Fleming's Prime Steakhouse: Restaurant Week

For my next foray during Boston Restaurant Week, I dropped by Fleming's Prime Steakhouse, near the Park Plaza. Earlier in the evening, three of us had been at an excellent, pre-auction wine tasting at Skinner Auction house. So, as we were in the area of the Park Plaza, we decided to stop by Fleming's for a bite to eat.

Though we did not have reservations, we were able to sit at a half booth in the bar area. We actually were fairly lucky as the restaurant quickly filled up and there was soon a line of people waiting for a table.

I had been to Fleming's before during Restaurant Week and had a very good meal soI anticipated another good one this time. We began the evening with a bottle of 2006 Hamilton Russell Pinot Noir from South Africa ($76). This is an excellent wine that I have had a number of times before. It is a nice smoky Pinot. And it cost about twice the usual retail.

We all ordered from the Restaurant Week menu. Your choices for the first course included: Caesar Salad, French Onion Soup, Sweet Chile Calamari, and Mozzarella & Tomato. Second course choices included Prime NY Strip, Marinated Breast of Chicken, New Zealand King Salmon and Double Thick Pork Rib Chop. All of these came with mashed potatoes and sugar snap peas. Dessert was a choice between Cheesecake and Walnut Turtle Pie.

The Calamari were delicious, in an interesting sweet chili sauce. The plate had a mound of tender, breaded Calamari and was a very good choice. The Mozzarella & Tomato on the other hand was not really a good choice. You only received two slices of mozzarella & tomato, which seemed quite small when compared to the mound of calamari. Plus, the mozzarella & tomato were rather bland in their flavor. I was not impressed.

As a second course, the King Salmon, which was served Oscar style, was excellent. It had plenty of sweet crab meat atop the flaky salmon, It was a good-sized portion and pleased everyone. I had the NY Strip, rare, and it too was very good. It was cooked exactly as I asked and was quite flavorful. Both sides were also tasty, from the creamy potatoes to the sweetness in the snap peas. I did also order a side of the Chioptle Macaroni & Cheese, and that was fantastic. Large corkscrew pasta in a flavorful cheese with a smoky, bacon flavor. I nearly ate the entire side myself.

The only dessert we tried was the Walnut Turtle Pie. It came with a dish of fresh whipped cream. Yum!!! The pie was very chocolaty, with a salty tinge either from the caramel or the walnuts. It was not overly sweet and was a nice ending to the meal.

Service was very good, even though it was very busy. Overall, the meal was good except for the mozzarella & tomato. And for the price, the meal was definitely a good deal.