John Thomas Steakhouse

Because it’s one of the nicer places in Ithaca, and the only steakhouse in town, one can’t help but have high expectations. But, it’s just okay. It doesn’t stand out in any particular way for me… it was surprising that they didn’t have maldon sea salt to sprinkle on your steak if you wanted it! :(
The porterhouse steak is nice to share though, even the smaller one will fill two up just fine. Their mushroom side is generally good, but again, nothing spectacular. Same with the brussels sprouts. If you say there’s pancetta, I must see and taste them! They did make for rare pleasant surprises though.
Lastly, the chocolate cake… was okay. There was a lot of potential only because I really love chocolate, but it was a stingy slice and the ice cream could have saved it but that was also dinky.

John Thomas Steakhouse is easily one of the nicest (and most expensive) restaurants in Ithaca, but it is definitely worth the dent it will put in your pocket. We started with the smoked mozzarella and tomato salad with balsamic and it was very good. My best friend and I shared the small porterhouse steak (cooked to a perfect medium rare) and it was more than enough food for us. The sides we shared were the fries/​fried onions, mashed potatoes (THE BEST SIDE), green beans almondine (the vegetable special) and mushroom caps (very close second to the mashed potatoes). The only critique I have of any of the food is that the steak and fries were just CRYING out for salt. It’s so important to liberally salt your steak so it gets that great tasty crust on the outside when you sear it and it was just missing a touch of salt. The same goes for the fries. But the quality of the steak was absolutely top notch and the fries were perfectly crisp. For dessert, we shared the crème brûlée, the cranberry raspberry crumble, and the flourless chocolate pâté (for our gluten free friend). This is definitely a great place for a special occasion or really fancy date. We had the private room upstairs, which is great for a group of about 8 – 10.
Also this place was great about allergies. One of our friends is gluten free and allergic to tree nuts and deathly allergic to salmon (which is on the menu). The waitress made sure that her food was clear of all of the possible allergens and even made sure to use new knives for her dessert to ensure no cross contamination. They made ordering really easy and this meal a pleasure for her.

I will say that the old saying «they don’t make em like that anymore,» fits well here! This is the old school Italian Steakhouse that your parents went to kind of place! The waiters are in the same suspenders and bowties. Desserts are brought out on a cart for guests to select from. Unfortunately, we had attended a cocktail event earlier but was still a bit hungry by the time we checked into La Tourelle (hotel) so we went there for a quick bite.
Desiring somethig light, we hoped for salads and appetizers. We found the menu overwhelming with delicious options! We ordered the mixed green salad witg blue cheese, the smoked trout and a HUGE veal chop to share. However, I ended up ordering the German friend potatoes as a side after looking at the waiters face in response to our desires to share our selected item. We really felt like we upset him!
Overall, huge huge chop! It lacked seasoning in my opinion but the demi glaze with big mushroom caps was delicious! The German potatoes were well seasoned, salad was great and the trout was a bit on the salty side but smoked well. The crème brûlée was amazing!

After hearing so many rave reviews we decided to make reservations for Valentine’s day here. The service is very good and polite, we had no issues with it and were seated very promptly. The atmosphere is very nice, very old-​school steakhouse feel, great lighting for a romantic dinner.
The reason my review has so few stars is the quality (or lack thereof) of the food. We paid the same price for a meal at Del Posto to eat extremely bland steak (that was very tender, granted) with no flavor whatsoever. We ordered the porterhouse for two.
The sides are a la carte and were very good (the german potatoes are delicious as are the garlic mashed potatoes). We had a crab cake appetizer that was decent, but the steak was honestly so disappointing. We should have gone to Texas Roudhouse grill because honestly their steak is that much better than what ours was. For the price, I would go literally anywhere else.
If you seek steak that doesn’t encourage you to become a vegetarian due to its complete lack of flavor, go elsewhere. It seemed like there was no butter, salt, or pepper (or any flavoring used) on our steak. It was honestly the worst tasting steak I have ever had, and I’ve never disliked any other steak I’ve eaten.
I cannot speak to the dessert, as we were so disappointed with the steak we went elsewhere for it.