Restaurant review: Elegant Nick and Sam’s Steakhouse in Uptown is worth the price

by Ashli Michelle of Almost Veggie

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And the chaos.

Good news: Nick & Sam’s Steakhouse is absolutely jaw dropping gorgeous. The inside of this place is every bit as beautiful as one would imagine. I envisioned socialites with champagne all over the place. Not so. Call me crazy, but the pretentious vibe was absent during our dinner. It felt like a building filled with successful people. That’s all. Nothing made me want to barf. I’m almost over socialites, to tell you the truth. Cracking on them hasn’t been necessary since they seem to be really nice in Dallas. Maybe I’ve been wrong all along. All of these socialite slams may have been out of line. Maybe, just maybe, socialites and commoners belong together.

Bad news: Nick & Sam’s Steakhouse is one of the loudest restaurants on the planet. I don’t understand. The hostess led us past a mini bar and into a regular bar with about 10 tables. It was a monstrous roaring room filled with scary noise, which is totally OK for pre-dinner drinks. I’m not sure how anyone can purposely be OK having dinner in this room. No thanks. The bar was so packed, it was impossible to get a drink. I felt sorry for the rich people eating in this room. It was quite sad. It’s really their fault for agreeing to be seated here. Louder than Private Social. Louder than the patio at Sissy’s. Louder than loud. This level of loud should be considered a crime in the state of Texas. Did you know the models waiting tables in this room wear sexy dresses? I noticed that no matter how much of a hurry they were in, their hair stayed in the exact same place. These skinny, tall models wore super high heels, which didn’t seem to faze them one bit.

Getting to our table was a maze of dinner eating destruction. People were whooping and hollering with a vibe of business and pleasure. How can it really be this loud? What’s the deal? Luckily, the hostess sat us at the best possible table to recover. Located in the very back corner, this table was in its own bubble. I could hear them. They could hear me. Curtsy.

I’m wondering if it’s supposed to take 15 minutes to get a drink in certain hoity toity restaurants. It took 10 to get greeted. I’m not being a waiter hater, but this was not the best beginning. Maybe rich people are supposed to soak in the atmosphere before being greeted. Maybe this is what rich dining people demand. Maybe rich people would be appalled if the waiter arrived before they morphed into their new dining environment. Regardless of the beginning, the service was spot on throughout the evening.

I’m a huge fan of deviled eggs. Nick & Sam’s puts a three way spin on this gift — ahi tuna, caviar & Maine lobster, and avocado. Deviled eggs are way more exciting to me than they should be. I was afraid to order anything else because like the "colossal" shrimp cocktail, high prices make me nervous. Come on. Colossal or not, no shrimp cocktail will ever be worth almost $20.

My husband and his friend ordered this scary over-$100 porterhouse that stood straight up into the air. They both kept making these food approval moans. He had a side of creamed spinach and potatoes. Thank God I asked the guy dropping dinner off to explain what’s in the potatoes. All I heard was pork soaked in something.

While attempting to be a cheap eater, I decided to order Chilean sea bass. Our server gave all kinds of descriptions of this and that and lobster meat all cut up on top with sauce and yada. I tried to listen, really.

There was this man two tables over that was laughing like a woman. I couldn’t concentrate. This girl laugh coming from a man preoccupied all of my attention. I was instantly dazed and confused. There was no way I was going to ask our waiter to repeat. Forget it. All I know is if I hadn’t had my heart set on dessert, I would have scraped the plate. Perfection.

After hearing the dessert choices, we picked chocolate chip cheesecake. I loved every bite of it! We did enjoy our experience at Nick & Sam’s. Like III Forks and Pappas Steakhouse, it’s difficult to stomach paying a fortune for dinner. Take into account the piano guy playing in front of the open kitchen, along with the incredibly beautiful atmosphere. Minus eardrum busting levels of noise, Nick & Sam’s Steakhouse owns it.

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