Restaurant: 21 Prime Restaurant and Bar
Contacts
Cuisine
Average cost: $50-100
Cuisine: Services:
Another Steakhouse
Charles W. Borden
Steak is also big in Moscow, and the past two years has seen the opening of two decent steakhouse chains, Ti-Bon and Torro Grill, following on the success of Goodman, plus a few luxury meat joints. Veteran restaurant promoter Doug Steele has been involved in the recent opening of 21 Prime Steakhouse and Bar next to Barashka on Novy Arbat about 100 meters from the Garden Ring. 21 Prime’s menu and décor, heavy on deep, comfortable leather chairs and dark wood, are reminiscent of Steele’s Doug’s Steakhouse that quickly flamed out on Tsvetnoy Bulvar, though not because of the food. The walls are decorated with early 20th century black and white Americana photos.
Steele’s signature is prominent across the entire menu: Cobb Salad, rows of fresh chopped meats and vegetables over lettuce with the classic dressing, and a Wedge Salad (395r), a large section carved out of an iceburg lettuce head served with ranch dressing. 21 Prime is using Steele’s Australian ranch suppliers for the beef.
John Ortega ordered the 21 Prime T-Bone, an 18-ounce Angus with roasted tomatoes (1800r). Since this was lunch, I passed up the featured Ribeye Lite, a 9-ounce “bargain” and tried one of the bar menu items, Three Mini Filet Mignon Sandwiches with Mustard Mayonnaise (450r). These three small filets were perfectly tender, and the sauce a nice complement. The wine list was a big surprise, featuring very decent wines starting just over 1100 rubles. If this holds, this will be a Moscow innovation, which alone should make 21 Prime popular with Passport readers.
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