davis_square | Frank's Steakhouse Review (Reply)

ron_newman's encouraging, I'm cross-posting this from my own LJ.

Last week

beowabbit and I wandered into Frank's Steak House on Mass Ave., on a quest for grilled flesh for the Meatasaurus Wabbitus. They were too busy to seat us without a long wait, so we made a date to come back and try it, this time with a reservation. It's at 2310 Mass Ave, right behind Davis. Dover or Meacham will drop you across the street, basically. It was worth the experiment.

Very glad we tried it. I've lived in Davis for 13 years, and I never even thought to check out dinner there. This is one of those old-school dinner institutions that is completely off the Davis-Porter hipster map. In the lobby are framed, autographed pictures of famous people who have eaten there, few appearing to date from less than 25 years ago (I think the wall filled up around 1980). The clientele seemed to be mostly long-time resident folks. Nice jazz, nice booth, nice waitress who said she likes working there so much that she drives all the way in from Reading (I think it was Reading. I'd had some wine.)

The steaks were tasty and inexpensive. We both had filet mignon with tarragon butter (mine petite, his full). Nothing fancy or off-beat, just plain good filets. The garlic cheese bread we had at the beginning was perhaps the best I've ever eaten. (If you don't eat meat but do eat dairy, go for that alone. I could have made a meal out of it.) Salad and choice of potatoes came with our meals (his was less that $20, mine was less than $10). The portions weren't hulking and wasteful, which I really appreciate. It was the amount of food a person might have been served during pre-supersized decades. Even with 4 cocktails on our tab, the bill was very reasonable. No room for dessert so I have nothing to report there, but they had a nice looking selection of comfort desserts. As I remarked to

beowabbit, this would be an ideal place to bring visiting parents or grandparents.

If you sometimes just want simple, old-school dining in a semi-casual atmosphere (not dress-up-y per se, but don't bring your kids in their wet bathing suits), I can recommend giving this nice old standard a try. Do make reservations -- it was jumping both times we went in.