A few weeks ago a friend of mine said that he wanted to treat me to “the best steak you’ll ever have in LA, hands down.” He raved on and on about how since I was a “food snob,” I would appreciate Mastro’s Steakhouse. “They heat the plate in a 400 degree oven! The steak comes sizzling on the plate.” I could see tidbits of drool at the corners of his mouth as he told me about the lobster mashed potatoes and the bone-in filet.
On the afternoon of the big day, another friend asked what I would be doing that evening, and I told him, “Oh, we’re going to Mastro’s, its our first time.” Friend #2’s eyes lit up and said “Oh man, you GOTTA try the lobster mashed potatoes. That place has the best steak in LA. Expensive though.”
So 7:30 rolled around and I found myself rolling 4 deep in the valet at Mastro’s. We were escorted upstairs in front of a huge wine cellar showcasing bottles and bottles of wine. I’m not a big fan of filet, as I favor more flavorful meats such as rib eye, or lean towards the meatier texture of a NY strip, but because everyone was ranting and raving about how GREAT the bone in filet is, I decided to opt for that instead of my original preference, which was the 16oz NY Strip.
The meal was fairly decent. We had the $38 lobster mashed potatoes and the Gorgonzola Mac & Cheese, which I think was $29. I had my bone in filet medium rare, and true to word, it came sizzling on my 400 degree plate.
Lucky for me, my boyfriend was sitting on my left and ordered a 22oz rib eye. Thank god for that because I couldn’t get over how bland my filet was. Don’t get me wrong, I love marbled beef and the texture was phenomenal, but I opt to order my meat bloody so I can REALLY taste my meat. Outside of the over-buttery and superfluous amounts of salt, my bone in filet lacked the deep smokey undertones that the rib eye had.
If the steak was over-salted, the mac & cheese was so bland it put me to sleep. The thing I love about gorgonzola is its slight pungent bite, along with the roasted saltiness of it. This mac & cheese was along the likes of Kraft’s blue box version, except the cheese was rubbery, not creamy. Mastro’s should try making their mac & cheese more palatable for those of us that actually like cheese, not those of us that want to feel like we’re chewing tires.
The thing that made up for the salty yet flavorless filet and rubbery mac & cheese was the lobster mashed potatoes. It was like having little bits of heaven in my mouth. If sex were food, then mastro’s lobster mashed potatoes would be the equivalent of having 15 multiple orgasms in a row on 1200 thread count egyptian cotton sheets. The potatoes were smooth and creamy, whilst at the same time light and fluffy. They were perfectly complemented by the big chunks of buttery lobster that topped the dish. Lobster is usually a more difficult ingredient to work with because if cooked too long it becomes fishy and rubbery. If your lobster is a little too old, it becomes a little too fishy as well. It was evident that Mastros did not spare a dime when it came to finding the freshest lobster and poaching it to perfection.
Posted on March 13th, 2008 by slappy
Filed under: food
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