Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar offers a premium dining experience
The Prime Tomahawk specialty cut makes a bold statement when it appears at your table. Where other steakhouses may offer prime rib cuts with the bone in, this one comes with 16 inches of rib protruding from a juicy 35-ounce, inch-and-a-half-thick cut, making it resemble a tomahawk (hence the name). Cooked medium rare, it sated three carnivorous diners and later made a canine at home wonder what he had done right.
Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar makes no bones about its ambition to be the go-to spot in a crowded field of high-end steakhouses, featuring the finest prime midwestern corn-fed beef and fresh seafood with service that is both gracious and indulgent. Fleming’s is also proud to tantalize palates with 100 premium wines served by the glass.
Many diners posting online reviews said they picked Fleming’s for a big anniversary or birthday celebration, and most describe the private atmosphere of dark wooden booths and red leather benches as suitably luxurious for the occasion. The patio is pleasant and spacious for COVID-conscious patrons. Lately Fleming’s is also doing a significant curbside carryout business.
Those same reviewers praised the enthusiastic staff. For us, Justin, doubling as bartender and waiter, provided mouth-watering details about all the offerings.
In the new era of creative cuisine, Chef Partner Andrew Hearndon adds flourishes that give an unexpected zing to dishes like the starter Burrata with Prosciutto, which features a scrumptious goose-egg-sized orb of poached mozzarella with charred Campari tomatoes, prosciutto, wild arugala, and toasted garlic crostini.
The Beef Carpaccio features paper-thin, melt-in-your-mouth beef slices with sourdough toast coated in parmesan cheese, alongside spinach, basil, hard-boiled egg, red onions, caper-creole mustard sauce, and capers that will make you think you’ve never had capers before.
Like the Tomahawk and other classic cuts, Fleming’s’ wedge (really a half-head of iceberg) arrives with a sense of the dramatic, oozing with blue cheese dressing (of course) and crumbles, balsamic glaze, red onion, Campari tomatoes, and bacon. Fleming’s Salad is a similar treat for the eyes and palate, with sweet and spicy walnuts, tomatoes, dried cranberries, red onion with lemon balsamic vinaigrette.
For a double dose of presentation flair, look to the menu section entitled “Over the Top,” and try the Truffle-Poached Lobster, served with béarnaise sauce and caviar. Piscatorians also rave over the Barbeque Scottish Salmon Fillet with mushrooms and barbeque glaze, the Miso-Glazed Chilean Sea Bass, and the Alaskan King Crab Legs.
Fleming’s is especially proud of its sides, headlined by its unique Fleming’s Potatoes, in which au gratin potatoes are blended with creamy cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses, leeks, and jalapenos and presented as a loaf. This, like the North Atlantic Lobster Mac and Cheese, could be a meal in itself.
Our table split two irresistible desserts—a three-layer carrot cake with homemade cream-cheese frosting drizzled with a caramel rum sauce; and a Belgian dark chocolate lava cake served with a dollop of vanilla ice cream, classic Tuiles sugar wafers, and pistachio nuts.
Fleming’s makes no bones about pricing its top-end offerings at the top end of the market, but it can be argued that the experience is worth the price.