David Burke's Primehouse

05/20/11

There must be a worse place -- but try to find it.

by Recent customer at Citysearch

had read the reviews and decided it must be great -- WRONG!!! This place has a great appearance with a young affluent professional crowd, but apparently not a very discerning crowd. The medium rare NY steak I ordered at $49 was a medium quality (8 to 10 oz) piece of meat at $15. At 49 bucks, the owners, chef, and staff should be ashamed of themselves -- Not likely to happen since the only thing worse than the steak was the smirky waiter with anything but service on his mind (and I am taking a leap of faith that he had one -- if not, he needs to visit Oz). Decided not to voice my complaint to the fluffers at the front door -- they were too busy impressing themselves. I think the name should be changed to "Primehouse of Crap." After dropping a fast $150 for dinner I felt the need to donate to the Chicago's homeless because I certainly had wasted my money on my own unsatisfied hedonistic behavior. Do yourself a favor the next time you are hungry in Chicago -- visit any one of the very excellent steakhouses within walking distance of this one.

02/28/09

Excellent all around

by rashad83 at Citysearch

We visited David Burke's for the restaurant week that ended Feb 27th and it was an excpetional experience, we were given champagne on the house twice as we waited and when we were seated, our server was super nice and the food was awesome, after the dinner they offered to take us on a tour to see thier famouse salt room where they kept thier dry aged steaks and also the kitchen where we met the executive chef, i highly recommend this place.

• Pros: Everything
• Cons: nothing

01/11/09

1 star is too high a rating

by gakni at Citysearch

We went to Primehouse for my birthday last night. I had high expectations from the reviews and the menu. Unfortunately, not only were my expectations not met but Primehouse was not even one of the best steakhouses I've been to in the last 3 months. We ordered the sticks and stones appetizer - skewered beef and shrimp brought to the table raw to be cooked on a hot stone. Interesting and fun but lacked much flavor in spite of the infused soy sauce brought along to pour over the shrimp and beef as they cooked. Next we had the Caesar salad with white anchovies. Nice table side preparation and overall typical quality salad. Nothing extraordinary but it tasted fine. For our meals, we ordered the Porterhouse and the 55 day aged bone in ribeye, supposedly the best dry aged steak in Chicago in 2008. If that is the case, I would hate to taste even the second best let alone those that didn't make the list. The steak was not even tender, a reasonable expectation for a restaurant that happily claims to be the only one in the country that owns it own sire. My companion ate the Porterhouse but only after having to insist on steak sauce to make it flavorful. The Chorizo whipped potatoes were nice, but again, nothing extraordinary. Same for the creamed spinach, except the nutmeg was a little overpowering.

Service: We never had our water refilled. Our table was never cleaned off after the appetizers and salad before the entrees arrived. We ended up piling plates and glasses at the edge of the table which were finally removed but the table itself was not cleaned. I was hugely disappointed in most aspects of the night. We ended up leaving before the complimentary birthday dessert and with a third-eaten 55 day dry aged ribeye still on the table. Additionally, we were seated at a booth where the narrow aisle between us, a column and other tables left little room for servers and others to pass by without literally being in our booth. Not recommended.

• Pros: None.
• Cons: Steaks, service, atmosphere.

07/27/08

Best 85 day aged steak, Excellent service

by mashni at Citysearch

My husband & I went here for dinner on my bday. They have a great wine list. The scene is trendy & busy. The service was excellent, the GM even came by to make sure everything was perfect for us. Everything was great especially the 85 day aged ribeye, it was out of this world! They my made my bday perfect! The chocolate cake & ice cream added a very nice touch. We'll be back.

07/25/08

Awesome Aged Steaks

by EdwardASmith at Citysearch

I had the pleasure to dine at Prime last night, and would recommend it to anyone. I had the Reserve Cut, 40-day Dry Aged, Bone-In Ribeye, MR, and it was fantastic. Additionally, we had the Shellfish Castle, the Kobe Beef Sashimi on a huge block of Himalayan salt, and some other things that were just as good. The wine was a Claret by Foley, '05, which went great with the pre-steak food. Service was great with minimal interruptions allowing for business conversation.