Prime Cuts: Crown Terrace, Aberdeen
Published:
About £15? Or £20? Or would you even go so far as high as £25?
At Prime Cuts (Crown Terrace) – Aberdeen’s new steak and lobster restaurant – a fillet steak with the above trimmings will set you back a cool £31.
Holy cow!
With prices like that I was expecting a steak of truly mythic proportions.
But first I had to try the restaurant’s other speciality – lobster.
Without a budget that would stretch to £39 for a whole lobster, I decided to downsize and ordered the lobster cake starter (£8.50).
Served with a red pepper chutney and lime creme fraiche, the golden patty was packed with meaty lobster and ozoney seaside flavours.
My fiancee’s shrimp cocktail (£7.20) didn’t quite impress as much, although the tangy dressing and crunchy salad did make it taste fresher than most.
So then it was on to the main event.
Prime Cuts proudly boasts that all the beef is sourced locally and dry-aged for 28 days – the kind of tender, loving care that explains the high prices. I went for a 10oz ribeye (£19) and ordered a side order of home-made chips and red wine sauce (a rather steep £3 each). Actually, the chips were unnecessary as the dish came with plenty of delicious potatoes and winter veg.
The steak itself was indeed very, very good – tender, juicy and charred to perfection.
Across the table, the 10z fillet steak (£22) was being devoured with equal glee and complimentary words.
My only grumble was that my rare steak was definitely nearer medium.
So, was the final bill (which was edging towards £90 with wine and one desert) worth it?
Well, the steak was definitely one of the best I’ve tasted, so I have absolutely no problems with that.
In fact, I’d happily pay the same again given the quality of food we were served.
But a big chunk of the final bill could have been saved if we hadn’t had to pay £3 for each of the things I’d expect to get for free given the high prices (like chips or sauce).
Even more annoyingly, the restaurant also automatically added the (optional) 10% service charge on to my final bill.
Still, if you’re on a mission to taste a steak as close to perfection as you’re likely to get, Prime Cuts is a good place to start.
