Prime Steakhouse Restaurant Review

42 E. Main Street
Webster NY, 14580
(585) 265-4777

Webster really needs a restaurant like Prime Steakhouse. Development in the last decade has brought a slew of chain restaurants – Moe’s Southwest Grill, Red Robin, Five Guys, Uno Grill, Monte Alban’s. With the opening of Prime, Webster finally has a fine dining option, open year-round. (Hedges, which is only open seasonally, doesn’t count!)

The reservation system, if it can be called that, needs to get some bugs worked out. We called during normal business hours on a Wednesday and ended up having to leave a message about a reservation for Friday. No one called back until the next night. That didn’t seem terribly professional, but at least we had a reservation.

The décor is upscale urban steakhouse - dark wood tables, pendant lighting, red bench seating along the walls. Enough light to read the menu – always a plus. However, it is noisy, especially the bar area. Why do restaurateurs designing a new space not take the noise factor into consideration? If it’s too loud to have a conversation, I don’t want to go there! Fortunately, the eating area wasn’t quite as bad as the bar. Conversation was possible without shouting, and the further away from the bar, the better.

We were served a basket of two rolls (one wheat, and one sesame) with triangles of butter, which seemed a bit stingy, but the waitress quickly refilled the basket with an even better combination of a warm popover and a warm poppyseed roll when we inhaled the first two.

I ordered the crab cake appetizer, which was quite large and not overly bready, although the crab was of the shredded variety rather than the chunks of lump meat that mark an awesome crab cake. But the accompanying oranges were sweet, and the remoulade nicely flavored. All in all, it was a better-than-average crab cake. My dining companion ordered the iceberg wedge with bacon and an over-abundance of blue cheese dressing. Both appetizers were decent, but not exceptional.

For my entrée, I ordered salmon – yes, in spite of going to a steak house, I can’t pass up Nova Scotia salmon over warm lentils. It was a huge piece of fish, crispy on the outside, and served with some sautéed Swiss chard, along with a massive pile of lentils. It was delicious.

My dining companion’s filet, which he ordered with Béarnaise sauce, won effusive praise, of the mm…mmmm..mmmmm! variety. Although the items listed in the “entrée” section of the menu come with some accompaniment of vegetables or potatoes, the steak and chop dishes do not. So he also ordered a side of fries ($5), a huge plate big enough for two or three to share. They were a bit salty, but still tasted good even when they cooled off.

All the desserts are home-made, according to our waitress, so in the interest of the blog, we wrapped half our meals so we’d have room for dessert. The ice cream selection of coffee, chocolate gelato and vanilla bean sounded delicious, and it was. High fat content, I suspect. The vanilla crème brulée, served with a chocolate-dipped biscotti along with a raspberry and a mint leaf, was both lovely to look at, and lovely to eat! No leftovers there.

Service was attentive enough, but a bit unpolished. There was some confusion when we ordered wine and a lack of knowledge about desserts, but in general service was efficient and friendly.

We will definitely give Prime another try – next time I vow to try steak for a change.