Steakhouse at casino in Hogansburg worth gamble
HOGANSBURG — There's a new restaurant on the rez, and it's worth checking out.
Maple Room Steakhouse opened for business in the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino a little over a month ago. The good news is, it's got the décor and feel of a real big city steak house — urban hip, appropriately tasteful, art deco-ish lighting fixtures with a little neon thrown in. Lots of dark wood interspersed with fieldstone.
The bad news is, you've got to make your way through all the noise, smoke and flashing lights of the casino game room to get to the restaurant. But once inside the tall, massive hardwood doors of the steakhouse, the ambiance was calm and formal, the deafening din left outside.
A mature, gentlemanly maitre'd greeted us and led us to a quiet table. Linen tablecloths and fine cutlery foreshadowed fine dining. Lighting was perfect. So was the volume of the house sound system and the selection of classic jazz emanating from it.
The menu says steakhouse all over it: classy appetizers, classic salads, pricey steaks, upscale seafood, typical steakhouse sides and a few pasta dishes thrown in for good measure. A laudable wine selection is available, with all the right countries and regions represented.
Our young waiter was pleasant and courteous although a little tentative at times. He read the evening's specials word for word from his order pad. Same with the beer selections. If there was a question he couldn't answer, he had no qualms about going to the kitchen to get us the correct information.
Appetizers were all attractively served, the food clearly well-handled.
Bruschetta pomodoro ($6) consisted of toasted crostini each with a swipe of hummus and kalamata tapenade, finished with diced roma tomatoes, set over a bed of field greens. The tapenade (minced olives and capers) tended to overpower the hummus. Except for that, it was a very different and interesting bruschetta.
Our waiter informed us that the fried calamari ($7) was breaded in-house. Yes they were, making them so much more enjoyable than the freezer-to-fryer variety.
The light breading revealed very tender ringlets and tentacles of squid, enhanced with a gingery fruit-based dipping sauce.
Crab cakes, two of them ($8), were quite good, a little bit on the pasty side from too much filler but nonetheless with plenty of identifiable lump crabmeat. They were served over a bed of field greens.
While we didn't order it, the crab claw platter for two ($20), also an appetizer, sounded good. Definitely a must for someone who hit it big at the blackjack table.
A basket of lovely, crusty sliced baguette was a hit. Our waiter noticed that we wolfed the bread down in short order and offered to bring more out to us. Softened unsalted butter was appreciated, too.
On the subject of the waiter ... timing is everything. While his timing with the delivery of the food was perfect, he interrupted way too often with the preprogrammed lines, "Is everything all right?" and "Is there anything else I can get for you?" It was OK the first or second time, but after that it started to get on our nerves.
Entrées are served with a salad of mixed greens. You can substitute one of their other nicely presented salads at a charge slightly reduced from the menu price, which we did.
Caesar salad ($2.75) had a nice lemon-olive oil dressing, easy on the garlic. You would expect homemade croutons in a nice restaurant like this, but they used plain old boxed ones.
Iceberg wedge ($4.75) was fantastic. An old '50's favorite now back in vogue, a wedge of crisp iceberg lettuce was covered with creamy blue cheese dressing and crumbles of applewood-smoked bacon. Little wedges of blue cheese dotted the plate. A must for true lovers of blue cheese.
Greek salad ($4.75) was just OK. Field greens were used as the base of the salad. They just didn't seem sturdy enough to stand up to the strips of roasted red pepper and sundried tomatoes plus feta cheese and olives on top. The customary lemon/olive oil/oregano dressing was nonexistent; a very light drizzle of a balsamic reduction was about all you get.
You can also substitute the house soup, lobster bisque ($3.75). This was thick and full of flavor, so thick you could almost stand a spoon up in it. A little less thickener and a little more heavy cream would make it absolutely perfect. The taste of sherry added a nice depth of flavor.
If you're a steakhouse, you'd better do your steaks up right. And they did.
The 8-ounce cut of filet mignon ($30) was an excellent choice, cooked perfectly to our request of medium. Blue cheese dipping sauce was served on the side. Starch of the day was a potato pancake, a nice touch with lots of flavor in the first few bites. It was less desirable as it cooled, for some reason. Colorful, nicely cooked broccolini completed the simple and elegant plate.
New York strip ($30) was a 16-ounce bone-in portion, juicy and tasty at medium-rare, criss-cross grill marks evident. Potato pancake and the same vegetable accompanied.
Other steaks available are Delmonico and porterhouse cuts. They also serve prime rib nightly and offer lamb chops.
One of the evening's specials came with a great-sounding mushroom cabernet demi-glace. Our waiter was able to make it a side with the strip steak ($1.75). It was great, all right, sautéed fresh mushrooms in a sauce heavy of wine with a touch of cream to mellow things out. The only thing missing was a straw.
From the seafood category, we chose Chilean sea bass ($24), rarely seen on a restaurant menu in the north country. Like the steaks, it was simply presented, topped with a lovely mango avocado salsa. The plate was filled out with the same starch and veg.
Sea bass is an oily fish, and the oil was cut nicely by the salsa. The fish had a slight bitterness to it, which we're not used to.
From the pasta category, our pick was Mediterranean seafood ($19). Shrimp and scallops were nicely sautéed in garlic, then tossed with spinach, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives and sundried tomatoes together with fettuccini in a light and lovely sauce of olive oil and wine.
For the record, the other seafood choices are pistachio-encrusted salmon, broiled sea scallops, grilled tuna and a 10-ounce lobster tail. Listed under pasta, there's mushroom ravioli, vodka chicken riggies and pasta primavera.
And for traditional steakhouse sides, you can choose from asparagus with hollandaise, sautéed mushrooms and onions, creamed spinach, steamed broccoli with hollandaise and caramelized onions. They're each priced at $6.
Desserts are made either in-house or somewhere in the depths of the casino. Most carry a price tag of $7; some are $6.
Dulce de leche caramel cheesecake was fantastic, the absolute right cheesecake consistency topped with an oh-so-great caramel mousse, all supported by a vanilla crust.
The Maple Room theme was brought home in the maple crème brulee, a traditional crème brulee made with New York maple syrup and caramelized turbinado sugar on top.
It also carried into the deep-fried ice cream, vanilla ice cream rolled in crushed corn flakes, quickly fried till golden brown then sprinkled with cinnamon and topped with their house maple glaze. A huge portion.
Mixed berry shortcake was very nice. An assortment of berries was served over a large, dense, heavier than shortbread biscuit that contained poppy seeds and lemon zest. Fresh whipped cream was an added plus.
The dessert dishes were all artfully decorated. Great presentation.
Above average wines-by-the-glass are offered from Mondavi and Kendall Jackson, two popular vineyards. We went with a KJ Merlot and a KJ zinfandel and weren't disappointed.
Food for the night came to $167. The wine, a beer and a mixed drink added $23 to the total. And hey — there's no New York state sales tax or Canadian provincial taxes added to the bill. I love Akwesasne!
All in all, it was a very pleasant experience. The food was well-handled and well-considered; the service attempted to be top-notch traditional and managed it pretty well.
The only thing we would have preferred was not having to go through the casino to get to the restaurant. But the restaurant is there to serve the casino, not the other way around.
You can contact restaurant reviewer Walter Siebel via e-mail: wsiebel@wdt.net.
Maple Room Steakhouse
at the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino
Hogansburg, N.Y.
1 (888) 622-1155
www.mohawkcasino.com/dining-retail/maple-room-steakhouse
A new steakhouse on the rez that's worth checking out.
HOURS: 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday
5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday
4 to 9 p.m. Sunday
APPETIZER PICKS: Bruschetta pomodoro; lobster bisque.
SALAD PICK: Iceberg wedge with creamy blue cheese dressing and applewood-smoked bacon.
ENTRÉE PICKS: Filet mignon with blue cheese dipping sauce; New York strip steak with mushroom cabernet demi-glace.
DESSERT PICKS: Dulce de leche caramel cheesecake; maple crème brulée.
RATING: 4 forks
