Lobster @ The Palm (multiple cities) ~~ Dinner for two - $75
 

The wife and I had our anniversary dinner at The Palm in San Antonio. I have no idea how their lobster is because we were there for the beef! ;) And, I have to say that it was truly one of the best meals I've ever eaten. My filet was done to perfection and it was so tender that I could have cut it with a fork instead of using a knife.

If you get sides, ask for 1/2 portions. A half portion of the fries and onion rings and another half portion of the mushrooms was too much for two of us.

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

[email protected]

This is a great price. I'm going. Thanks!

Just to add another opinion. The Palm is pretty much a full-blown steak house chain with over 30 locations. And I've probably eaten at half of them , many several times. I personally like the chain but not for the steaks/seafood which I don't rank anywhere near the top. The best thing on their menu is, IMO, the asparagus friti which is lightly breaded, pan-sauteed in lemon butter and finished with fresh Parmesan. That and their generous drinks and the ambience of the restaurants are the Palm's main draw for me. I like their clubby atmosphere. The caricatures of local celebrities that are drawn on the walls are also a unique characteristic of The Palm.
For an entree I usually get one of their veal dishes which they do a decent job with.
If you go, enjoy but don't expect a life-altering experience.

The annual lobster special is one of the best deals around! Since The Palm usually sells lobsters for $20+ per pound, this is a great deal. The hash browns are THE best around and ask for the marinara sauce with the string beans. Their lobsters are absolutely delicious, I highly recommend going for this special. There's nothing like seeing a restaurant full of people wearing bibs eating lobster. This deal has been around since the end of June and we usually hit it twice per summer at The Palm in Tysons Corner. Enjoy :)

If you have equal access to either, I'd chose the Santa Monica location. The downtown one is across the street from Staples Center and can get congested at times.

Disclaimer: I'm not a regular lobster eater.

But, I've always been confused by lobster comparisons, how one place is better than another. If you catch two lobsters from the same location, and they're steamed at two different restaurants, shouldn't they taste the same?

It's not like beef, where they can be aged/marinated/grilled differently.

I'm a regular lobster eater and can't tell the difference either. But the lobster pound I eat at most often in Maine sends their boats on a four hour RT daily to catch lobsters that they could catch 50 yards from their dock. They swear that the lobsters they catch in Vinalhaven, ME are much sweeter than any others. And this pound has customers waiting in long lines to eat there everyday.
So there may be something to their theory.
Plus this pound boils them in ocean water and they claim that's a "secret" to better taste as well.

I'll add my 2 cents, IMO the fresher the lobster the sweeter they taste. Freshness is how long the lobster has been removed from the ocean as opposed to sitting in a tank. Which is why lobsters at pounds tend to taste better than at restaurants.

Excellent deal, even if it is a restaurant. ;)

Hey, I live in CA too. You have to get out of the state more often. ;)

Lobster pounds are where large amounts of trapped lobsters are kept alive to either sell in bulk to other dealers, to ship to restaurants or to sell to consumers for a meal/carryout. A lobster pound is not primarily a restaurant although most do have indoor or outdoor dining facilities.
Here's a little blurb on lobster pounds:

You're right - you don't need to print anything. Just dine by 8/19 which is the last day of the deal. Enjoy!

Well, I usually like to give a place more than a couple chances so Mrs Sweet Willie & I went to the Palm this evening. I was inspired by this thread. Having not been impressed with the Palm's steaks, I thought we would go for the lobster.

Bar was hopping, restaurant was dead at 6:30pm on a Thursday night. Only 8 other tables were filled.

Ceasar salad was quite good despite no anchovies. :( Wife said the house salad had way too much dressing.

We chose a 5lb lobster which when it came had the body of a 5lb but not the tail. I've had more meat out of 2lb lobster than what we experienced this evening. This lobster had been sitting around for quite awhile and with no exercise, the tail muscle shrinks to the skimpy thing it was. :td:

Hash Browns are 1/2" strips of red potato and were good but SWIMMING in butter :td:

Grilled Asparagus were quite tasty, done right ^

so-so wine list, not a wide selection for a steakhouse.

This last experience has pretty much made up my mind that I will not be returning to the Palm.

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Were the claws of decent size at least?

Where Where Where Where?

Always looking for new places up there.

I see that you are in Laguna Niguel...It might be easier to come on down to SAN where they just opened near Petco Park/Gaslamp. I drive up to San Clemente/Dana Point several times a month and it rarely takes me more than 45-60 mins and it is a much much more enjoyable drive.

Tie on a bib, grab a table and enjoy.

Yes, atrophy had played a part here was well but not near to the extent that was present with the tail.

They can be overcooked. It's criminal.

We came, we saw, we ate...
 

When in college, Waltham market sold large(5-9lb) lobsters very cheap($0.59-0.79 a pound). they were considered much less desirable than small 1-2 lb lobsters as they were tougher, and less sweet.

we bought many, steamed them, and chopped them up for salads, chinese, etc.

A 5-9 pounder would yield very close to 50% of weight in meat. A 5 lb lobster should have over 2 lbs of meat, not counting the stuff in the legs

because of all the cracking of crustaceans? :D Thanks for the report.

would tend to agree and I have been to steakhouses where the tail was obscene in size, mine at the Palm as reported above was tiny.

I'm not glad that you did not have leftovers, I too was envisioning leftovers for a Lobster BLT the following day, but sadly my lobster's tail left quite a bit to be desired from the size standpoint.

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Unfortunately it looks like this deal is more of a rip off. Tails are substandard in size and seems most of the weight is in the claws. So these lobsters would not be considered prime choice and thus sold at a discount which is passed along as a special deal here. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some rounding up of weight such as 4-1/2 pounders are sold as 5 pounders, etc.

Just an FYI but Maine lobsters do not have very big tails. As someone noted, their best meat is primarily in the claw. The lobster tail you get in most restaurants is from the South African Rock Lobster and these tails are much bigger and meatier than anything you'll find on a Maine lobster.

yep, I'm with you. I do buy Maine lobsters on a regular basis and while I agree with what you state, the tails are more in proportion than what I experienced at the Palm.

The lobsters at the Palm looked like the weightlifter guy who worked their huge upper body but forgot to workout their legs! :)

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The palm uses only lobsters from Novia Scotia I believe, so you would expect smaller tails. It's also possible they have already shed their shells and are in their new bigger shells and haven't grown into them. That makes the meat seem totally out of place, and the weight of the animal is high, because of the liquid filling those spaces, but the meat amount is lower. It's that time of the year, I would expect many of them to be soft shelled.

The hard shells (the ones that have not molted) have more meat for the size of the lobster, the soft shelled ones are supposed to be more tender and sweeter. I don't care, I love them all.

I wouldn't call them substandard, or anything else, it's how lobsters run this time of year.

As long as we're doing a lobster primer here, Maine lobsters are known as warm water lobsters. And South African lobsters are cold water lobsters.
Yeah, I know...Maine sounds cold but the Gulf Stream runs along the coast and the water is relatively warm.
And South Africa sounds warm but the waters are frigid.
Cold-water lobsters are considered more desirable than warm water as the meat is firmer and sweeter.
Or at least that's how the marketing pukes would explain it. ;)

pound for pound, Soft shells tend to have more meat than hard shells, as the shell weighs much less. Most large lobsters are mined off the coast of NJ in very deep water. they are then landed in the cape cod area of MA.

The water is very cold at those depths. Not many harvested Maine lobsters get to giant size. for some reason, the production of maine lobsters has skyrocketed, and the prices have fallen. I am not at all famaliar with nova scotia lobsters, but it is difficult to determine harvest location for most fish.

read recently where a guy illegally filled a boat with chilean sea bass and was chased half way around the world by authorities. he could have landed them in australia, or south africa.

The south african "rock lobster" is a giant crayfish, not a lobster.