STK Steakhouse

STK is a small chain of high end, or at least, high price point, steakhouses in major cities in the US.  They recently opened one in San Francisco, right along the waterfront, and literally right downstairs from my office.  

I was excited to try it out when it opened, but I took one look at the price point, and decided to wait for a worthy occasion.  This is not a casual evening out restaurant, this is a splurge, a major splurge, destination.  Reviews also seemed fairly mixed, so, I wasn't compelled to visit sooner.

After several months of walking by literally every day, I finally visited, with a small group of co-workers, at the end of a day long working strategy session.  We didn't have the budget for an actual meal there, but we were able to visit during Happy Hour, and make a meal of it.

Mostly Happy Hour.

We visited during Happy Hour, to take advantage of the quite reasonable prices.  The Happy Hour prices really are remarkable.

Also remarkable was the service.  As in, it was truly horrible.  We were fully ignored for 30 minutes until we flagged down a waiter (not our first attempt to do so, but, we were unable any other time!), who wasn't even ours, but he helped us out.  

The food was ... ok.  Not great, and certainly not worthy of the regular prices.  I'd consider returning again for Happy Hour just due to convenience and great prices, but, it certainly wouldn't be my top choice.

Setting

STK bills itself as a "modern steakhouse & chic lounge", the later part being a prime focus.  There is a live DJ every night.  At 5pm on the dot, the DJ stars spinning, and it is a scene.  The evening dress quickly becomes cocktail attire and upwards.  If you are looking for a low key, intimate, quiet venue ... this is not it.

STK sets itself up as somewhere to be seen - literally.  There is a giant bull out front to pose with, and of course, post your content to social media.  An Instagram-worthy flower backdrop and photo booth inside.  High end steakhouse decor.  

Patio.

My visit was for Happy Hour, which is limited to the small bar area inside, or, the large patio outside.  We were seated outside, where the vibe was still strong, the DJ blasting.  Seemingly ever table was a fairly large group of co-workers, or friends, out for a good time post their work days.  Food, and more importantly drinks, were free flowing.

It was also, well, San Francisco, which meant it was fairly cool, and the heat lamps were necessary, although barely functional, as they kept blowing out in the wind.  

Service was awful.  Truly the worst I've experienced anywhere in several years, including in non-tipping countries, or those were the status quo is essentially no service.  Getting attention of staff members required aggressive effort on our part.  Were we not dressed the part?  Was it just bad luck?  

Drinks

As a prime Happy Hour, or spurge-worthy dinner destination, STK has an extensive drink menu.  One entire side of the menu is devoted to drinks.

Drink Menu.

STK has a pretty decent cocktail list, with basics like a margarita, mojito, or negroni, plus interesting slight twists on classics and house specials.  All cocktails are $21 normally, a touch high, but still fairly standard for a swanky place in SF.  However during Happy Hour, *all* the house cocktails are only $9 (as are a single varietal of red, white, and bubbles for wine, and a single kind of beer).  I expected just to be able to pick from 2-3 cocktails for the special happy hour pricing, and kinda couldn't believe it that all were only $9.  That really is a remarkable price for a high end cocktail in downtown!  Now I understand why every table was loaded with cocktails.

STK's signature drink is the Spiced Watermelon, a tequila based cocktail that comes garnished with a big wedge of watermelon, and has won many awards.  Nearly every table around us had multiple watermelon cocktails adorning it, every server who walked by had at least one in hand.  As I have an extremely severe watermelon allergy, this was concerning, as I know in particular the bar often will use the same knife to slice a lemon garnish as they would the watermelon, so I made sure to be very, very clear to my server that I had a severe allergy.  I was still not particularly comfortable as tray after tray of deathmelon drinks walked by all evening, and our service continued to falter.

Not Your Daddy's Old Fashioned. $9 HH/$21 Regular.

"Woodford reserve bourbon - angostura bitters - brown sugar - vanilla bean."

For my own drink, I stayed far away from the fruity offerings, and went for a old fashioned, their spin on it, the "Not Your Daddy's Old Fashioned".  It was served appropriately in a fairly hefty old fashioned glass, with not too much ice, and a lemon peel garnish.  It was a very well made drink - everything in balance, nicely bitter but not too bitter, and definitely boozy. They certainly didn't water down the cheaper happy hour cocktails.  I didn't really taste the brown sugar nor vanilla bean, but, they presumably helped create the smooth, balanced profile.

Overall, a very nice execution of a classic, and beyond reasonable for the $9 Happy Hour price.  ****.

Food

Happy Hour

Happy Hour is what draws a lot of people to STK, for good reason.  Served Mon-Fri from 3-6:30pm, and late night on Sun-Thurs from 10pm-close.  The hours are generous, and the prices shockingly reasonable, not only compared to their regular $$$$ menu, but, in general.  The Happy Hour menu is only served at the bar inside, and patio outside, which was a bit unfortunate as we were a party of 4 so the bar wasn't an option, and, it was pretty cold and windy outside.  They have heat lamps, but, they kept blowing out.  Still, I do recommend this for a happy hour venue.

Happy Hour Menu.

The Happy Hour menu is arranged around a simple premise: $3, $6, $9.  That is, all dishes are either $3, $6, or $9.  All drinks are $9.  Simple.  And like I said, reasonable.

The menu ranges from smaller portions of some of their regular appetizers and side dishes, to happy hour exclusive bites.  The $3 lineup includes falafel, oysters, and their signature tots.  $6 gets you a mini "brg" and fries, wagyu meatballs, short rib quesadillas, or salmon "stilettos" (a cured salmon bite served in a spoon).  The $9 price point gets you popcorn chicken or crispy calamari (that I would actually really like to try), several styles of tacos (a single tiny A5 wagyu taco or pair of tiny tuna tartare tacos with taro chip shells), classic tartar or shrimp cocktail, or a play on steak frites.

If you really want to splurge at Happy Hour, there is also a $19 Surf & Turf, with a 3 ounce filet and single grilled prawn.  Honestly, this sounds perfect for me - 3 ounces is just about 3 bites of steak, which is all I generally want anyway.  Pair it with a carby side dish (I recommend the tots!) and a veggie side dish, and you could have a perfectly fine, not overly indulgent, reasonably priced, dinner.

During Happy Hour, most tables were piled high with happy hour dishes.  At $3, $6, and $9 dollars, how do you blame folks?  We tried 3 different items (ok, 4, if you count the veggie version of one), and doubled up on a few.  In general, I was impressed with the composition of the dishes, but, our food was not warm, even when freshly served.

Short Rib Quesadilla. $6.

"Fontina cheese - tomatoes - chimichurri - flour tortilla - mustard cream."

I'm not one for quesadillas in general, so I wasn't interested in this, but my co-workers opted to get the short rib quesadilla.  I suspect they were expecting more standard wedge shaped pieces, and likely some salsa or sour cream, but they seemed happy enough with this more stromboli-like presentation.  I didn't try one, but I did try the sauce, not knowing what it was, but being a sauce girl I couldn't resist, and found it very ... bland.  Everyone tried to guess what it was.  They mostly though it was aioli, which didn't seem quite right to me, and certainly didn't make sense with quesadillas, even non-traditional ones.  I thought maybe it would be sour cream, but, it didn't have any tang to it either.  The answer?  Mustard cream, the same as I had my crab cake (more on that soon).  The mustard element was not detectable, although it had a mild yellow hue to it.

This dish does not appear on the regular dinner menu, but is on the lunch menu in entree form for $31.

Lil' Brg & Truffle Fries. $6.

"Wagyu beef - special sauce - sesame seed bun."

One of the clear crowd pleasers of the Happy Hour menu is the "lil' brg", available with wagyu beef or vegetarian patty.  The brg comes adorned with all the fixings: tomato, a slice of pickle, well melted cheese, and is dripping the special sauce.  It really is a nice looking slider.  The bun was glossy and coated with a good scattering of black sesame seeds too.

Two of my co-workers ordered these, and said they were good, albeit very messy.  Although cooked medium-well, barely any pink inside, they said the patties were remarkably juicy.  Our vegetarian companion tried the veggie version, and said it was fine, but not great.

The Happy Hour brg also comes with their signature truffle parmesan fries.  You can't get the fries alone on the happy hour menu, but the brg comes with a tower of 4 of them.  These are unique fries, very thick (but not like steak fries) but rather like logs.  Solid logs of fried potato.   I tried one and wasn't particularly impressed.  It was just a big fry.  Looked interesting, but wasn't really.  I tried it very soon after it arrived at the table when my dining companion offered one, and it was stone cold.   The truffle flavor was barely noticeable.  The parmesan was fine.  If you want these with your meal outside Happy Hour, a side order of 12 of them is a whopping $20, which seems crazy to me.  **+ for the fries.

I also did try the special sauce that dripped off the burgers, and it was pretty standard special sauce.  Creamy, flavorful, zesty. ***.

The brg is also the regular starters menu for $33, which is a pair of them, with no fries.  $16.50 per slider - wowzer.  The happy hour price was totally reasonable, particularly with the fries, but  I can't imagine paying $16.50 each for these.

Tots. $3.

Our final item from the Happy Hour menu was my pick.  And, really, this dish was a primary reason why I wanted to go to STK.  For the tots.  Yup, the tots.  Me, a girl who could generally care less about most tater tots, couldn't wait to try these.  Another signature dish, another bougie spin on a classic, and luckily for us, far more successful than the fries.  A single order comes with 4 tots, and we ordered several platters of them, knowing that we'd each want more than one (or at least, hoping so!).

Much like the fries, the theme was super sized.  Giant tots.  They were crispy on the outside, and basically a ball of creamy yummy mashed potato inside, not shredded potato like their namesake.  I really liked the tots, but, they were barely lukewarm when they arrived, so, minus a point for that.  The same parmesan and herbs were sprinkled over them that came with the fries too.  **** tots, but, knocking down to ***+ due to being cold.

They were served with a orange dipping sauce, that I gleefully took a bunch of, only to discover that it was chipotle (I think).  Creamy, good, but, I didn't like chipotle flavor.  The others did though.  I used the mustard cream from their quesadillas, and a little of the special sauce that had dripped out of their burgers, on mine, and eventually asked for ketchup.  Yup, I was that person who asked for ketchup (which, everyone else ended up using too, for fries, tots, and brgs).

The tots are also available as regular side, 8 for $20, so this is clearly a much better deal.  

Dinner

Happy Hour was our main draw, but we could also order from the full dinner menu if wanted to splurge.  Warning: this is very much a splurge kind of venue. 

Dinner Menu.

So, the dinner menu.

It starts with several salads, such as a $29 iceberg wedge (for real), has a few of the Happy Hour dishes in dramatically higher price points (tuna tartare, calamari, the brgs for $34, $31, $33 respectively), and a few other starters such as bacon or burrata for $30, and a single crab cake for $41.  Gulp.

The raw bar comes next, with "STK Pearls", e.g. oysters and American caviar for $69, king crab, and a $71 per person, two person minimum, shellfish platter.  

Then there are the entrees.  Your cheapest option is the $55 chicken.  The sole vegetarian item, tagliatelle, with truffle, is $65.  For seafood eaters, things escalate to the salmon ($62), fish & chips ($68), and sea bass ($73).  But this is a steak house, and the red meat is what they are all about.  Small filets start at $61 and from there ... you rise up to the $165 tomahawk, or the A5 wagyu priced per ounce.  Want toppings such as a lobster tail to make it a surf & turf and that will be $41, a peppercorn crust will cost you $9, and then there are several butters to pick from for $12 each and long list of sauces for $4 (or a sauce plate, for people like me who always want them al, for $29).

The sides lineup (all $20) is really all quite appealing.  In addition to larger servings of the tots and fries, the other potato offering is a fantastic looking parmesan crusted mashed potato.  For those who want some vegetables, not necessarily healthy ones, there is creamed spinach, crispy brussels sprouts (with bacon), sweet corn pudding, confit mushrooms (also with bacon), and asparagus.

And not be left out, of course, desserts, all $18, none of which are particularly inspired: chocolate cake, cheesecake, apple pie (not even served warm), a skillet cookie, or bag of donuts.

So, a fairly low key meal of a salad to start, a modest mid-range steak, single side, and dessert would be $175 per person, before taking into account drinks (cocktails are $21 outside of happy hour).  Yeah, ooph.

We tried a starter and a side, and nothing else (yes, I even passed on dessert, mostly because they get such lackluster reviews).

STK Pull Apart Bread w/ Blue Cheese Butter & Chive.
 (Complimentary with Dinner).

"House made bread. Topped with blue cheese butter and served with chive oil."

I knew from reading reviews that people go nuts for the housemade bread, served with a signature blue cheese butter and herb oil.  I saw it being delivered to tables around us, as soon as folks had their orders in, before their appetizers/happy hour bites arrived.  But we didn't get bread.  This seemed on trend with the horrible service, but after literally every other dish had arrived and still no bread, I asked about it.

I was told the sad news - bread is only served to those who order an entree from the main menu.  So, copious Happy Hour bites, even sides and apps from the main menu, did not make us worthy of the bread.  Doh.  We had plenty of food, and a table loaded with plates, so, I accepted our fate, and moved on, but the server came back by and said he'd sneak me one.  Ok, while service was generally awful, our makeshift server really did a great job.

A few minutes later, he delivered the bread with a smile.  It was beautifully presented, in a skillet, with the two spreads on the side.  I eagerly ripped off a roll, and was immediately disappointed.  Um, it was not hot. Not even lukewarm.  Stone cold.  Sigh.  Really, I couldn't believe how cold it was.  Was the cast iron skillet all for looks?  Was it supposed to be cold?  I don't think so, as most photos I had seen of it had the butter melting all over it.  There was no way this butter was going to melt on the cold bread, in the cold SF outdoors.

I slathered the butter all over it, undeterred.  Rookie move, not trying the bread first, nor the butter, but, going all in.  And ... wow, I didn't really like it.  The butter had an odd taste, and was strangely chunky.  It was then that I remembered it was *blue cheese* butter, and I don't particularly like blue cheese.  The bread was also sourdough, although only mild sour dough flavor.  So, cold bread, cold butter that didn't melt in and had a flavor I didn't care for ... not a winner.  * for that butter for me, the parsley at least was ok?  And ** for the bread, at least it was soft?  The bread would be *** if warm.

The best thing on the board was the chive oil.  Very herby, flavorful.  Not remarkable, but, not bad. ***.

You can also purchase this a la carte for $6.90 if you don't quality for the complimentary bread, or you want a refill.

Starter: Jumbo Lump Crab Cake. $41.

"Whole grain mustard cream - chili thread - cucumber mustard seeds salad."

I went rogue and ordered a starter off the regular menu, instead of a happy hour bite, for my main protein.  I was really, really craving crab cakes, and I knew STK had a crab cake on the starters menu.  Had I stuck with the happy hour menu, the fried calamari really did look decent.

The crab cake was reasonably warm, unlike all the happy hour bites.  It was a decently thick patty, with not too much filler, and lots of crab.  Lightly crispy, not greasy.  A decent crab cake, but not remarkable.  Not particularly well seasoned, and it really could use a little acidity.  I wished for a lemon to squeeze over it.

The plate was garnished with flair, with the same mustard cream that the quesadillas came with, that made more sense here, but was still a very, very muted flavor.  I liked having some kind of cream, but, it didn't really help the flavors pop.  More mustard would definitely help, but really, I just wanted some tartar sauce.  If service was better, I would have asked for some of the roasted garlic and lime aioli that comes with the calamari perhaps, but, waiting to get the attention of a server was not really an option.  I wanted to eat while at least one item on my plate was remotely warm.

The "cucumber mustard seeds salad" was really just a single long thin piece of cucumber attractively rolled up.  Fresh, crisp, but, not much of it, and definitely not a salad.

Overall, the crab cake was fine, but everything else let it down.  Looked considerably prettier than it tasted.  ***.

This crab cake, the single crab cake, with very little else served with it, was $41.  $41!!!  Yes, it was a good crab cake, but, wow.  A $41 starter, or in my case, a light main.

Side: Sweet Corn Pudding. $20.

I wanted all the sides, but at $20 each, I limited myself to just one to try.  I was between the creamed spinach and the corn pudding, and let the group help me decide.  We all though the corn pudding sounded the most unique.

It was essentially just slightly fancier creamed corn.  Very heavy in the cream, and made with whole kernel corn, not crushed pieces like you find in canned cream corn.  I was secretly hoping it would be more the style of the insanely life changing corn pudding I had at Truth BBQ in Houston, but alas, it was more like regular creamed corn.  Good creamed corn, don't get me wrong, but, just creamed corn.  A bit more seasoning, a touch of kick like jalapeno, or even a cheese crust could have likely amped this up a bit, but as it was, it was fine, but not something I'd get again, unless really craving creamed corn.

The portion was definitely sharable, we all had several scoops with no problem.  ***.