Prime Steakhouse, Key West

A friend of ours has been trying to get us to go to Prime Steakhouse for years. For a number of reasons (one of which is that I am lazy and it is a fairly long walk from my house), we had not gotten there until last week. I’m glad we finally made it. 

Prime is located above Dante’s on Caroline Street, and though there is some outdoor seating with a view (of the

harbor and of Dante’s pool), the inside is pretty old school, with a lot of wood, and is vaguely reminiscent of a ship. We were seated in a corner booth, and enjoyed wine that we brought with us ($20 corkage fee).  When we arrived, the restaurant was mostly empty, and although a few more tables arrived, it never did fill up. Our servers seemed to be in training as there were two of them at all times, but they were both friendly and pleasant.

The menu is standard steakhouse fare with some seafood appetizers and salads, and a whole lot of meat choices. We started with the seared tuna tataki and oysters Rockefeller, and both were excellent. While I am not a fan of raw oysters, the cooked ones, especially with spinach and cheese, are quite tasty. The tuna was flavorful and fresh. It seemed we were off to a good start.

For our main course, our friends shared a bone-in rib eye (24 ounces) and FKGuy and I shared a Porterhouse (also 24 ounces). We had ours with au poive sauce, and the steaks were perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned and delicious. It was a good call to share these though, as not only are they pricey (steaks are $46 – 58), they are huge. There is no way we could have each had our own. I’m glad we did the reasonable thing. The side dishes that we had – creamed spinach, fries and hash browns were all good, too.

Bottom line: Prime Steakhouse is expensive, but so is every other

steakhouse I have ever been to. The food is excellent, the service is very good and overall, it is an enjoyable experience. I am looking forward to a return visit. Prime is located at 951 Caroline Street, above Dante’s, and is open for dinner at 6PM every day.