Hy's

Hy’s Steakhouse
One Lombard Place, Richardson Building
Tel: (204) 942-1000
Fax: (204) 947-3588
http://www.hyssteakhouse.com/


July, 2010



For years, Hy’s Steak Loft stood on Kennedy Street as one of the premier places to go for beef in Winnipeg. Aiming for the business clientele, Hy’s moved out of the loft and into the swank, sleek and sophisticated site in the Richardson Building. The soaring ceilings and the dark wood contribute to a modern yet elegant atmosphere—perfectly suited for an evening of fine dining or an afternoon of power-lunching.

As you expect from any upper-end restaurant, the comprehensive wine list features numerous selections, limited only by your budget. As well, the service attends to you efficiently and professionally. I’m a bit nostalgic for the former location but this location certainly has an abundance of charm.

Several interesting options adorn the starters list, including a nice variety of seafood. Whenever I visit fine dining destinations, I like to have the freshest offerings, presumably from ingredients that are fresher than I can find in the stores. The oysters by the half-dozen come plainly shucked. The taste of the ocean reminds me why this is one of my favourite foods. Hy’s offers the usual malpeques, ubiquitous to the Winnipeg area. I would have liked to see other species but there’s nothing wrong with these ones.

The steak tartare shares the plate with crostini, which acts as a natural supporting cast. The crostini is a little harder than I like, but acceptable. That’s much more than I can say about the tartare, as the sickly-sweet dressing completely drowns the delicate flavour of the raw beef. The sweetness of the dressing combined with the texture of the beef makes me think that I just stuck a spoon into a relish jar and gulped the entire spoonful—what a waste of prime grade beef.

The standard French onion soup tastes complex and flavourful, although a touch too winy. The generous topping of cheese provides the perfect cap to this superb soup.

When I visit a steakhouse, I expect the restaurant to make its living on its beef selections. Immediately, we are disappointed to discover they’re out of prime rib, “A Hy’s Tradition.” This is your bread-and-butter (colloquially) and being sold out at 7 pm on Friday tells me that someone made a mistake. Anyway, we opt for the bone-in rib steak—one medium and one blue. Hy’s brings the steaks exactly as ordered, but that’s the only good thing I can say about the steaks. The slices of steak are thin and unsubstantial—similar to the kind of steak you find as an afterthought in a pasta restaurant. The meat tastes flavourless and worse, stringy and chewy. As a place that boasts having some of the best steaks in town, this is a disaster. Our companion orders from the seafood section and describes the meal as “acceptable and perfectly fine,” but finds that the $33 price tag for four shrimps and four scallops is a little steep.

Two things can happen when you walk into an expensive restaurant:
1) You get what you pay for and relax for an evening of pampering with the finest foods around.
2) You pay a lot of money for the “privilege” of saying that you dined at Restaurant X.

Unfortunately, Hy’s falls into the second category.

*½ /5


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