Greetings Finest Foodies!
Tonight’s Sunday Night Food Blog is on “Prime 951”
As you read this review, you will experience my honest,
professional opinion and critique of some of Key West’s finest
and not-so-finest restaurants!
Let’s review!
I dined at Prime 951, yes I said “dined”. This is your classic “dining” experience.
You would never even know it existed if you weren’t looking for it. My Husband,
who was born and raised here in Key West, had no idea how to find it because
it is in such an obscure location. To me it’s strange to have such a nice restaurant
so hidden but perhaps it’s because it is kind of attached to their other “daytime joint”.
Maybe they share a kitchen, I don’t know for sure it’s just a guess.
Here’s a little tip for any locals reading this post; Prime has half priced appetizers Mon-Thurs!
I’m pretty sure that it is for Local’s only but they didn’t ask us for our Drivers License.
However, half price apps gave me the incentive to go there for the very first time!
I’m a stickler for value. I MUST receive value GREATER than what I am paying
in order for me to return to an establishment. Prime met my criteria and
I give them an A+ for value received.
We were a party of four and eager to try as much on the menu that we could stuff our faces with
so we ordered five out of eight appetizers!
Here’s the lowdown…
Fresh bread and butter: Bread was warm and crusty with a nice fresh center. I could tell the moment I saw it that
the butter was honey-butter. That’s fine but please bring a savory butter as well when you do that. Not everyone
likes it sweet and some may have issues with sugar/honey.
Escargot: Different, about 15 snails served atop slices of roasted lemon with a lemon butter sauce,
accompanied by 4 or 5 crostini.
It lacked the garlic and anise flavors traditionally served but all in all was very good and rather light!
Escargot: B due to the sauce didn’t make for the exciting bread dipping experience that I always look forward to with escargot.
Jumbo Lump Crab Cake: One large crab cake with lots of large lumps of blue crab and not too much “filler” as in cracker or breadcrumbs.
Served with Remoulade sauce on the side. Very good indeed and it is a generous portion for sharing.
Crab Cake: A+
Oysters Rockefeller: Six oysters served with the traditional spinach topping with hollandaise and either melted parmesan or Gruyere cheese.
These were delish! My only tweak or suggestion would be to ditch the Gulf Oysters in the Summertime. They are small and sad at this time of year
and oysters are at their worst! That being said, the dish was still outstanding.
Oysters Rock: B due to the out of season Oysters.
Filet Carpaccio: Thinly shaved beef filet with tomatoes, onions, Parmesan and drizzled with Truffle oil.
Nice generous plate. However, my beef with the beef is that it was a bit too thin.
It practically disappeared into the plate and the toppings were too overbearing with the VERY delicate meat.
My other beef with the beef was that I can’t stand that shredded, waxy parmesan cheese!
You’re using a lot of cheese but it’s the wrong quality of cheese for your caliber of restaurant.
I NEED my Carpaccio to have shaved Parmigiano Reggiano. That’s it, period.
Carpaccio C- due to the too thin beef with too much topping and that ghastly shredded parm.
Tuna Tataki: It was good. Cooked and looked perfect, too perfect. I always question Tuna that is
suspiciously too uniform. Sometimes that’s a sign that it is pre-packaged. I’m not saying it was, I’m just sayin.
I only had one bite due to the fact that I had Sushi for lunch and was not in the mood for kelp salad or wasabi. I would
have preferred for them to take a risk by serving it a bit more rustic.
Tuna gets a B- due to the boring and typical Asian style.
On to Soup and Salad!!!
Caesar Salad: The lettuce could have been fresher and that same old tired shredded parmesan killed it for me. I had one bite. It was very strong on
the anchovies in the dressing. You are better off serving them whole on top, that way people can take them off if they don’t like anchovies. They need more lemon in the dressing as well. I’m a Caesar Pro so I am really, really picky about my Caesar’s.
I would like to see them use fresh White Anchovies and yep, you guessed it….REAL Parmigiano Reggiano shaved or grated, I’ll take it
any which way at this point!
Caesar Salad: C due to everything but I’ll give them an E for “effort” at their home-made dressing.
Blue Cheese Wedge: Too small! For a place that serves such large portions of everything else, this ICEBERG wedge should be much bigger!
It was petite at best and remember what my rule is about value!
The bacon, onion and tomato were a little skimpy as well. It also could have used a lot more Maytag Blue Cheese crumbles
as that’s what makes it for me. They did have a nice blue cheese dressing that passed for home made but don’t quote me on that.
Wedge Salad: B- due to Napoleon complex.
She-Crab Soup: My Husband was getting this soup come hell or high water! It was his Birthday so he had card blanche.
It was INCREDIBLE all the way down to the dry Sherry. Rich and creamy with visible amounts of crab meat.
I would have enjoyed a few of those large lumps of crab from the crab cake but they seem to use claw meat instead
which is fine. All in all this soup was too the moon Alice!
She Crab Soup: A++ Fantastic
And finally….DINNER.
24 oz. Bone-In Ribeye: We orded it medium-rare and I’m happy to say that this $52 steak was cooked to perfection!
We shared the steak between the four of us since we had already eaten so much food beforehand.
Our Server Dan (who was phenomenal btw, kudos to him, and I’m a HUGE stickler for good service) brought out 3 extra
plates for our sharing pleasure. Each plate had their signature roasted garlic bulb, a sprig of fresh Rosemary and a cute little dish of red wine
demi-glaze. We also ordered a side of Bernaise sauce! We each got about 4 ounces of meat which means the bone was about 10 oz if you’re
doing the math. Perfect steak.
Ribeye: A+
Truffle Mac n Cheese: This was served piping hot fresh out of the broiler and stayed hot for quite some time!
My only quipe is, and some people don’t mind this at all but when you use Smoked Gouda cheese,
it melts exactly like American cheese and gives it that gluey consistency. This is because smoked Gouda is a processed
cheese blend. Like I said, some like it that way but it’s not my personal preference.
The nice thing about Smoked Gouda is that the flavor complements the Truffle oil so I understand their cheese choice.
Mac: B+ due to Smoked Gouda melting like American
Sauteed Spinach & Mushrooms: Perfect combination. The mushrooms went great with the steak
and I dipped the spinach in the Bernaise sauce on my plate! Hard to screw up this dish!
Spinach: A+
Did we have room for dessert? Hell no! We ordered it anyway so that we could sing happy birthday to my Husband.
We went with the Chocolate Lava Cake. I loved the dark chocolate Ganache sauce they poured on top and the vanilla ice cream was a no brainer.
It was the perfect dessert. Or was it?
To my horror….they use WHIPPED TOPPING instead of real whipped cream! Oh the travesty!
Please, I’m begging you, just omit the stuff all together if you’re not willing to go all the way!
Lava Cake: B+ due to the whipped topping fail
All in all I would say that this is a fine place to dine. It is your “classic” Steakhouse and the food was
great. The atmosphere is nice and you feel like you are in Ft. Lauderdale or somewhere else besides Key West.
For us Locals we kind of like that but if you are visiting you’ll have to decide what type of experience you want to have.
I would definitely go back again, especially if someone else is picking up the check!
Well, stick a fork in me I’m DONE! I hope you enjoyed my first restaurant review. If there are
places you want me to review just leave me a comment down below or on our Facebook page!
Until next time….
Let’s eat!
Key West’s Finest Foodie
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