“If I Can Eat Steak and Listen to Jay-Z, I’m Crushing It”

After attending Cook. Eat. Drink. Live last month, I added a trip to Spanish Harlem to eat at Ricardo Steak House to my to-do list. So when my roommate Al and I decided that we’d grab a steak dinner as our Christmas gift to each other, we decided to head uptown.

Now, before we went up there, I did some due-diligence and found a $25 gift certificate for the restaurant on restaurant.com for $10. Using the code Santa, I was able to save 80% and purchased the gift certificate for $2. If you want to purchase any certificates, use this code soon because it expires today.

Walking into Ricardo I was a little intimidated. Within two seconds of entering, we were immediately seated by the manager before we could even say “Al, party of 2.” Regardless, I found everyone to be very pleasant in the restaurant, they were just very eager to get us seated.

We started the meal with a crab cake ($12) and a pitcher of sangria ($30). While we sipped on our sangria,warm slices of garlic bread were brought out. This bread was absolutely delicious and we kept getting fresh slices delivered to our table throughout the night. The crab cake was incredible, a huge cake complete with arugula, tomatoes, avocado and a spicy sauce. It was a highlight of the meal.

While we waited for our porterhouse for two, we started to notice the atmosphere of the place. This wasn’t your typical stuffy steakhouse. Instead, there was top 40 music playing in the background, people were grooving in their seats to Beyonce after a couple of cocktails and Christmas lights were a big contributor to the mood lighting in the restaurant. Still, the food the restaurant was churning out was cheap and good, and I felt more comfortable being a 24 year old in this steakhouse here uptown than I have felt at any steakhouse in the city.

Our porterhouse came and Al was in heaven because he was able to consume his beef while listening to Jay-Z. While we ordered the porterhouse at a medium rare, unfortunately it was a little overcooked. It also had a bit of a charcoal taste on the outside which I wasn’t a huge fan of. I’m not ready to swear off Ricardo for their steaks, but next time I’m up there, I’d go with the steak as rare instead. Al was also disappointed that the porterhouse was served on a cold plate, instead of a warm serving tray.

Still, the sides were delicious and the price was good. For $74, we were able to get the porterhouse with three sides of our choice, and went with creamed spinach, mashed potatoes and asparagus parmesan. Creamed spinach was the favorite at the table. I loved the buttery taste of the mashed potatoes although the roommate was not as big of a fan. The asparagus was nothing special, just grilled asparagus with some parm thrown on top, but I did like the grape tomatoes served alongside.

Great night at Ricardo, and I’d definitely go back again. One thing I’d love to try is their Chilean Sea Bass for $26. I’d recommend checking out this restaurant. It’s definitely cheaper than many places in Manhattan and with a restaurant.com gift certificate, it can be a pretty good deal for great food.