by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
Hotel restaurants are one of those things that you may never know about unless you stay at the hotel. Here in Jacksonville, some of the best places to get a steak are tucked inside hotel lobbies, with spacious bars and city views. One such place is the Plaza III, located inside the Regency Hyatt Downtown.
The original Plaza III is in Kansas City, a place where a good steak is a prerequisite for almost any restaurant. Although it’s affiliated with its namesake, it isn’t a chain; it’s locally owned and operated.
The beef is corn-fed, carefully selected and then aged for three weeks. The décor is conservative and the walls are decorated with scenes of old Jacksonville, such as a 1900s picnic, scenes from WWII and the old train yards. Some of the most interesting black & whites can be found in the private dining areas, where you can hold small parties with advance notice.
As you walk into the place, you’ll see a full bar on your left. Besides the standard bar selections, they also have cognacs and scotches for your pleasure. The wine list is very extensive, with over 200 selections. They’ve even got their own label of Plaza III wines. Wine Spectator has honored them with awards for several years running, so they must be doing something right!
Appetizers are fairly standard, although the seared tuna has a Cajun twist to the usual Asian treatment. The crab cakes, oysters Rockefeller and oysters on the half-shell are all great pre-meal nibbles. Their lobster bisque is exceptionally popular. I had their pretty presentation of Shrimp Cocktail as an appetizer. While you only get four shrimp, they are huge, tender and well-presented in a martini glass. The half-frozen “salad” in the center of the glass is for presentation instead of consumption, which was a disappointment for me. I got over it as I dipped my enormous shrimp in cocktail sauce ate them.
The salad I tried, the Tomato Roquefort, gets high marks in both presentation and taste. Tomatoes were sliced and stacked high, laced with the bold Roquefort cheese, marinated Raddichio and the sweet tang of a balsamic reduction.
One of the most popular items on this upscale menu is, surprisingly, the Black Jack Meatloaf. We Southerners love a great meatloaf, whatever the setting. Their Kansas City Strip Florentine, stuffed with garlic spinach and Monterey Jack and Mahi Mahi are also top non-steak entrée choices for regulars.
Prices for entrées vary, but are generally in the ball park of $31-42. Their steaks are top quality and you can even request a presentation plate so you can pick out your cut. My steak was excellently marbled, cooked perfectly to my specifications and well-aged. They’re recognized by Zagat’s as one of the top steakhouses in the country. Although they’re primarily a steakhouse, there are plenty of fish selections and a chicken dish topped with bacon cream gravy. They also pride themselves on their lobster, which is a cold water African lobster, cooked just so and served with drawn butter.
Desserts offered include the classic crème brûlée, a difficult item for me to pass up, as always. I ended up sampling the oh-so-rich goodness of their chocolate cake, surrounded by a moat of sweet cream to cut the decadence. Although there isn’t any fruit in the cake, you’ll detect the flavor of cherry in it. It’s quite a large piece and very rich, so you might want to share.
The menu isn’t what I’d call avant-garde, but it is solid, upscale cuisine with a good presentation and spot-on execution. It’s a place I’d feel comfortable taking out-of-towners for dinner or for a great business lunch.
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