Eating at Sparks Steak House. Best Steak in NYC at a Former Mob Spot? 

I just have to mention one thing. The steak in the video from certain angles does look pinker than it actually was, but that was due to the indirect lighting and how my camera reacted to it. Filming in environments like that can be difficult. The times where I’m eating the steak showcased the color of the meat more accurately, albeit, it’s more difficult to see.

No music? I'm all in! Not every experience needs a soundtrack. Another superlative James Andrews production and review. Unmatched!

I'm glad you explained about the lighting as your steak looked perfectly Medium Rare to me. I am more of a Pittsburgh Black and Blue fellow. Really James; it is always a pleasure to dine with you.

We're posting a video on Sparks this week as well! We had basically all the same criticisms, the menu lacks the typical steakhouse variety, it was pretty quiet and empty and we were there on a Friday evening, our two steaks were cooked very differently despite ordering the same temperature and our dessert was pretty disappointing. Really great review!

I thought the steak looked medium rare and phenomenal, the mushrooms looked incredible, and the pecan pie (without a filling) looked terrific. Nothing to kvetch about, in my opinion.

You look like a younger version of Jude Law. I’m a new subscriber, I find your stylish reviews articulately fresh and simply honest. Looking forward to more content.

I was so pleased that you finally reviewed Sparks since I was eager to have you share your observations & thoughts with your viewers. This venue was always among my most favored spots when I was a salesman based in NYC & had a "generous" expense account & frequent clients to dine & entertain. Oh my, how things change as "time moves on"! While I no longer dine & entertain, I still always considered Sparks to be in the "top tier" category of NYC steakhouses. But, as always, I trust in your culinary judgement. My visual on your offered cut of meat inclines my to say that it appeared "medium rare" to me. However, I have read the numerous comments listed below & accept your remarks about "the room's lighting". I have no doubts that your review is accurate, and I can only express disappointment that "things never always remain as we wish it to be"!!! Memories are what we "hold on to", but new dialogue from trusted "friends" is our human suave as we "move on" in life. A final personal comment about Sparks; I grew up on 2 Ave & 47th Street in 1950's & 1960's. The physical location of Sparks on 46th Street was an A&P grocery store where my mother & grandmother shopped. This was always part of the "verbal banter" shared with my guests & clients while dining at Sparks. It's apart of my "story of life" I willingly share with others. So glad that you love food & appreciate NYC. Your offerings are always "must watch" viewing for me! This is Peter; out!

Hi James, Thank you for your review of Spark’s Steakhouse. I was left with a feeling that I would be best served to save my money for Keen’s and Luger. I thoroughly enjoyed your filming in the restaurant and I always like your narrative. I have watched your channel for some time now and I trust your opinion on restaurants and food. Thank you for the enjoyment that you create. Best Wishes, Peter

Colorful history and steaks are to die for! Great review. Thanks James!

Good honest review James that both help customers on knowing what to expect, but also the restaurant on understanding what to improve - Keep it up 👏

Finally, but ugh..I'm bummed it wasn't perfect across the board - l can definitely say if you go back in the evening, the music, temperature, sides and dessert will likely not disappoint and change your opinion 360. I think it was a quiet Monday and they slipped a bit, which can happen at any restaurant.. Regardless, glad you enjoyed the positive notes, great job as always!

Another informative review! Thank you!

Id go broke in NYC. I live in Boston, and there are only so many elite restaurants that you try before you run out (which I almost have) NYC is infinate. Another great upload

I love watching your reviews. Every time that i have warmed up pecan pie,it does tend to flatten out some...lol..now i want some pie! Great review as always!

As always, it's a wonderful review! Thank you, James!

Brocoli 15.95. Gee whizz. Great quality video picture by the way. Had exactly the same steak cooking problem on my birthday. Always good to see you.

I agree with you on the no music. Especially when the place is empty. That pie looked disappointing.

I'll stick to LongHorn and Texas Roadhouse! Safe Journey! Yellowbird Blue Agave Sriracha!!!

Steak and mushrooms go together like two peas in a pod. A perfect marriage. ❤

Thanks for the review, as always! I'll definitely have to pop in here one day!

Nice review again. What's your favorite hot chicken? Your'e still my favorite internet food reviewer. You might have better luck ordering a ribeye. In general, when I eat steak, it's 99% of the time ribeye. It's the best. Filet has no fat. I'll eat a skirt steak now and then but that's the one exception. Look forward to your review of Cote still. And to seeing you with a date! I used to work as a waiter with the top Chef Gerard Schmidt who won the Olympics of cooking. Now I'm a Naturopathic doctor and private Chef.

$161 for a meal for one? Good heavens, New York restaurant prices are bonkers. Also, I couldn't help notice the menu typo at 3:24. "Gourmet's Delightsw"? What's that?

James, long time fan of your videos, am coming to NYC in October, can you recommend a steakhouse from the ones you've tried? Lugar? Keens? Benjamin? Would appreciate any tips!

Great review! My kind of place. I personally don't like music while enjoying a good steak and wine.

Sparks does not have dry aged cuts. I would try the dry aged ribeye at Benjamin steakhouse for a nice umami of buttered popcorn.

My mouth was watering the entire video.

The steak looked perfect. Could have been the lighting and camera though.

I have eaten there many times over the years. It’s near my old apartment and near my old office. Always enjoyed it. The staff are great and the food is pretty good and not insanely priced. Probably on par with both smith and wollensky and Wolfgang’s which are both in the same area. Place is packed in the evenings. That looked pretty medium rare to me 🤷‍♂️

Agree on that janky ass looking pecan pie. I think the pastry chef on duty that day had the mistaken belief that intact, huge chunkles of pecans would convey to the customer a sense of quality and demonstrate visually that whole and "fresh" nuts were being used. That's all fine, but a customer at a Manhattan steakhouse paying over $100 a person for a meal already knows and expects that the best quality ingredients will be used in a dessert. The nuts are supposed to be chopped to a small and consistent size so the pie bakes evenly and cuts cleanly into edible bites with a fork. That's pretty much standard practice and common sense pie etiquette. Imagine an apple pie with a pie crust and like 8 whole baked apples just sitting in there covered in caramel pie filling. Come on people do better.

I ate there. The steak was fabulous, better than Lugars, great atmosphere, service, wines, etc. I knew big Paulie, nice man, a real gentleman. My sister and I worked for him. ❤❤❤❤❤

For such an imposing menu, you'd think it would be filled with a few more steak options! Maybe the lack of music was to help prevent outside distractions so you could read that whole thing in peace.

I really like this dude’s voice. Ever think about radio or voice acting?

it looks like it needs an refurb! Those carpets😂.

Sparks does look like a fancy restaurant from back in the day, especially with all the dark wood deep red and black tones. Definitely wouldn't have picked a Monday, but that's me,lol. Seems like every chef has a different take on medium rare, looking at your steak from my iPad it looked more medium rare (rosy pinkish red), than medium, which is barely pink. I agree though they should definitely offer more cuts like rib eye (my favorite). Glad you ordered the mushrooms, they go so well with steak, and I thought a pino noire was a nice choice especially one from my neck of the woods,lol, if you haven't, sometime you should try Cabernet from Jordan Vineyard, they only make that and Chardonnay. Good review Andrew, thanks for the review.👍

Next time send the pie back and get a new one!

I have no idea why I am watching this. I am eating wheat porridge for dinner.

Hey! I always avoided this place ! Thought it was a tourist trap ! I’ll give them a try I’ll try their veal chop

Legendary, I had the privilege of eating there about 20 yrs ago! Still remember it …..

A steak house with limited options is what I have always heard about Sparks for the last 10 years. Some people habe said that years and years ago, they had more selections but they took them off the menu because they weren't ordered enough a d they couldn't store the meat waiting for someone to order that particular cut. Then when beef prices went insane thanks to Biden's incompetence, they really cut back and started getting only those cuts they could get as bulk package cuts. They get a discount because they order 500-1000 pounds of beef per week and then the other cuts are pre-made with other things and heated up. Little sneaky trick some steakhouses have started using to cut costs down. They get a prepared entreel at $15 and then charge the customer north of 70-80 for it,

James love the reviews. Do you do this "full time" or have another "day" job? Thanks!

I’m sure you’ve gotten this before, but can I get an ID on those sunglasses?

Your experience makes their menu make more sense. Large number of steaks with several tasty preparations sounds like beef flavor isn’t their highest priority

had my bachelor party here. Terrific

They probably need to drop the steakhouse in the name.

The steak does not look like medium at all It loooks medium rare

Great Review!

Nice video, but the steak is not to die for.

At that price I will stick to Outback. Great review

I drink a shot for every "establishment" you utter, James. Somewhat of a letdown with this one. Keep em going. It's my Monday fun.

Gives me Patrick Batman vibes.

It's lovely to see you eat well, I do worry about you, it's a great relief when I know you've had enough to eat. Thank you!!!

This guys videos are like watching American psycho do food reviews 😂

Perfectly dressed for such an exclusive restaurant . He forgot his baseball cap !

About the pie, as my mom used to say, “it all goes down to the same place anyway”. 👍

Why they don't print out image in the menu?

Bro wears a polo to sparks😂

I am going to give you some tips on how to ruin a good steak: Douse it in steak sauce, preferably Country Bob's Steak Sauce. All aside I want to visit Sparks Steak House sometime and get a medium rare Filet Mingon with just salt and pepper for seasoning. No sauce. I do not eat steak with sauce on it.

Great vlog, thank you for sharing

Petter Lugers or the old homestead for steaks

Good to know thanks for the review

James had a steak at Sparks. The FBI had a stake-out at Sparks. rimshot!

Great video!

Find a good butcher. Buy a good steak. Buy a good bottle of red wine. Go home and eat, and pour yourself a large manhattan beforehand. Steakhouses cost too much - I spent $600 for 4 in Hawksmoor in London. It was good, but $600.

You can get the same steak at the Texas Roadhouse for $30 bucks with 2 sides. It's called the n.y strip It's 16oz and is huge . Maybe the n.y steaks are better, but 4 times better ,no way!

I'm not sure if your critique about the doneness of the steak would hold up in court. It looked very close to medium rare to me. Sparks seems to get it's share of mixed reviews, but they must be doing a lot of things right to be around this long.

Of course the steak is tender. IT'S RED‼️

Mentioned the lack of music to enhance the ambiance, then dines in a polo shirt?😅

Have asked several teams to LOSE the sunglasses please

Were you the only person in the restaurant? It sounds so quiet 😮

sparks really fell off - they used to have ribeyes on the specials all the time... bone ins too... last couple times I went (Only because it was last minute and couldn't get a reservation last minute anywhere else I wanted to go) .... Don't get me wrong - their sirloin is very good (that's their signature) - but it's not best I've had... if I judge it on it's own... it gets a like a 3.9 out of 5... having the largest wine cellar in the city def boosts it... the selection compared to the competition just isn't what it could be. They really should consider adding a bone in ribeye or or something like that to the menu... also add on to the appetizer... maybe beef carpaccio... the blue cheese wedge salad (steakhouse classic - not sure why they don't have it).... if they revamped the menu they would do so much better To add on - they do make good drinks, they have a nice selection of liquor, solid sides menu, and good dessert menu. They also do a lot of seafood... but I can't have seafood so it does nothing for me personally. It's the steaks menu and appetizer menu that needs work.

Do you happen to know what Paul Castellano used to order from this place? I bet he had exquisite tastes in food.

I dont agree. While it's been several years since I was a regular at Sparks, it was the best sirloin in NYY in the 80's and 90's.

That place is the baddest-ass steakhouse in the country.

I would have sent it back. It looks dry as well. Not a drop of juice. The plate is from my old Welsh grandma's collection. The mushrooms would embarrass Bilbo Baggins. This is dining from the dark ages - no pep, no presentation- uuufff. Are you sure it was cow? Ah well, good for you and thanks for ruling out one place I need to visit in my life lol.

U should have returned the pie

That looks edge to edge medium rare to me. Anything less and I feel it would be under and slightly translucent.

debbie downer

If you are eating alone, restaurants will pick on you. Especially, if they see you as a very nice person who won't complain. They gave you a steak that someone else complained about and a slice of pie that a different customer rejected. They had you picked as the guy who wouldn't complain.

Mastros is the top in NYC

Bon appétit my carniverous friend!

collab with ben taylor

Most New York steak houses are overrated! The only places worth a visit are Delmonico's and Smith & Wollensky!

I love Sparks. But, I always order medium and not medium-rare because I think it comes out one notch underdone with respect to the target -- the opposite of what is said here. Now that I see this review where a clearly medium-rare steak is being called medium, I think I understand why. The chefs are clearly gun shy about overdoing it. After all, you can always cook it more, but you can't un-cook it so it makes sense to trend low. It seems like this is happening all over too. Also, I feel like the lighting comment here is BS, the steak clearly has a wide red band as required for medium-rare. The criteria for medium is that the red is at most a sliver in the very center surrounded by pink. Based on that, this steak is nowhere near medium. On the other hand, folks do have different standards about how they categorize these things and that can lead to arguments. Perhaps that is the case here. It feels like there is an old school vs. modern school thing going on. So one thing I always do is ask my server what are the chef criteria on this matter. I used to work in a restaurant where I cooked steaks and the boss made it clear to us cooks and also the servers interacting with the customers what these criteria were so that there were no disconnects. In most steak restaurants these days the servers are very well-trained and can answer these things for the customer. In some places you also see the servers getting ahead of it when placing the order.

you need to go to hawksmoor

Lives on its Rep. Everything looked drab and grossly overpriced for the experience. Meh!

For $160 you should have grabbed the cutest girl you can find, a couple of Porterhouse primes and wine for all and cooked it yourself.

I eat out for the food. Not because of the sometimes irritating music. Not enough customers to keep you company? Wah...wah......

I do enjoy your channel but That was medium rare , order rare if you dont think that’s medium rare, if you really want to blast the cook for the wrong temp…. Immediately take a thermometer and show us the steak temp as soon as you get the plate, ive been cooking 20 years and medium rare shouldn’t be a option its either rare or medium, medium rare is for douche bags, classic french cooking had four temps, blue rare, rare, medium and well done somewhere along the line of douche baggery and entitlement medium rare and med well was created, when i get and order for med rare you get it rare when you order it med well you get it well, i never get complaints ever

Are you an Alien?❤

At 6:39. That looks close to medium-rare.

Nice Persols!!!!!!!

That steak doesn’t look like a medium to me. I’m a medium girl.

😋😋😋❤️

O idea why I’m watching this. I’m making a tomahawk for dinner on my BGE! A bit confused with the review. Disproportionate amount of butter, no enough steak options, used only salt for seasoning… yet you kept saying you liked and had no problem with it …which is it????? (The steak loopked medium rare. Perhaps you should order rare or black and blue!!! Dessert , you complained but “the dish tasted great!” Oh boy.

$ 70 for a 13 oz,. steak...

mushrooms suppose to tase like mushrooms ....

Carnivore? We don't eat bread or vegetables

When I do eat Steak, I Drink Expensive Merlot...

Nope.

Looks MR in the middle?