Super Steaks and Seafood Every Flaming Time

New York Steakhouse doesn’t brag that it has the best surf ‘n’ turf grills in Bangkok – it just challenges you to find better

At New York Steakhouse, tucked inside level 2 of the JW Marriott Hotel Bangkok (Sukhumvit Soi 2), beef and seafood grills aren’t just dishes you eat; they’re frenzied obsessions. Being proudly American, which many cognoscenti concede, fancy French stuff aside, does the definitive grills, there’s a lot to live up to. And you wouldn’t want to disappoint the clientele for whom the connection with Big Apple sophistication is part of lure.

That doesn’t just go for peripatetic ‘mercans but anyone for whom knowing a thing or two about the finest cuts and how to prepare them is a birth right. These days, that includes Australians, of course, such as in-house steaks sage Michael Hogan, the hotel’s Executive Chef, and even the odd anglophile, now that Aberdeen Angus and other heavy hoofed bruisers from the sceptred isle are putting in appearances at upscale steakhouses in Bangkok alongside, in the case of NYSH, predominantly Australian, Japanese and US cuts.

For make no mistake — even if you know how to choose the best cuts from the best producers and can convey them to the kitchen in pristine condition, it is still easy to ruin it by cooking it wrongly, and approaching a fine art to render it to the table in its pomp in order to elicit sighs of pleasure as enamel sinks into incredibly yielding and succulent flesh.

It may seem a simple task to grill a slab of meat but the skill and science that go into doing it well elevate the outcomes to the highest echelons of gourmet experience, the more so when you consider the almost equal passion that goes into creating the sauces and side orders at a place like New York Steakhouse.

And the heights don’t get much higher than arguably the star of the show: Spice Rubbed Tomahawk Wagyu Roast Beef for Two (Bt4,300) — a full kg of Australian beef from central NSW rubbed with chef’s secret spice combo and sealed until smoky over volcanic rock on the char grill so that any fat seeping down smokes back up into the sear, and then oven roasted, in both cases precisely orchestrated to the nanosecond and degree Centigrade, all to your liking. Carved and seared at the table with wild rocket, Parmesan cheese salad, roasted Kipfler potatoes with rosemary, garlic and a trio of chef’s sauces (say blue cheese, BBQ and pepper corn), it’s enough to turn even the most virginal vegans into raving carnivores.

Indeed, Tomahawk — basically an on-the bone rib steak cut from the fore-rib — is the ultimate ‘wow-factor’ steak. Being bone-in, it has more inter-muscular fat — and therefore more sweet, gelatinous flavour.

If you’ve room for something to go with it, there are various sides such as creamy mashed potatoes, baby carrots in honey butter, green peas, and tender chunks of American bacon, a treat in themselves. Or try a salad, such as Spinach Salad (Bt390) with its intriguing hot bacon dressing and tender button mushrooms — an ideal blend of health and succulence. The sides are not elaborate but adequate and unlimited:

Appetizers are a treat in themselves, not least house-smoked Norwegian salmon, thick-cut and wrapped around equally tender and flavoursome asparagus and drizzled with honey mustard dill dressing. The Fines de Claire and Barron Point oysters are also irreproachable while impossibly orange American Lobster Bisque (Bt490) is deeply delicious and the New England Clam Chowder (Bt450) perfectly creamy with the tenderest of clams.

The restaurant’s justly fabled Lump Snow Crab Cakes — phenomenally creamy, replete with meat, with just the slightest searing and the additional embellishment of finger lime from the outback and mustardy coleslaw — are unbeatable.

And if seafood’s your thing, gorge on the Empire State Seafood Tower spread over three tiers: giant claws of Alaskan crab fished out of the freezing Bering Sea, Boston lobster, imported live and kept in a chilled tank, very tender Hokkaido scallops, huge oysters, king prawns, mussels and calamari with delectable homemade condiments.

Mixed to order in a giant wooden salad bowl, the Caesar takes Aussie romaine lettuce and char-grilled chicken coated with Cajun spices as its core ingredients. The dressing is the classic recipe with anchovy folded in rather than sitting on top and lots of parmesan. The bacon bits are prime quality and the crouton are herbed focazzia.

Besides straight steaks you can go continental with tournedos added with pan-fried goose liver, port wine glaze and rocket or rack of grass fed, NZ lamb/rosemary jus. Or forego meat altogether with black pepper crusted snowfish served in a fragrant garlic vegetable broth with fresh herbs. Or baked cod with spiced jumbo tiger prawn, sautéed vegetables and a classic herbed, lemon beurre blanc sauce.

Wolf Blass Yellow Label Merlot, Queen Adelaide Sparkling Wine or “G” de Ginestet Bordeaux Blanc pretty much cover the wine bases, though there are many more to choose from.

The only way to conclude such a meal is with a classic dessert rendered consummately: say hot chocolate fondant with cream, red berries compote and fresh strawberry, blueberry, raspberry and whipped cream. However, super prime and sublime fresh berries — strawberry, blueberry, raspberry — with a warm compote side poured over macadamia nut Hagen Das ice cream is absolutely awesome.

Besides dining on prime cuts and indulgent accompaniments, New York Steakhouse is all about being pampered by seamless service with a Thai smile.

“When you’re trying to play at the top of your game every day, as we are, the biggest challenge is to be 100% consistent,” says Hogan. “We aim to offer an unforgettable experience to every guest in a way that they can expect the same next time they come. Managing that expectation is what inspires us and it’s why we train daily and taste our beef daily.”

Décor-wise, the restaurant is deeply infused with that Dolby solidness conveyed in New York restaurant movie scenes. The rustic-refined stone-flagged floor and sturdy ceiling timbers are cowboy pokes. Similarly unembellished stanchions around raised dining areas are of proportions sufficient to corral a moody bull. Also indicative of the Wild West legend kept alive are macho black, wing-back chairs moulded to suggest bull horns and the silver bull’s heads that bookend the steak platters. More indicative of New York swagger, however, are curiously lifelike monochrome prints of New York City skylines. The contrastingly cosy bar right of the entrance and the all-American outsize tables — to accommodate the enormous platters and plethora of side orders — set with crisp white table linen, are straight out of a plot-advancing Soho chow down scene.

Back-story enthusiasts may care to note that the concept is built on the long standing tradition and reputation set by the culinary jewels of Manhattan — steakhouses like Sparks, the Post House and Smith & Wollensky.

“We don’t say we have the best steaks in Bangkok,” Hogan responds to my question. “But see if you can find better.”

Some hope.