MarkJoseph Steakhouse
Location: Battery Park, NYC

Last time we talked, Reid and I were excited about hitting up alot of restaurants in NYC. And that we did, and now with our foodie souls satiated and our waistbands looser, we are back to report on our happy experiences!

The first offiical meal that we had was at Papaya King, which I'll go into details later in a Papaya King vs. Gray's Papaya blog. But the meal that we were looking forward to all day was the steakhouse--MarkJoseph's.

SO GOOD. Days later, I still heard Reid muttering "mmm steak..." My boots were knocked off too. I had heard a reputation that MarkJoseph's had one of the best porterhouses in town, but that it was a rather "manly" type of restaurant. So I was quite surprised when I saw that the exterior of the restaurant gave the look of a cozy, classic and understated cafe. The location was awesome too, located by the wharf in a quiet yet very quaint part of town, albeit a tad off the radar of the city bustle. And while food will always reigns supreme for us, the look made me even more happy to eat there. My first impression of the inside was that rare perfect mixture of liveliness yet not noisy, fancy decor yet casualness that put us totally at ease. It's a place where families can have dinners dressed down and couples can have their romantic dates dressed up and people can eat their steaks alone and everyone would feel perfectly comfortable. My biggest pet peeve is when a place's vibe is so cold or so stuffy that Reid and I are reduced to feeling like gawky high schoolers.

Now for the food, which deserves quite a bit of time. I made the tragic mistake of ordering a salad rather than the creamed spinach. And even more sadly, my salad choice of tomatoes and onions turned out to be literally two big slices of tomatoe and a thick slice of onion. Grr. But then the porterhouse for two came, and our sadness evaporated into mouthdrooling states of nirvana where we remained for the rest of the meal. Reid was so very happy with the steak and it was very tender, very tasty, very much the best steak we've had. And to complete an awesome meal, we also got a white Poulley-Froussei that Reid chose and a key lime pie that made me *die* even more. The key lime itself would've made me want to come back.

We left very happy. And I'd recommend MarkJoseph to anyone who is looking for a steakhouse in NYC. I've researched other steakhouses in the city that are reputated to have comparable steaks. But as much as the food made me a huge fan of MarkJoseph's, it was also the great vibe and look of the restaurant that also won me over.