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21 Central Steakhouse - CLOSED
Category: Restaurants Steakhouses Steakhouses [Edit]
89 Kirkland Ave(between Lakeshore Plaza Dr & S Lake St)
Kirkland, WA 98033
(425) 822-1515
- Price Range:
-
$$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Dressy
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good For:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
17 reviews for 21 Central Steakhouse
17 reviews in English
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Review from Sandy L.
Updated - 6/10/2010
went back there last saturday.
Food is good. I like my pork chop taste relly good. Service is much better than last visit as it was less busy. Music is still romantic. We did have enjoyable night there.1 Previous Review: Show all »
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4/24/2010
Went to try that restaurant cos the Groupon deal.
One word: Food is unexpectedly good. Huge portion,… Read more »
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Review from Danielle C.
Seattle, WA
11/1/2008
Oh my goodness, upscale and so friendly. Fortunately I was with some folks who knew the staff and we were there on a quiet weeknight - so this might not be the standard dining experience (but I really hope so). The drinks and bar are fun, and sinking into the leopard print booths is lux and does not take away from this dark wood paneled charmer.
Great steaks and fish cooked to perfection, not to mention the delicious baked potatoes. Definitely a metropolitan experience in an otherwise quaint downtown Kirkland. If only the Metropolitan Grill could get it right like this! Excellent wine recommendations as well, an all around 5 star experience.
We've even walked in at 10pm on a busy Friday night and gotten a full delicious dinner. Kudos! One oddity: one night the waiter made little cartoon-like sound effects every time he refilled a glass of water, cute and strange at the same time. -
Review from Maple C.
6/18/2010
I would give this place a 3.5.
My filet mignon was really good and was very tender; however, the sauce that they used was really salty... luckily my steak wasn't drenched in it. If I remember correctly my boyfriend had the new york steak. and he said that because of this place, this particular cut of steak is now his favorite.
The decor is.... interesting.... They have cheetah or leopard print seats, which I thought was really weird.
Parking can be especially tough because it's street parking in downtown Kirkland by the waterfront. I think they may only offer valet parking during certain times, but when we went on a Friday at 7:30 pm, it wasn't available.
Lastly, I wouldn't say this place requires that you dress up. I know it says dressy for the attire here, but I went in a black dress with heels, and I almost felt overdressed. Maybe one or two guys was wearing a button up, but everyone else was just coming in in just regular clothes. -
Review from Steph C.
6/5/2010 2 photos
Tuesday night. The host/bartender/server was very friendly and on key, but the food...
Maybe it was an off day, but I felt like the food was extremely oily. Like it shocked me.
I took a picture of my Sea Bass with Linguine Pasta, and you can see a glossy sheen over the entire entree. It actually turned me off which is a shame because the fish was perfectly cooked and quite tasty.
I also didn't see a need for such delicious fish to be so breaded and coated in another layer of cheese, especially when it was stuffed with cheese and shrimp inside. Maybe decadent for some, but too rich for my blood.
The lamp chops were GREAT. Large, generous portion, perfectly cooked, tasty with an almost too rich but still delicious buttery mushroom sauce. The baked potato was HUGE and they generously dressed it with whatever you wanted.
I might come back again, but I can't stop thinking that my fish was really one of the oiliest dishes I've had in a long time. Everything else was decent, albeit your typical steak place pricey. -
Review from Jeff H.
3/27/2010
In a word? Outstanding.
Service was prompt and knowledgeable, drinks were mixed by a knowing hand, and the food was fantastic. We had steaks, oysters on the half shell, and sea bass. The entire meal was spot on. Oysters tasted of the ocean tides, steak was cooked to a perfect medium rare, sea bass was just cooked enough to let the flavor of the fresh fish stand out.
It's nice to see a place like Kirkland have dining option as good as this one. Hopefully, they will continue to churn out amazing food. I'll be back to find out! -
Review from Vinh N.
Redmond, WA
7/1/2010
So my girlfriend and I went here on a Wednesday night because we had a http://restaurant.com coupon. Immediately after opening the menu, it was "GULP! Look at those prices." But whatever. We had a coupon and were celebrating an occasion.
Anyhow, we ordered the 20 oz porterhouse ($52) medium rare. The steak was just average to be honest. It wasn't seasoned enough and wasn't seared enough to my liking. I've had better porterhouses and they were in the mid $30 range. The rosemary fries that came with it were good and the side order of steamed asparagus was good as well. The warm chocolate cake was too gooey but edible. Service was okay (waiter took a while to come back to take our order). Overall, it was a good meal, but for the money, I don't think we'll be coming back here. -
Review from Flora C.
Seattle, WA
10/10/2009
I visited this restaurant on a Friday night at around 815pm. It is not busy at all. The bartender is playing the host as well. I wonder... short staff... I waited for about 7 minutes before a bus person show up with water and dinner rolls. Then, the waiter came and I placed the following orders:
-Boned-in pork chop with creamy mushroom sauce (The pork was tender and juicy, so it deserved an A rating.)
-Half a dozen of raw oyster (It was clean, fresh, crispy and juicy. It's an A as well.)
-Caesar salad (The vegetable was fresh and the dressing was a little thick. So, it's a B-.)
Service: Fair
Environment: Dark and not crowded at that night -
Review from Gary L.
Brooklyn Center, MN
6/12/2009
Without a doubt this steakhouse is one of the hidden gems on the eastside. Order a between the sheets cocktail and settle back for a great steak or Chilean sea bass.
This is a must stop when I'm in the Seattle area. A good friend of mine is well known there and he introduced me to the place. Services is very friendly, and the atmosphere is one that makes you relax and take a breath. -
Review from Brian H.
King, WA
11/22/2010
Changed owner. Food is tasteless, small portion. Don't go there!
I think it's closed -
Review from Ken L.
6/18/2010
One of the first things I that noticed immediately as I walk in is the "old grandma house" smell and the dark ambiance courtesy of the dim lights. Some would say this would indicate a romantic setting for dinner but not me so luckily we were seated by the window in the back of the restaurant that provided much needed light to see our menu and food.
The servers were pleasant and provided a level of service above and beyond what I expected. Lamb chops and the Chilean Sea Bass were promptly ordered with a side of baked potato for each. Bread starter - golden crispy on the crust, hot and chewy on the inside. Lamb chops cooked just right however lacked seasoning and flavor. A serving container of peppercorn gravy straddled the double lamb chop arrangement and the triple fist sized baked potato. The gravy was too rich and the combo just was borderline good. No taste bud explosions here. Seabass cooked to perfection BUT was destroyed by the rich, greased sauce that appeared to be a clarified butter concoction. Cheese and small shrimps were sandwiched in the fish but failed to break up the overwhelming yellow sauce. Lucky for the fish dish, the monster baked potato and its real chunks of bacon saved the day. Without the rich, heavy butter and better chop seasoning, the rating would probably be improved by one star. Nothing much you can do with the old house smell. Febreeze maybe? -
Review from Niall K.
Seattle, WA
6/26/2007
This place is stunning great decor and wonderful service who are very knowledgeable and probably the BEST steak in Seattle.
I have a few friends who dread to cross the water but when 21 Central is on the cards for the evening they will make the trip.
The menu is very steakhouse style there are not a ton of options but what they have is amazingly tasty. Add a great variety of wine and it makes for a great meal.
The decor and bar all came from the original Dukes on Queen Anne and the chandeliers came out of the old Frederick and Nielsen - how about that for a little Seattle history.
For cost I think they match up cheaper that some of the other steakhouses in town and definitely better than most.
The only downside I would point out - if its getting later 9:30-10:00 on a weekend night and your towards the waterfront side - you can hear the music from the Shark downstairs but that generally only happens with a live band.
I would still strongly recommend eating here. Even popping in for a few martinis is pretty cool too! -
Review from Ken W.
Kirkland, WA
5/7/2009
Best steakhouse on the eastside if not in the Puget Sound. They have great meat, northwest seafood, drinks, service, and dessert. I've never had a bad meal, side, etc. here.
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Review from Patrick W.
Bothell, WA
9/13/2008
The best steak and specialty dishes on the Eastside of the lake. Good atmosphere, friendly staff, along with attention to detail. I have been to this restaurant at least a dozen times, and have never been disappointed. If you have occasion to drop by, make a reservation if possible and ask for Dan as your waiter.
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Review from Susie Q.
Kirkland, WA
5/26/2010
This place had good service, OK food, but the restaurant needed to be renovated. It looked old, run down, and had a funky smell. It reminded me of Spaghetti Factory. I thought with all the good Yelp reviews, the food was going to be great but it was so so....
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Review from M D.
Kirkland, WA
3/4/2010
All the upscale beef loveliness in Kirkland without having to travel to Bellevue.
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Review from Kristy S.
Kirkland, WA
11/16/2008
Full Disclosure: I'm in love with another steak house. So when I offered to take my friend to dinner at JaK's and she said, let's try that place in Kirkland, my heart sank, because I have a big place in my heart and my stomach for my first love. I felt like I was cheating.
Anyhow...I got on the website to check out the menu, make a reservation and so forth. It's the kind of restaurant where you order everything a la carte. Well, that's not entirely true, they do give you a potato side dish with your steak. But vegetables, sauces and so forth--all a la carte. This can make for a fairly spendy meal. We started with the tomato and onion plate, which is a steakhouse classic and yet this one was, well, just off. The onions should have been Walla Walla Sweets, but they seemed way too pungent and so we thought they just used standard yellow onions, which made for a very overpowering dish. Furthermore, the dressing was a slightly sweet basil dressing, which in my opinion didn't taste very good with the blue cheese crumbled on top. My friends had French onion soup and the wedge salad. Both were just fine, but nothing amazing. I thought the soup was quite salty, though the broth was nice and richly flavored.
For entrees, I ordered the top sirloin, which was certainly a generous portion, and they cooked it properly to medium rare. One friend had the pork chop and the other ordered scallops. My steak was fine, though it arrived not particularly hot. I thought the pork chop was excellent, and it was served with a brandy chantrelle sauce that was delicious. Unfortunately it also arrived not particularly hot. The scallops were fine. I do love scallops, and these were well done, with a nice buttery sauce and some pasta. Our service was decent and friendly, though it was quite a long wait between when we finished our salads and when our entrees arrived.
I guess, all in all, everything was just...fine. Not bad, not amazing, just...fine. I wanted to be thrilled, I wanted to have a new steak place to get all excited and giddy about. I know, I know, I'm biased due to my first steakhouse love. (oh, those potato pancakes...) 21 Central is a decent place for a steak on the Eastside, and has the added benefit of being fairly small, which in my book is a plus. It has a cozy feel, and was easy to get into--at 7:30 on a Saturday night, there were only about four other tables seated. But for my next steak, I'm going back to my first love. -
Review from Melinda K.
Concrete, WA
3/5/2009
Looking for a great steak on the Eastside? Head over to 21 Central Steakhouse in downtown Kirkland. Very masculine decor, which you would expect in a classic steakhouse. Nice liquor selection in their bar (they carried Plymouth Gin, which is a rarity). I was in the mood for a nice red wine with my steak and the waiter was very accomodating, even giving me a taste of a couple of Cabs that they had open so I could choose. I had the sirloin and shrimp scampi. The beef they use is top quality and it was cooked perfectly. The shimp we also perfectly cooked and was topped with a nice buttery scampi sauce as well as diced tomatoes with basil. It was very good. You do get a choice of potato (buttermilk mashed, baked, rosemary fries) or sliced tomatoes as a side with the steak entrees. They also had ala cart sides like creamed spinach, mixed veggies, asparagus ect. My one issue was that I did feel that it was slightly on the spendy side.
