Maxim Prime- A Prime View, But Little Else

Reading the initial reviews of Maxim Prime, I was expecting a lounge that resembled a brothel, an expensive but fully satisfying steakhouse, and a very guy-oriented experience with Maxim Magazine's name attached to it. I got none of these. The lounge is much more Fur Bus than Whorehouse, the restaurant was nothing special, and is definitely not a "guys" steakhouse. The only saving grace about this place is the rooftop lounge with a fantastic view of the city.

The lounge on the ground floor of the Glenn Hotel is bizarre. Maybe this would be trendy as some speakeasy in the Village, but just outside the elegant bar of the Glenn Hotel, it seems very out of place. It's not very big, and as I mentioned above, the decor is very reminiscent of the inside of the Fur Bus. Two top shelf drinks cost $23, and they were out of Bombay Sapphire. How can a bar be out of Sapphire at 8pm?

The main restaurant is located on the second floor, and is a definite step up decor wise. According to our waiter, its supposed to be a "steakhouse you can take girls to". Odd that Maxim has attached its name to the place if that's the concept. And since when can't I bring my wife to Lobster Bar or New York Prime? The steak offerings were limited but not overly priced. A couple of filets, a strip, a skirt and a flat iron, all priced in the $20-30 range. No bone-in ribeye for one, but there was a 32-oz. bone-in for two, which a friend and I split. Unlike Kevin Rathbun's porterhouse which is a great dish to share, the ribeye doesnt really work as a "for 2" dish. The slices are too inconsistent when precut, with some being outstanding, and others containing too much gristle or fat.

The menu also features "threesomes" where you can pair a cut of meat with seafood and a veggie. Neat idea, but they are not pairing their best steaks IMO, and each selection has some funky way of preparation, such as "bitter orange, tamarind and honey marinated skirt steak". C'mon.

For appetizers, we split the tuna and yellowtail crudos, which were described as a marinated form of ceviches. It's actually more like sashimi with 4 small slices for each plate. I found the yellowtail with rum, lime and jalapeno to be very salty. The tuna with avacado and grapefruit was decent, but not in anyway filling.

So, unfortunately, Maxim Prime will not join Steakhead's list of top Atlanta steakhouses. However, there is one big caveat to this review. The upstairs deck may have the best nightime view of the Atlanta skyline. Drinking a mojito upstairs in the comfy lounge chairs was all good, and is a place I will definitely revisit.

Plenty of Room for a Good Downtown Steakhouse

The maitre’d at Room must have known what he was dealing with. Every year, my buddies and I go out for a real “guy’s night” of steaks and a Thrashers game- Steaks and Skates we call it. This year, our steakhouse of choice was Room at the new Twelve Hotel Centennial Park. With one look at our motley crew, he sat us in one of the three semi-private rooms in the place. Maybe he was scared others would hear us, maybe he was scared that they would see us, maybe it was a little of both. But it was an excellent decision for all involved!

Room is the steakhouse concept from Bob Amick of Concentrics Restaurants. The area around the Twelve is nothing to speak of at the moment. It’s situated in this no man’s land between downtown, midtown and Centennial Park. But there is ongoing construction all around as a new W Hotel is being constructed, and there is continuing work on the Twelve towers. So maybe in time, this area will be a destination site or at least well connected to the other major destinations around downtown.

We started with a Chef’s choice sushi platter for the table. This was no ordinary chef’s choice, as this platter included Toro amongst other fine items. I don’t remember the cost of this dish, but my guess was it was over $100 (there is one on the menu listed for $80 for 4, but we had 6 in our group). Indulgent, yes. Good, very!

The steaks on the Room menu are fairly standard: two different sizes of filet, bone-in ribeye, NY Strip. Prices are fairly consistent with other steakhouses around town- in the upper $30 range. I had the filet and you could cut it with a butter knife. Everyone commented how the chef cooked each steak to perfection.

You could get a number of different sauces with your steak, which are served on the side in a small pouring cup. If you like this sort of thing, it’s not a bad way of going about it, because two people can easily share one. We got 3 for our table- the peppercorn brandy, the chimichurri verde and the home made steak sauce. I am usually not a sauce person, but I do like a good au poivre. The peppercorn sauce did not meet my expectations, as it was pretty bland. The chimichurri sauce, while good, didn’t really complement the steak very well.

So how does Room stack up against the other steakhouses in town? Well, there was nothing that I can say it has done to give it a leg up on Bone’s, Chops, or Rathbun’s. But it does have one thing going for it…location. In the Downtown and lower Midtown area, they don’t have a lot of competition. Our night here blew away our night at Ruth’s Chris last year. And for a real steakhouse, you cannot include Fire of Brazil.

Room can get pretty expensive. By the time we drank 3 bottles of wine, ordered a round of top shelf tequila for 3 people, the sushi, the steaks, 4 sides, and one dessert, we were at $110 per person. Now that I write this, that doesn’t seem as shocking as it seemed Saturday night. Oh well, one night per year, and it was full of belly-aching laughter, so it was well worth it!

Steakhead Recommends: Yes, if you are Downtown and looking for Steaks
Price: $$$$