfectly prepared, moist and tender, and full of flavor. Accompanied with the spinach florentine, she was very happy. I opted for the New York Strip. Z's has a well deserved reputation for the quality of their cuts and this was no exception. It had a beautiful sear on the outside and was a perfect medium rare throughout. Wonderfully flavored with just a touch of salt, it was simply a great steak.
My wife and I both enjoyed some wine with our dinner. If I were to have any criticism, it would be with the by the glass selections. Honestly, I just found them lacking in imagination and felt that the mark up was quite high. Yes, I know that steakhouses are going to lend themselves to a certain type of selections, I just found the choices to be somewhat pedestrian. I will say that the bottle selection is one of the deeper ones in the city with lots of trophy selections.
Overall it was a great night. Dustin, Alan (a new manager, I was told it was his first week. I found this surprising given his great floor presence and easy confidence) and the wait staff were spot on I look forward to returning in the near future.
Len Stevens
GM
Main St Cafe and other coming attractions