Fleming's

For a celebratory dinner, my boss took our team out to dinner at Fleming's. You may or may not know that Fleming's is the expensive sister to Outback, I guess like how Lexus is the expensive sister to Toyota. I like Outback (mmm, prime rib) so I had high hopes for Fleming's. Also, my boss seems to have good taste (hard to tell when we've never actually gone out and we rarely discuss restaurants) so I figured I would go with it.

I started out with some Markum merlot that someone else chose. It was pretty good. Smooth. I had a few glasses through the night. They really gave a lot of time for the whole meal, but then again, they did have a few large parties and we were one of 13.

For apps, I tried the calamari (crisp and in a sweet sticky sauce that wasn't too heavy, actually quite good) and the crab cakes (some large pieces of crab meat and none of that trash we normally get that I wouldn't serve to my cat. No filler, but no real taste either.).

I chose a caesar for my salad. Of course, I love Outback caesars which are creamy and very heavy on the garlic. I also like the James Peterson caesars which are deconstructed in a way and very light. In fact, it's the olive oil that makes it when you keep your restraint with the other ingredients. The salad I had not only used grain mustard, but far too much of it. I would say two to three times too much mustard.

For my steak, I ordered my favorite, a bone-in ribeye. Fleming's makes a point of saying that their meat is all corn-fed USDA prime. If you've read my posts about when we bought prime meat, you know that I'm not impressed by prime. I'm impressed by any aged ribeye, preferably grass fed. (Cow tummies were not made to process corn.) Anyhow, my medium rare steak arrived medium, that was a step over the line to medium well. I don't really care that every other order at the table was medium or higher. (The guy sitting next to me sent his steak back to be cooked more. It returned with butter and parsley on top. I think they threw it into the deep fryer.) When I go to a steakhouse that charges $42 for the steak I ordered, I expect it to be freaking served medium rare.

I missed the boat on dessert because I thought it was pre-orders only for a chocolate lava cake that they need to order early. Kind of like souffles. Who the hell orders dessert when you are not even halfway done with dessert? But anyway, I missed my creme brulee. I didn't need the calories anyway. I also had a decaf cappuccino. Very strong, but overall not bad.

So, that was my experience at Fleming's. You're right: I won't go back. And I'll be happy when I eat my own bone-in ribeye served at home with grey salt and freshly ground pepper, seared in my favorite cast iron skillet.