Red the Steakhouse

• Cuisine(s): Steakhouse
  Hours: Sun-Thu 5:30pm-12am, Fri-Sat 5:30pm-1am
• Attire: Casual dressy
  Features: Private Party, Takeout, Wheelchair Accessible
• Reservations: Accepted

Description

Red bills itself as a "contemporary" steak house, which is pretty much what every new steak house calls itself nowadays. This tag generally connotes a physical lightening of the traditional mahogany-armored men's club décor and a similar modernization of cuisine. Red gets the first part down pat, with a dramatically contrasted array of white stonework, hardwood floors, glass-plated dividers, rubescent banquettes, and a black bar, chairs, walls and waiter uniforms. The cuisine is more conservative. Starters encompass hand-diced steak tartare, clams casino, steamed mussels, and shrimp cocktail. Try the trio of tapered hot green peppers stuffed with sweet Italian sausage in bright, zesty, onion-flecked red sauce. You're also likely to succumb to three enormous white gulf shrimp succulently sautéed in lemon-garlic butter sauce. Entrées include veal or pork chops, New Zealand rack of lamb, Bell & Evans double chicken breast, and seafoods such as tuna, Atlantic salmon, king crab legs, and Maine lobster. There are pastas, too, such as two dozen tender, saline clams with perfectly cooked linguine, but our advice is stick to the steaks. They're pricey ($39 and up, up, up), but the prime cuts are brushed with oil, kosher salt, and potent black tellicherry peppercorns, and sizzle with delectable flavor. Sides, salads, and desserts are steak house standards (various potatoes, caesar, key lime pie); the wine list is diverse and expensive; and the cuisine outside of the steaks is uneven.