Winter Prix Fixe Menu at Flemings Steakhouse – Media Dinner

I was invited again to Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar for one of their Media Mingle dinners. With the new year and a new season, Fleming’s has introduced a new prix fixe menu for the winter season. These items will also be available on the San Diego Restaurant Week menu (plus some additional offerings). Jake and I were excited to be visiting Fleming’s again and were looking forward to another fabulous meal! We again choose to visit the La Jolla/UTC location instead of the Gaslamp location. I like easy parking, what can I say.

I didn’t take photos of the appetizers we had – we again had the Tenderloin Carpaccio which was still quite good. A new appetizer we tried was the Sweet Chili Calamari – I should have taken a photo of it – I loved it! It was lightly battered with a lovely sweet yet slightly spicy chili sauce. Perfectly cooked with a slightly crunch, I ate a bunch of it. I knew there was more in store for us so I tried to just have a little bit of everything and decided it was not in my best interest to finish off the plate (though there was more deliciousness left).

From the Winter Prix Fixe menu, I ordered the Hearty Mushroom Soup. I have a really great love of mushrooms, but I found out last year that I do not at all care for tarragon – and this herb was present in the soup. I was thinking that maybe the tarragon wouldn’t really be present in the flavor of the soup and while it wasn’t super strong, the soup had a really off taste to me because of it. I thought my love of mushrooms would overpower things but oh well. I only ate a little bit of this soup. Damn you, tarragon.

Jake got the Roasted Pear and Candied Walnut Salad. I liked his salad more than my soup. The pears had a really nice, sweet flavor to them which contrasted nicely with the tanginess of the  blue cheese vinaigrette. Jake didn’t know that he was supposed to eat the fruit with the salad and once he did he liked it infinitely more than before.

For this dinner, everything was served “family style”. They brought out multiples of the main entrees that were featuring so everyone could cut off what they wanted and put it onto their own plates. This above is the Crackling Pork Shank. It’s got a sweet asian-inspired glaze on it and the meat was very tender and sweet. I don’t think I got any crackling (sad) but the pork was melt-in-your-mouth good. The sweet potato mash underneath the pork was also really excellent. Very smooth and sweet.

This is the other featured entree on the prix fixe menu – the Bistro Steak. The bistro steak was very good – cooked just right in a nice cabernet butter sauce.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the ratatouille, but it was decent.

My favorite entree of the night though was the New York Strip Steak (sorry, not on the prix fixe menu). Very simply prepared, it’s a really fine cut of meat. Tender, sweet, perfectly grilled and seasoned. So, so good.

There was also an Ahi Tuna dish that was served, but I don’t eat tuna. I didn’t even photograph it. I’ve had bad experiences with tuna…

We had a few side dishes as well, including the famous Fleming’s Potatoes, French Green Beans and Asparagus. Jake requested an order of the Creamed Sweet Corn which he really enjoyed from the last dinner.

The served us three different desserts for our last course. They brought out multiple dishes of this stuff all along the table – I should have gotten some leftovers! First up, the Creme Brulee. Rich and sweet with that lovely crunchy caramel on top – I really enjoyed this. Jake doesn’t like creme brulee. He’s crazy.

This is the featured dessert on the prix fixe menu: the Chocolate Mousse Cake. It’s got Almond Brittle and Crème Anglaise sauce on top. Very rich, smooth, and super duper chocolaty.  I found that the cake on it own was too rich and overpowering, but with the sauce covered a bite, it was perfect. The sauce helped to cut down on the intense chocolate flavor and I ended up really liking this dessert.

We also got Chocolate Lava Cakes as our third dessert, but I didn’t photo them. But you can see it on my last post!

All in all, Jake and I both thought that this was a much stronger prix fixe menu that their Fall menu – which didn’t have any steak on the prix fixe menu. This season’s Winter menu is available now through March 29, 2011 at $39.95 per guest and are featured at both San Diego locations in the Gaslamp Quarter and La Jolla (as well as all national locations). These items will also be available for San Diego Restaurant Week which will be happening January 16-21, 2011.