#28 The Palm - Downtown
23 May 2013 
Rating: 4 cows
The Palm is a fairly large national (plus London) chain restaurant specializing in steak. Sitting at the higher end, The Palm competes with the likes of Morton's in the upscale steakhouse category. Los Angeles has two franchises, one in West Hollywood and the other in Downtown. For Steakout XXVIII we dined at the Downtown location.
This was the first time any of us had been to a Palm Restaurant before. The ambiance is reminiscent of early 20th Century restaurants; the kind where you'd probably wear a suit and a bowler. But of course times have changed, and it was no surprise that the bar was packed with patrons wearing LA Kings jerseys in anticipation of the Western Conference Semifinal game being played just a few hundred yards away at the nearby Staples Center.
The dining area at The Palm is large, and with 20-ft ceilings the room feels even larger. Caricatures of celebrities adorn the walls up and down and the place is bright and airy with tile floors and white tablecloths.
Service by the waiters was adequate and perfectly respectable, but it was not a highlight of the evening. But that's ok, because that's not why we were there. We ordered a mix of filet, NY, and rib eye. Both of the filets were cooked to perfection, though they were a bit drier than we'd like. The New York was certainly above average, but not as flavorful as we would have liked, and it was fattier than it needed to be. The bone-in rib eye was especially delicious, exceeding our expectations in both cut, cooking, and flavor. It was also a healthy size at 24 oz and provided some leftovers for another day.
While the steaks were certainly above average, the side dishes were certainly more modest. We ordered the spinach and the au gratin potatoes along with the "half-and-half' which was a french fry/onion rings combo. All were adequate, with the potatoes being our overall favorite while the half-and-half was too greasy for our tastes. The caesar salad was good, but far from the best we've had.
We ordered a bottle of wine to share for those who weren't drinking cocktails. The wine list at The Palm is both extensive and expensive. They have comparatively few wines under $100, and most are well above that. This is not uncommon by any means, but that doesn't make it any less noticeable.
Overall we enjoyed our steaks at The Palm, though the value wasn't quite where we hoped it would be to give it our heartiest recommendations. That said, if you dine here you are not likely to get a bad meal, and a steak almost certainly should be your entree.
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