KO Fabulous

There are few things I enjoy as much as good steak. I enjoy good friends, a good price and good service too. All of these came together on a Friday at KO Prime near the Park Street T stop. I know what you are all thinking... good steak at a steak house for a good price, how?! The answer is the bar area!

KO Prime is in the hotel 90 Tremont St. The decor is modern chic. There is a lot of black and white and the bar area has plush couches and chairs. I had been to KO Prime before and knew that they have a fun bar menu. The great thing about the bar is that you have access to both the bar bites menu/drink specials and the regular menu. The reverse is not true in the dining room. We ordered a combination of sides, bar bites and menu items. It was a bountiful, and reasonable. When can you leave a steak house spending less than $25 a piece for dinner.

I went to KO a while ago and spent years dreaming about their beef rib mac and cheese. I didn't think I could tackle it by myself, but one of the girls ordered it and was kind to share. The dish is perfect. It was creamy and thick and there were pieces of meat throughout. The mac and cheese came out in a cast iron skillet with bubbly goodness on top.

One of the others got a mini sandwich, calamari and tater tots off of the bar bites menu. I didn't try the slider because it was small and his, but the tater tots were delicious. it was as if they put bread crumbs on the outside of cheesy mashed potatoes. I bit into a tot and it oozed back at me. I loved the creative take on mashed potatoes and tater tots!

Another meal was shrimp cocktail (photographed below) and mushroom risotto. I tasted the risotto and while it was not the best I've ever had (the bar is high given some homemade risotto I've had), it was stellar restaurant risotto. It was creamy and not too heavy. It tasted like there were hints of truffle oil.  I am allergic to shrimp as well as other shellfish, but the plantain patties that came with the shrimp were delicious. They were like latkes, but sweeter.

My dish was steak frites. The steak was cooked perfectly to medium and it came in an iron skillet with an abundance of salty, truffley french fries. The steak was so good that I wanted more. The dish I ordered was the least expensive steak dish on the menu. The fries were skinny and the steak was petite. I almost wish they charged a few dollars more and gave me more steak and a few less fries. On the plus side though, the fries were enough to share.

Overall the food, service and price at KO prime was perfect. Can't wait to return for some high end eats for a lower end price. Maybe when I return, I will have enough room for dessert which looked outstanding.

Thanks to my dining buddy for taking the pics!

Moved by Mooo....

In honor of spring feeling like it sprung and restaurant week, I surprised my beau for a lunch at Mooo.... He had raved about the delicious steak and I love going to steak houses but rarely indulge unless the price is right. A three course meal at Mooo.... was $20.12 each which felt like a steal for the amount of delicious and beautiful food we ate. It is rare (pun intended) to have a lunch date, so we decided to live on the wild side, or at least my dining partner did, and I tried everything on the table!

We were slightly early for our noon reservation and the hostess sat us right away at a very pretty table with horsehair pillows on the booth side of the table. I found the decor to be ornate. The restaurant's menu was so simple and classic, I felt like a queen on a throne with pillows.

To start off we had the most delicious rolls that were sweet and salty with simple butter (not pictured). I ordered a steakhouse salad. It was awesome with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, feta and that dressing which immediately makes you think of a steakhouse. It's oil vinegar and spices, simple yet perfect. If I was not indulging in three full courses, I would have been happy eating this salad with a piece of protein on top--it was so tasty.

My dining partner won the adventurous game. If you guessed that he ordered steak tartare, you are correct. Neither or us had ever eaten steak tartare before, but his logic was, where else would I try it? Since Mooo.... was such a good restaurant, he decided to live live on the raw side. The steak tartare was delicious, it came with flat breads and the raw meat was mixed with onions, capers and possibly tomato. The best way to describe it's consistency was a meaty fresh salsa. It was really flavorful and tossed with some oil, salt and pepper. 

We realized after the fact that we were ironic by ordering our sirloin steak medium after eating raw meat. The meat was cooked to perfection. The grill lines were perfect and the outside was caramelized while the inside was perfectly pink. The steak was thicker in the middle, so it was slightly rarer where the meat was thicker. In hindsight, I wish I had ordered the meat medium rare because the quality was so high that it would have been that much more delicious. The steak was served on top of a bed of watercress and fingerling potatoes. I am not a stinky cheese fan, so I held the blue cheese, but my dining partner had the meal as it was. The potatoes were simple with some salt and pepper on them and the watercress was simple. I'll be honest, I focused on making sure I ate my steak and potatoes, so by the time I got to the watercress, I was ready for the delicious chocolate dessert.

The dessert was outstanding! I love chocolate dessert anytime, especially after a steak. We had two of the same desserts. It was a brownie with vanilla ice cream and a homemade marshmallow on top. There was caramel sauce on the bottom and it was homemade and perfect. It tasted like toffee that had not hardened yet. The portion was the right size. I wanted more because it was so delicious but I would have had no where to put it because I was so full. The brownie was rich, like a piece of flowerless chocolate cake. It was smooth and not too sweet. The ice cream was homemade as was the marshmallow. I mentioned it before but I think a homemade marshmallow is a great alternative to whipped cream on a chocolate dessert. We both loved this dessert, it was a stack of happiness.

Overall, Mooo.... was outstanding. I walked out into the sunshine feeling satisfied and energized whatever else the day had in store for me. I hope to throw a party in their downstairs cellar room. I'm looking forward to coming back here sometime and trying their American Wagyu  Dumplings and a porterhouse (my favorite cut of steak). Until then, I will think about the perfect meal I had and how daring we were to try steak tartare.