This steakhouse isn’t only good for steak
Bobby Van’s located at Central Park South maintains the class and elegance that the Bobby Van’s name has held for so long. And the food is just as good as any other location, maybe even better. But don’t tell anyone I said that, especially Bobby Van himself (assuming he is a real person). We started off the night with some starters which included the crispy calamari and Maxie’s meatballs. It’s hard to really mess up calamari (although I have been to places that really tried hard to mess it up). The calamari was crispy, fried well, and moist. We added lemon juice as usual to it and it really helped ready your palate for the food to come. The meatballs were amazing. They were so juicy and savory and full of flavor. The marinara sauce was extremely flavorful too. It really seemed like a regular marinara sauce at first, but the way that it paired with the meatball, adding the sweet tomato richness to the meat was great. And topped was some soft and creamy cheese that helped balance everything in the end. And I am a sucker for any type of cheese so having this meatball dish paired with cheese sold me immediately.
Our next course was the Robiola and white truffle pizza. If you don’t know what robiola is (like me at first), it is a soft, creamy cheese, similar to a ricotta. This pizza is essentially a more flavorful traditional white pizza. The pizza itself was crisp and has a thin crust, which is something I like particularly. The white truffle flavor was very apparent, but the robiola cheese was able to mellow down what could have been a very truffle centered dish. And having a creamy cheese helped give the pizza the moisture it needed considering that it doesn’t have a sauce on it. Each bite you get a hit of the white truffle and then the robiola brings you back and centers your palate where you just can’t help but want to take another bite. This pizza is seriously addicting and just writing about it makes me want to go back and order two more pies of this pizza.
For the entrée were ordered their scallop special which was made with seared scallops, Brussel sprouts, carrots, capers, and thick pieces of bacon. The scallops itself was seared perfectly, having that nice brown outer layer that makes anyone’s mouth water. The thing I love about capers are that they add a lot of salinity which brings out a level of flavor that not many other ingredients can do. In one bite, try the scallop with the Brussels spouts, the bacon, and the capers. The bacon adds the rich meaty flavor the adds to the saltiness of the capers and the scallops. And the sprouts were charred a little bit so there was a good amount of crunch and smokiness to that bite.
And you can’t go to Bobby Van’s without trying some of their steak. We ordered the filet mignon and it was delicious. It was juicy, packed with flavor, and we ordered a side of mashed potatoes that really complimented it. Steak and potatoes never go wrong and this was a quality meal.
For dessert, we had the tiramisu and the crème brulee. The tiramisu was so moist and the coffee essence of the dessert really came out. You could really taste each layer of the tiramisu, from the ladyfingers soaked in liqueur to the espresso top to the mascarpone layers in between. And the crème brulee was so delicious. I love seeing a burnt sugar top and just tapping my spoon on it before I break it and go for the custard inside. And this custard was amazing. It had such a pure essence of vanilla that wasn’t too sweet so you didn’t get overwhelmed with the first bite.
Overall, we had a great time trying out Bobby Van’s Steakhouse at Central Park South. It was a great time with great food.
