West Steak Seafood and Spirits

Neighborhood: Carlsbad

4980 Avenida Encinas
Carlsbad, CA 92008
(760) 930-9100

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Buzz about West Steak Seafood and Spirits

  • eh
  • don't like it

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aunderscorek wrote about West Steak Seafood and Spirits

Here's something you might not know about me: I don't trust government agencies as taste-testers. I certainly don't trust them as taste-makers. So when West charges $50 for steak that range between USDA Prime and USDA Choice, I honestly don't know what to do.

How am I to expect an agency whose main responsibility is to set a minimum baseline of meat standards to also accurately tell me what meat is the highest quality? Is the price tag — higher than any steak house I've been to, including Ruth's Chris — on the steak supposed to assuage my doubts?

Well, it doesn't. You know what would? Knowing where my $50 steak came from and that it was rated by some external meat-ratings board (Niman standards come to mind). A meat-ratings board that isn't concerned with the lowest quality meat that is acceptable, but rather what is truly worth eating. West, you charge way too much to not concern yourself with this service.

And so I came to my cold ribeye (cooked rare, when I asked for medium rare) dismayed by the quality. After the first bite, at which point the steak became very cold and dry, I continued to saw through each bite, taking bigger and bigger bites to try and make the steak disappear faster.

The appetizers were fine, the sides were solid, but I couldn't tell you exactly what all we ordered; three appetizers, three entrees, and dessert. And none of them really stood out to me as worthy of mention. Even my cohort could only raved about the creamed corn and creamed spinach sides they ordered. If they ordered those on their own, it would have been a $20 bill for the table.

So I don't get it, West. That I've seen, you're the most (or tied with the most) expensive steak house in San Diego County; you're located in Carlsbad; you have outstanding service. So why is it that you don't seem to care to bring your food and ingredients up to par; why are you still using a system whose ratings start at "lowest acceptable quality allowed" to determine the type of beef you buy? Why does everything blandly fall on and off my plate with little recollection of the event?

I'd rather go to almost any other steakhouse in San Diego. I've been to worse steakhouses, but not by much and not by enough to justify the price difference.

posted on January 25, 2012

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The Buzz Snapshot

  • eh

    What exactly is 'eh?'

    Eh. I don’t feel strongly about it either way. I don’t hate it or love it, I wouldn’t recommend it or dismiss it, it just is.

  • don't like it
  • 1
  • 0