2.27 House of Prime Rib
Posted on August 7, 2008
Filed Under American, Best of the Best, Extra Hard Core | Leave a Comment
If you remember last year, we had about a month’s worth of entries featuring restaurants in the San Francisco Bay area, and what a glorious month it was.
Once again we are in San Francisco, a city that begs you to be hungry at all times.
House of Prime Rib is one old school joint, serving their famous prime rib since 1949. I love that they just relentlessly go after making one thing well — this is prime rib at its best — and there’s really nothing else on the menu except sides and salad. So, let’s get started.
Our hotel was very close to House of Prime Rib, so we walked over in the cool breeze.
While we waited for our table we were served a little jar of munchies in the lounge area, where you can order a drink and relax. The restaurant is beautifully decorated in the classic English style, it’s beautiful and elegant despite being very full on a Saturday night.
We sat down and were immediately served a corn bread and a loaf of sourdough and butter. I tried to save space for the carnage to come but couldn’t help but finish the corn bread, it’s sweet and crumbly, like a cake. We ordered the full meal for $36, but you can also order prime rib with two sides, no salad for $30.
First up is salad, served table-side. The giant bowl of salad sits in an even bigger bowl of ice and is spun as the salad dressing, pepper, and their famous seasoned salt are added, then tossed and served to our plates. Very cool.
Lettuce, cheese, beets, and the house seasoned salt and dressing. The salad is unique and fantastic, I usually hate the taste of beets but here it’s magnificent and adds a touch of earthy flavor to the salad.
This was one hefty stainless steel knife and the inscription shows me they mean business.
We were seated in the beefeater room, the room was full but you never felt crowded, beautifully appointed like an English manor, I felt like a king.
We ordered for variety. Here is my baked potato with all the fixin’s. Our waitress Lacy asked, “Butter or sour cream? Bacon? Chives?” The answer was simply, “YES.”
Oh, glorious glorious baked potato, piled high with toppings. It’s fantastic with so much texture and flavor, a little tangy and so comforting.
Our prime rib chef cutting our meat for us.
I ordered the House of Prime Rib cut, which is a good inch and a half thick. The meat is so tender and flavorful, with beautifully marbled veins of fat distributed in a ring around the meat. It’s served with horseradish sauce, which is good, but once Lacy brought out the freshly ground raw horseradish, there was no going back. It’s dangerously spicy on the same level as wasabi, but the flavor and the spicy kick it brings really enhances the taste of the meat.
We also ordered the English cut, which is essentially the House cut sliced thin into three slices. It feels less tender but the it had a beefier flavor.
Okay, more on the sides. The creamed spinach is fantastic, so creamy, it almost tastes like melted cheese. The mashed potatoes are awesome, the textures are perfect, a little scratchy on your tongue, and a great wave of creamy fragrance rises from the back of your throat as you swallow. The creamed corn is creamy and delicious, with a little bit of kick from some sort of spices mixed in. Frankly, I’m surprised at how good the sides are, they are consistently outstanding.
The service was impeccable, my drink was refilled at least 5 times without my ever asking. Any time we needed anything we found that it was already on its way to us. We felt like VIPs the entire time we were there. I’m so coming back the next time I’m in town, between the amazing prime rib, the outstanding sides, the reasonable price and the impeccable service, this place is a home run. No wonder it’s been around for so long, and I hope it’ll stick around for another 60 years.
House of Prime Rib
1906 Van Ness Ave
San Francisco, CA, 94109
(415) 885-4605