West Steak Seafood & Spirits
Carlsbad, CA 92008
Phone: (760) 930-9100
Fax: (760) 930-9109
- Price:
- $$$$
- Cross Street:
- Cannon Road
- Hours:
- Sun-Thu 4:30pm-10pm, Fri-Sat 4:30pm-11pm, Bar: Daily 3:30pm
Editorial Review for West Steak Seafood & Spirits – by Nancy Hunter
The Scene
Families, couples and special-occasion diners pack the small, low-lit dining room, which is integrated with the bustling spirits-and-sports bar. Loud jazz and world music fill the high-ceilinged space, which is flanked by the busy exhibition kitchen. Open booths and tables draped with white linens and elegant place-settings glow, with almost overly attentive servers meeting every need.
The Food
The mostly a la carte menu offers USDA-certified steaks, chops and seafood, as well as inventive fusion-inspired starters, salads and savory soups, including French Maui onion and Maine lobster bisque. Unique specials, such as pesto-macadamia encrusted mahi-mahi, offset the otherwise standard meat-and-potatoes selections. Most entrees feature a la carte meats paired with usual sides, such as creamed corn and au gratin potatoes. Spend a little more, and you can drizzle your selection with a variety of specialty sauces, such as gorgonzola blue cheese and bearnaise. Finish with a light, simple dessert, such as the pineapple, guava and mango sorbet.
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Insider Tips
What to DrinkThe extensive wine list features French and Italian selections, in addition to a wide array of California standards.
When to GoDine off of a limited menu at the bar starting at 3:30pm daily.
User Reviews for West Steak Seafood & Spirits
09/30/2007 Posted by nicholaspeters70
After hearing a new steak house opened in North County, my husband and I and another couple made reservations and hoped to have a great experience. Unfortunately, our experience was less than expected. First , when you enter the restaurant, you immediately notice that the bar area occupies a third of the entire square room from the mid to right side. The dining area is flanked center left. In the back you see a waiter area and kitchen. Although everything was decorated very nicely, the bar area and bar crowd was noisy enough to dominate and disctract from the entire dining area. But of more importance is the food. We have dined at the best steak houses and restaurants across the country. It is clear that they use the standard USDA Prime beef but it comes up short from steakhouses like Ruths Chris and Donovan's and others when it comes to cooking techinque and flavor. We even tried some of their accompanied sauces, but they too were not special. For the high price, we expected much better. We could tell the chef and cooks did not come from top notch steakhouses. Our group also tasted some seafood appetizers that we admit had very nice presentations. But to us, we felt that they were sprinkled with too much of this and too much of that ,where it was too confusing for our tastebuds. There were several other things we didn't like. As stated before, the room is one simple square. It was dark, had no windows and no view. Also, the staff and managers were staring at us too much which didn't give us much privacy. But what really turned us off was when we were greeted by an elderly gentleman, I guess a Manager or Chef, I don't know. But when our discussion turned to a nearby competitor and his comments were slightly negative in that they did not use USDA Prime beef, we felt this negativity was not the tone to have when you are the new kid on the block. Our recommendation: drive up to Mastro's in Costa Mesa or Donovans or Ruths Chris locally for a true dining experience.
Pros: new and upscale
Cons: no privacy, noisy bar, food way OVERPRICED only to be okay
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