AJ Maxwell’s Steakhouse

(This review is based on our time there in 2012)
Came here a few years ago during the restaurant week. We made reservations for 7 pm and arrived a little before hand. The place was absolutely packed with patrons. There was a long line of people waiting to be seated. But luckily we made reservations, so we were able to get seated quickly. We were given the menu and were delightfully pleased with what was being offered. We received some bread which I think was pumpernickel and it was tasty. We dined on that for a abit while we waited for our waiter. Sadly, we noticed that we didnt receive any more bread but the other tables were constantly given bread. I asked why and the waiter stated he would have some more sent over. It never arrived sadly.
We both ordered the wedge with ranch dressing and it was awesome. The steak… not really. The portion was entirely too small for the price. The potatoes were tasty, but the lacking of flavor in the steak took over my enjoyment of the potatoes. We ordered 4 glasses of sauvignon blanc and to our surprise it was from New Zealand (which makes the best sauvignon hands down). Our desert was an extremely tiny tart that could be finished in a nibble.
Even though it was a prefixed menu, the options were pleasantly bigger than most places, Too bad the portions didn’t reflect the size of the menu.
I have been to other steakhouses where the prices and the portions were better as well as the flavor. But I guess the point of the place is to rub elbows with mainstream manhattanites.
Too bad it got closed down. I would have loved to try them again and see if I would have a different experience.

I’m a devoted steak lover, so I have a serious standard for it. Good service, but there are plenty of better steak houses for the price.

Came here with my bestie and the atmosphere was exactly how I like it for a simple dinner, very hush hush and not too busy.
The service was actually really amazing, although I would of liked to just have one waiter but the staff seemed to keep our table stocked with bread and drinks almost immediately.
I started with the tuna tartar which was nothing amazing, except maybe it was visually pleasing.
For my main course of course I tried the ribeye which to my surprise was very ordinary. The creamed spinach was delish but I mean is it possible to mess that up?
After my dinner I wasn’t really up for dessert. The whole meal just left me really unsatisfied.

Serviceable steakhouse — but there’s plenty of better options in NYC.
Frankly I wouldn’t have even come here if not for a
certificate that I had in hand. With that, I decided to give the place a shot. It was pretty empty on a Thursday night, but that didn’t deter me. I decided to give the French Onion soup, Canadian bacon and Sirlon a try.
The soup was decent, not bad for a start. The Canadian bacon was also decent. I was actually surprised at how good it was. My real beef (no pun intended) was the steak, which was just average. It wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, it just wasn’t particularly good or memorable. The flavor was okay and the cut was decent, but I found myself using more steak sauce than I normally do, which is pretty taboo for me when it comes to enjoying good steak. (Compare that to Luger’s or Wolfgang, where I rarely use any sauce).
The service was fine, our waiter was nice and had no issue with us using the restaurant coupon.
Would I go back here again? Maybe if I had another certificate. Otherwise, I would probably not pay full price for the food here when there are other solid steakhouses in the city.

I really dont know what happened to take this restaurant down so badly. I came about a Year ago and had an incredibly good meal. A year later, BIG disappointment.
This restaurant moved a few weeks ago and is now called 42 west. However I didn’t know this until we were walking up and down 42^nd street trying to find it. When i told the manager that the address on their website was still the old one for AJ Maxwells, he shrugged it off and said they are taking their time with marketing.
The décor is now trying to be cool modern but is really just crappy. I miss the retro cosy ambience.
We were told that Their menu was temporary — their chefs too! They had no drinks menu and no dessert menus printed.
The steak was actually pretty good, but not as good as AJM’s.
This was very close to getting one star. Sadly wont be going back.

I had a groupon for this place and decided to cash it in yesterday. The place was surprisingly empty for a Friday night. There were only a handful of people in a big restaurant.
I ordered the boneless rib eye and the BF ordered the filet mignon and we both came to the conclusion that the food was good. It wasn’t amazing, it wasn’t terrible, it was just OK leaning of the side of pretty good. Luckily I had a groupon so it made the experience even better.
The service was very nice, they didn’t hover and they didn’t completely disappear.
Would I recommend this place? Meh, if they have a good prix fixe menu then yes. I wouldn’t say that this is a must go destination.

Honey Bunny and I were in the city to drop off Missy at college and to celebrate our 24^th anniversary. We made the short walk from the Hilton in record time and arrived 30 minutes early for our reservation. No problem. The joint was empty and we had a wonderful time experiencing attentive, cheerful service (even as the crowd started to file in) and potent vodka Martinis, (neat, 3 olives).
We went with the Restaurant Week prix fixe menu and had two Petite Filets, medium well and medium rare, both grilled perfectly. Steamed spinach and onion rings for sides. A nice 20 year Tawny port and 2 big slices of cheesecake and strong coffee ended the meal.
I went in expecting the traditional steakhouse experience, a la Delmonico’s, dark and a little stuffy. I was pleasantly surprised. The restaurant is open and inviting with a bar area seperated from the dining room by a ½ glass wall. The dining room is noisey when full but not so loud you can’t have a conversation. Would love to come back here when money is no object to experience the full menu.

We went to AJ Maxwell’s for dinner on a Saturday night during Restaurant Week (the place was a bit empty at 6:30). We received regular menu but we asked the prefix menu, the waiter brought it to us immediately.
Immediately was served a basket of bread that had a variety of about 5 different breads. We ordered a bottle of wine with our dinner (2005 Cerro Anon Rioja Reserva — good wine for the price). After reading both menus we decided to order from the regular menu.
For appetizer we had Tri-​Color Salad and Tuna Tartar. Good first course.
For the main course we ordered Porterhouse Steak. The porterhouse for two was perfection on a sizzling plate… cooked medium-​rare but still with an amazing char on the outside (there just wasn’t enough of $ 98 — a little expensive).
As a side dishes we had Steamed Broccoli, Steamed Asparagus and Sautéed Mushrooms, good but nothing unusual (21 $ for 3). The sides were served family style to share. We finished our dinner with espresso coffee. Overall we had a good dinner. Definitely is not a cheap place.

The porterhouse for two was perfection on a sizzling plate… cooked medium-​rare but still with an amazing char on the outside. problem was. there just wasn’t enough of $ 98. I started with oysters, which were great, and had a side of brussel sprouts with bacon/parmesian…not much of either of those on the sprouts. Service was good… typical professional steakhouse service. Very expensive with a poor $$$/​value ratio, which is a shame because I loved that steak.

Came to aj maxwells last night for me and my husbands anniversary. The experience was a disappointment.
I made the reservations for this place weeks ago on open table after reading reviews. I made sure to tell them that it was our anniversary at the time of
Reservation and reminded them again last night before we dined. The staff did not even make the slightest mention or
Acknowledgment of it. Not a big deal but it bothered me.
I found a groupon for this place at the last
Minute and was siked that I found such a great deal. However, I immediately noticed a difference in attitude by the staff when they were told I would be using a groupon. The service was downhill after that. Our waiter would disappear for the longest without checking on us even though the place was empty (on a Saturday night). I ordered the French onion soup as my appetizer and somebody other than our server brought it out. That’s fine and all, but he forgot the spoon. It literally took 5 minutes for me to find someone to bring
Me a spoon to eat my soup with. Now let’s talk about the soup. It looked like it had been sitting under a heat lamp all night or
They took and old piece of cheese and stuck it on there. To be gentle with words, it was not appetizing. I didn’t worry too much since it was just the appetizer.
I ordered the filet mignon as my appetizer after seeing the steak of the lady that was sitting next to me. She said it was the filet mignon and it looked absolutely wonderful. I was so excited to get my steak. However, my stomach sank when I saw my steak. It was obviously a lot smaller and looked to be a different grade of meat than my neighbors steak. Wtf? Do they really give you the garbage food if you have a groupon? I don’t understand that. Don’t these restaurants get it that if the service and food sucks when people come for promotion then we probably won’t be coming back and paying full price.
After the sucky appetizer and lack luster entrée I was praying that dessert redeemed the meal. I ordered the crème brûlée and was excited to dig in. What I received however was far from the crème brûlée I imagined I would get. This was probably the worst crème brûlée I have ever had. It was like soup. Very watery and warm. The top was burnt instead of Carmelized and I had one meager, half rotted strawberry on top. It was not edible. My husband ordered the cheesecake. It was lukewarm and the texture was mushy, like it had been sitting out in the 90 degree weather we had.
Overall, my husband and I were disappointed in our aj maxwell experience. Thankfully we went to a pretty good lounge afterwards and had some drinks and dances do our anniversary wasnt completely ruined. I’m glad I had a groupon because I would have been pissed if I paid full menu prices last night. We won’t be visiting Again. Should have went to Ruth’s Chris.

My friend and I came here for dinner with a
certificate.
The place was a bit empty when we got here at 6:30 on a Tuesday night. Menu choices is similar to other steakhouses in Midtown, we shared crabcake as appetizer, I ordered Bone-​in rib eye as entrée and my friend got Short ribs. The steak was HUGE but I wasn’t crazy about it, it was ok. My friend said her short ribs was delicious and honestly, it looked yummy too. We were glad that we chatted without having to scream over other people’s voices. Service was very attentive. When we presented our waiter with the voucher he gladly accepted it. We were shocked to see that the bill still came out to be ~$ 130 despite our $ 50 voucher and no alcohol with our meal.
Don’t think I’ll come back again even with another certificate as there are definitely better choices in the area. Glad that I gave this place a try though.

Came here with an InBundles coupon for a steak sandwich and fries for $ 6. When I entered the hostess was on the phone but acknowledged that I was there, then apologized. The Waiter took my order and coupon without an attitude and was very courteous. I waited maybe 10 minutes to get my order and the waiter was nice enough to let me know that next time I should just call it in so I didn’t have to wait.
The sandwich turned out to be smaller than expected the the steak was EXCELLENT! I would totally come back here for the rest of their food if it wasn’t so darn expensive.

Die Steaks sind so wie man sie erwartet! Sonderwünsche, kein Problem! Bis jetzt nicht enttäuscht worden und schon öfter hier gewesen! 5 Sterne. Unbedingt auch die tahitianische Crème Brulée probieren!!!
Perfect Steaks, you get what you expect!
I was here several times and was never disappointed. Very good! You have to try the Tahitianian Crème Brulée!

3.5−4 stars
As we were walking around the city, we decided to go here on a whim. Considering it was around dinner time, and we had no reservations, we were seated quickly. The waiter was okay. His wine recommendation wasn’t quite on par, and I kind of felt pressured to order some sides with our steaks (we weren’t hungry hungry).
The décor is nice though and the steaks (filet mignon & prime rib) were good and were priced reasonably (typical NY steakhouse prices).
Overall not a bad experience and was worth trying.

It’s funny… being a New Yorker I immediately groaned when my out of town relatives wanted to go here for a «great steak» while they were in town. I think of this place as a tourist steak spot — not one that we «locals» go to like — Strip House, Luger’s, BLT Steak, etc… With that said, I settled in and assume this would just be one of those mediocre steak nights. Au au contraire!
I found the service at AJ’s very efficient and personable, prices were usual NYC steakhouse, but what stood out was how good the food was! Everyone at the table had an appetizer and they were all prepared perfectly, even with the few changes/​exceptions we had asked for. Wine service was perfect — new glasses with a new bottle, knowledgeable service. The mains were great — steaks cooked as asked, fish was light and moist. I actually deferred from my usual steak and got their recommended short ribs dish and it was really delectable.
So, the lesson learned here is even a jaded New Yorker can be swayed by a «tourist heavy» restaurant scene here in town. I would happily recommend this place.

Lunch time special and I chose a salad. Someone ask me why…
Because I was trying to be healthy and this salad actually sounded good. I am NOT a salad girl, but every time I try to bed good and not be closed minded I give a new salad a chance just to see if this one could be the one to make me fall in love with salads and till now I am still searching.
This time I had the Goat Cheese Salad because I love Goat cheese and was looking forward to the pieces of steak. I was not happy :-(I really did try to like it but between the wedges of goat cheese, the random cranberries and the big spinach leaves I was left hungry and disappointed yet again.
If I go to Maxwell again, I will go have a STEAK and never look back!

This place sucks and swallows.
Okay, harsh statement but there it is. I had the prime rib, and my coworker had the petite filet. Filet, okay, Prime rib = disgusting. The waiter literally NEVER came back around to see how the meat was. So over-​done meat was delivered and i couldn’t get anyone’s attention to fix it. The atmosphere was like an Old person’s buffet, the waiters had as much skill a dead man walking, frankly it was horrible. If I had been with someone other than a work companion, I would have made a fuss. .. or left mid-​service. This place is horrible. Meat, 3 out of 10. Mac and Cheese, 7 out of 10. Mushrooms, 4 out of 10 — try warming them up next time team… Really!!! Steamed broccoli, forget it. They’ve never seen a veggie. Not worth your time.
Most offensive was the meat. It’s like we were served the worst possible cuts of meat and it took significantly longer to get the luke-​warm meat to our table than it did the table next to us. They sat after we did. The ordered after we did. They were served 20 minutes before we were. My Prime Rib was not even warm when it arrived and it was WAY overcooked — to the point that it was not edible. Normally I would tell our waiter about this, but, HE NEVER CAME BACK. It’s like he knew he sucked and the whole staff sucked. Depressing. Don’t expect these guys to know anything on the wine list. Don’t expect these guys to know about the sides. Don’t expect these guys to know about their meat. What do they know about. .. No idea — no evidence of intelligent life.
Frankly, f-​ing horrible. I wouldn’t take my dying grandfather here. Go ANYWHERE else. McDonalds is better. Disgusting.
Hell, Taco Bell is better. Seriously, this place blows.

Went there for restaurant week with my sis and bro in law and maybe because it was close to president’s day holiday but it was Friday night and the restaurant was E M P T Y … almost no one there. Kinda scary to go to a steakhouse in NYC and be so empty but the good thing was that it have really good service. Definitely worth 35 but for full price I would not recommend. it was good but not great to pay more than 35.
If is to spend more than 35 for steak I recommend the Brazilian steakhouse Plataforma… for sure!
The desert we chose different ones and the best was the cheesecake!

So I’m basically your average carnivore. I’m always looking for the next great piece of steak. I especially like when I don’t have to pay regular price… LOL! Hence why I love restaurant week.
$ 35. 1^st– Mixed Green Blood Orange salad. They ran out of Arugula. how does that happen at a place were a meal is regularly over $ 50? I guess they didn’t care b/​c it was the restaurant week patrons. The cheap people… LOL!
2^nd– Skirt Steak w/​mash potatoes. The steak was very flavorful, however it was missing something that I couldn’t put my finger on. Mash was like regular mash so nothing spectacular there.
3^rd– Cheesecake. A good end to the meal. The sauce on top I scraped off b/​c it was bitter.
The service was lacking… I remember our waiter coming to us 2x… to give us the menu & taking our order. After that he was scarce, which I didn’t care for. if the meal was wrong we wouldn’t have been able to tell him b/​c he never came to check on us… MESS!
It was good for a the $ 35 I spent. I wouldn’t go here on a regular night, mainly b/​c of the service. I refuse to spend more then $ 50 on a meal and get bad service.

Came here for dinner with a $ 50
certificate.
Ordered the filet mignon. It was decent. Pretty good portion for a fancy steakhouse. Nothing too memorable though.
If you are hungry, and I mean starving hungry like if you were stranded on a deserted island for the last week. I would suggest you order the Rib-​Eye. It is a MONSTER. It is at least a foot long and an inch thick. Granted, good portions of it is fat, and bone, but you will definitely have leftovers.
The family style sides are also decent. We got the au gratin, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. The mashed potatoes were one of the best I’ve ever had. They really whipped it up to be very light. While the au gratin and asparagus, you really can’t go wrong with them.
The service is just OKay. Waitress doesn’t check up on you very often. I would expect better service in a restaurant like this. They do put your sides on your plate for you, which I found weird. What if I didn’t want that particular side?
I’d probably only come back for the rib-​eye and mashed potatoes. And only with
certificate or discount of some sort.

Restaurant week review!
Came here for lunch, the service is especially friendly and the waiters constantly check up on you. The atmosphere was peaceful and amiable, so far 1 star. I had the soup of the day which was the cream of cauliflower purée and sliced filet mignon and homemade bread pudding. The soup wasn’t bad, creamy and smooth, it was also pretty big and after a while you do get a bit tired of it cause it’s not that spectacular. The filet mignon was where it was at, I had it cooked medium rare. The sides were smoked and while the center meat was tender. Portion of the steak was pretty big, so far 3 stars. Lastly, the homemade bread pudding? It was a terrible mistake, I should’ve stuck with cheesecake or sorbet since you could never go wrong with either. The bread pudding was too buttered for my taste. But I still give this place 4 stars because of the pricing and portions and quality of the food.