Dan McKlusky’s

301 E. Sixth, 473-8924

Lunch: Monday-Friday, 11:15am-2pm; Dinner: Monday-Thursday, 5-10pm; Friday-Saturday, 5-11pm; Sunday, 5-9pm

In business since 1979, Dan McKlusky’s caters to Austin’s downtown business clientele for lunch and dinner (the second location at the Arboretum closed a few years ago in conjunction with Austin’s dot-com demise).The big deal here is that upon ordering your entrée the waiter brings out your own personal certified Angus steak for you to inspect and approve before it returns to the kitchen to be prepared to your specification. And once it is cooked, you’re invited to inspect and approve it again before tucking in.

The 2-inch-thick rib eyes ($23.95, $27.95, $33.95 for 10, 12, and 16 oz., respectively) are nicely marbled, succulent, tasty, and duly prepared as requested. The Prime rib ($23.95) is juicy and moist, just as it should be, and served with the requisite creamy horseradish sauce.

Too bad the kitchen doesn’t give the same attention to the rest of the menu. The signature mushroom appetizer ($6.50), ostensibly stuffed with shrimp, herbs, and parmesan, is a definite snore, whose primary ingredient seems to be moist bread crumbs. The salt-free, flavorless, and mushy vegetable medley that accompanies all entrées tastes straight from the Costco freezer, and my twice-baked potato was way dry and lacking in discernible flavor.

Things don’t improve much with dessert. The Apple Pie ($5.50) is all but inedible, microwaved into gooshy oblivion and accompanied by unpleasantly chalky cinnamon ice cream. Chocolate Seduction ($5.50) is an acceptable if unremarkable molten chocolate cake garnished with almonds.

All things considered, come to Dan McKlusky’s for a good, unadorned steak – don’t even bother with the accoutrements. What a shame.

This article appears in January 14 • 2005.

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MM Pack is a food writer/historian and private chef who divides her time between Austin and San Francisco. A regular contributor to The Austin Chronicle and Edible Austin, she’s been published in Gastronomica, The San Francisco Chronicle, Oxford Encyclopedia of Food & Drink in America, Nation’s Restaurant News, Scribner's Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, The Dictionary of Culinary Biography, and Southern Foodways Alliance’s Cornbread Nation 1.