The Palm

One of my family's favorite restaurants to go to is The Palm.  I first started going there when my family would visit my grandparents in East Hampton, and it instantly became one of my favorites (and this was even before I ate steak).  I always loved the side dishes, and most notably, the huge chunk of chocolate cake for dessert.  I remember the first time I saw it when they brought the dessert platter to the table, and it looked like it was 1/4 of an entire cake.  Since I was the only one in my family that wanted a chocolate dessert, I asked if they had anything smaller.  They did not, and I ended up ordering this monstrous, but so delicious, piece of cake.  Since I was pretty young and it is extremely rich, I was only able to make a small dent in it, and ended up taking the rest home.  And, if my memory serves me correctly, I think the leftover cake was my dessert for the next 5 nights, thats how big it was.

So, even though they are known as a great steakhouse, I know them as the place with the amazing chocolate cake.  Every time my family goes to the Hamptons, we go to the Palm.  My Dad also loves coming here, so we tend to go to the Palm Too in NYC a few times a year as well.

I am also an avid user of Gilt City, so a few months back when I spotted a Gilt deal for the Palm, I instantly jumped on it and bought the deal.  It was $60 for $100 worth of food, and it expires in July.  Since it is mid June and we hadn't used it yet, we figured it was the perfect time to go since it is also Father's Day Weekend.

Even though the cake is  my favorite part of the meal, I do have a lot of other favorites.  I used to order the Chicken Piccata, which is a bit strange to love from a steak house but it is always so delicious there.   But, since I have been eating steak every now and again, I usually now order Filet Mignon whenever I go to The Palm.  The steak is very tender and delicious, and it always comes out cooked perfectly.  To start off, I always get the caesar salad (they now offer a slightly smaller size in addition to the normal size, so I opt for the smaller version), and it is always good.  My dad and sister love the crabmeat cocktail, but I can't attest to how good it is because I don't eat seafood.

The other star of the meal in our eyes is the side dishes.  My family has reached the consensus that we would be perfectly happy coming to The Palm and just ordering side dishes and cake.  But, we recognize that is probably not the best route so we do order regular food.  We always usually get a vegetable, whether its steamed asparagus or brussels sprouts, and we get a potato dish.  Our ultimate favorite is the half and half, but you really cant go wrong with either the hash browns or the half and half.  We haven't ordered the hash browns our past few visits because even though they are so amazing, we just love the half and half.  It comes with their homemade chips and fried onion strings.  My favorite part is the onions, and if my stomach could bear it, I swear I could eat a whole order of them.  Between 5 of us at the table, we got an order of steamed asparagus, roasted Brussels sprouts, and the half and half, and we had some left over of each because the side orders are huge.

To finish, we obviously got the chocolate cake.  They do have some other good options on the menu, like carrot cake, a bag of warm donuts, and cheesecake, but we could never get anything besides the chocolate cake.  They now offer a smaller version (which is still very large) but we opted for the large size since there were 5 of us.  The cake is 7 layers of chocolate cake and chocolate fudge, and the top of the cake has a really thick layer of creamy and fudgy chocolate.  It also comes with their homemade whipped cream and one strawberry (which my sister and I usually eat as a joke so we can say we ate something healthy).  I am not exaggerating when I say that this is one of the best chocolate cakes I have ever had.  It is a simple, no frills dessert which makes it that much more delicious because they are not trying to do anything fancy with it.  It is just a great chunk of chocolate cake.  Five of us had a slice of the large slice (and my dad had two) and there was still about 3 servings left.

The Palm has locations all around the country, so if there is one near you I highly recommend going.  In addition to their food being great, they have really cool caricatures of people all over the walls which makes there decor very unique.  In my mind, it is the epitome of a classic steakhouse, and everything there is delicious and worth the money.  I probably love  going there also because it is a classic family restaurant for me, whether it be with my grandparents in the Hamptons or my Dad in the city, and we have a lot of good memories there.   The Palm is one of my all time favorite restaurants, and if you ever have the opportunity, you should definitely go.  And, even if you feel really full from the appetizers, main course, and side dishes, you MUST get the chocolate cake!