If anyone should be thanked for the vitality of the Ninth Square restaurant scene, it should probably be Hasni “Jeff” Ghazali, who has anchored this New Haven neighborhood with not one but two important restaurants. His successful upscale Malaysian restaurant, Bentara, was followed by also popular Central Steakhouse.
I have known Ghazali since the 1995 opening of Bentara in its original Route 80 location. I admired his brand of cooking, which fused traditional Eastern elements with top-notch Western cooking techniques. I liked him just as much as a person.
Joining me for lunch on Day 6, the last day of Restaurant Week, was my dear friend Angela DiGoia.
When you enter Central Steakhouse, the bar area will be to your left,
the open kitchen straight ahead,
and the main dining areas straight ahead and to the right.
If you proceed downstairs instead,
you will find an atmospheric wine cellar where you can also dine. Central Steakhouse boasts one of Connecticut’s most interesting, geographically diverse and accessible wine lists.
So Central Steakhouse’s ambiance is appealing—how about its service? Ghazali is one of the most hands-on restaurateurs in New Haven. His staff is well-trained. Cute, perky Kim took terrific care of us throughout our lunch.
Obviously, Kim is stronger than she looks at first glance.
Other parties also seemed pleased with their servers.
Okay, Central Steakhouse’s service is top notch, so let’s talk about its food. Warm rolls and slices of crusty bread
held our appetites in check while we perused Central Steakhouse’s Restaurant Week menu. The menu turned out to be the most diverse I encountered during my twelve restaurant visits, a reminder that Central is much more than just a steakhouse.
The starters we didn’t try included French four-onion soup topped with Gruyère; Mozzarella spring rolls with tomato basil sauce; buttermilk-fried calamari with a sambal aïoli and cocktail sauce; Malaysian sweet chili buffalo wings with a blue cheese dressing; a grilled chicken quesadilla with pepper jack cheese and a tomatillo salsa; and a baby mesclun mix with spicy walnuts, pear and Asiago cheese in an avocado-citrus vinaigrette.
The two starters we did try—both delicious—were pan-roasted sea scallop in a pineapple-Riesling reduction with caramelized pear,
and cumin-scented lamb lollipops in a mint pesto with mashed potatoes. A brief footnote: I like Ghazali’s “mashed potatoes,” but they seemed more closely related to what I grew up calling “creamed potatoes.”
Although not listed among the Restaurant Week options, we also got to try Central Steakhouse’s incredible signature crab cake with a wasabi aïoli and an almond-and-roasted-garlic aïoli.
The entrée choices were also numerous. We could have ordered angel hair pasta with garlic, extra virgin olive oil, oyster mushrooms and spinach; angel hair pasta with cockles and tomatoes in a white wine sauce; curried chicken kebabs with grilled vegetables, cucumber raita and Israeli couscous; grilled boneless chicken breast in a citrus sauce with mashed potatoes and a tomato-Feta salad; grilled salmon in a lobster brandy cream sauce with white beans, tomato and spinach; an eight-ounce Central burger with French fries; and grilled filet mignon au poivre with mashed potatoes and green beans.
But the two main dishes that we did order were splendid. Fish can’t be cooked any better than our beautifully moist, snow white halibut served in a coriander-pepitas-butter sauce with a lovely asparagus risotto.
A generous grilled boneless New York strip steak in a sauce au poivre was served with the same “mashed potatoes” and baby green beans. This steak alone would have been a great deal at the $16.38 lunch price, but of course it was preceded by an appetizer and followed by a dessert.
Desserts, always terrific at Central Steakhouse, were not listed on the Restaurant Week menu, but proved to be three. We didn’t try the proffered cheesecake. Instead, we sampled a perfect pear crisp served warm with vanilla ice cream,
and a moist, sensuous, not-overly-sweet, dark chocolate layer cake with fresh raspberry sauce.
I close with a photograph of these happy diners, who took a table in the wine cellar. Now I ask you, which fellow got the best of this seating arrangement?
Central Steakhouse, 99 Orange Street, New Haven, 203-787-7885