Russell's Steak House

greetings,
meat was back on the menu at Russell's Steak House last night. they say the month of March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb so maybe it was another ridiculously cold day that kept the numbers down or maybe it was the trip to the suburbs or maybe people were just sheepish, but six (no newbies) decided to venture out to Amherst (not too far from mane street) last night to the roaring comfort of Transit Road (cut me some slack on the baaaaad puns). the restaurant was hopping and the group ran into a bunch of notables dining out as well. the group stayed entertained as the conversation turned from such topics as Chris Lee to skydiving.

onto the food. i find that with most steakhouses that i've eaten at, the first steak is always the best - subsequent visits seem to always let me down. this may be the case with Russell's as I had a fantastic filet.

the table started out with some bread (duh) along with some crispy raisin 'toast' slices (almost like bagel chips) served with sides of butter, honey butter and an olive tapenade.
for an appetizer, i ordered the artichokes francaise - deep fried, breaded artichoke goodness in a butter sauce - i thought it was absolutely terrific.
and surprise, surprise, I also opted for their beefsteak tomato and mozzeralla (their spelling) caprese - served with a balsamic glaze with chunks of blue cheese. an interesting twist but tasty. someone had their onion soup - thick cheese over basically french onion broth. i was told it was nothing out of ordinary. their beef carpaccio was different: basically antipasto served over thinly sliced raw beef. although i'm not a huge fan of antipasto, if you like that, you would enjoy their carpaccio. although i didn't sample it, their chopped salad got a thumbs down.

for my entrée i had their filet neptune. chunks of lobster and a seafood sauce over filet mignon. i ordinarily prefer to order steak, usually a strip, with just a rub or a butter sauce, but the neptune was delicious. the rest of the table ordered steaks: goat cheese crusted filet, bone-in ribeyes and a filet. all steaks got the thumbs up from the consumers.

for sides, the table shared lobster mac & cheese, pretty good but i thought it was missing something to make it excellent; cheddar bacon mashed potatoes - excellent (it has garlic and bacon, only balsamic would make it better); their sautéed garlic rapini was very good; and their wild mushroom medley was very good as well.

and truly surprising, i opted not to order dessert as i was stuffed by that point but the table ordered their warm apple tart which, i was told, that the crust was excellent but the filling not so good. their belgium chocolate cake was surprisingly light and was very good.

although the waitress was somewhat annoying, the company was great and the food pretty good. the consensus was that Russell's gets an A-.