Matt C.
Yelp
My wife and I spent an evening here for Valentine's Day weekend. I'd heard about Metro many times over the years, but had never been until now. My wife had graced their doors before, but not in a long, long time. Making reservations was easy, and they called to confirm a few hours before our scheduled time. When we arrived, we were promptly shown to our table. Our server, Kari, was one of the highlights of the evening. Not only was she friendly, but she was also humorous, no-nonsense without being aggressive, and incredibly knowledgable (when asked what was in their special bread-dipping sauce, she was able to list off the plethora of ingredients). She even offered to take a picture of the two of us at the end of the meal. She definitely earned her tip.
I knew that Metro was known for its flash-fried spinach, so for appetizers, we got a half-order of that and a half-order of the "Dad," which were a couple of ribeye meatballs filled with cheese and served in a red sauce. The meatballs were good, but that flash-fried spinach was AMAZING. And I'm not a big fan of spinach; usually, the extent of my spinach-eating involves spinach & artichoke dip. Tossed in garlic and parmesan and drizzled with lemon, it was simply melt-in-your-mouth delicious.
My wife ordered a half order of the Dr. Coger Salmon, and I decided to try an off-menu special they had, which was an 8oz Wagyu ribeye with shrimp. Unfortunately, because it was Valentine's Day weekend, which meant they were very busy, they did not have all of their normal sides available to choose from. Every meal came with the smoked Gouda mashed potatoes and haricot verts (aka "green beans"). It's not what I wanted (I was hoping to get the risotto and fries), but I'm a fan of mashed potatoes and green beans in general, so it wasn't a huge deal.
My steak was phenomenal. I always order medium-rare, and that can result in a lot of different steaks depending on the cook's own opinion of what constitutes a good, medium-rare steak, but this was a perfect example of how a medium-rare steak should look. We've eaten at Flame many times for our anniversary dinner, and while they do have fantastic steaks, none of them ever came out this nice. Perhaps part of it can be chalked up to the Wagyu beef, and I can't say if their normal steaks come out looking or tasting this nice, but regardless, it was one of the best steaks I've ever had. The only better steak I can recall having came from Ruth's Chris. The 2 shrimp that accompanied it were huge and tasty. Just the right amount of surf to go with my turf. My wife enjoyed her salmon as well, and the chai dijon sauce it came with was an excellent pair to the fish.
I will say that the portion size for the sides seemed disproportionately small. I get they want to make the plate look fancy, but each of us only received 4 green beans as a side. Granted, they were long, so perhaps they were equivalent to 8 regular-length green beans, but they're also thin, so it just didn't seem like much. Likewise, the amount of the mashed potatoes seemed lacking.
Perhaps because of the smaller portions, we had enough space at the end of the meal that we decided to opt for some dessert, which is something we rarely do. There was either a chocolate torte with raspberry compote, or a sopapilla cheesecake slice. We chose the cheesecake and are so glad we did! Though we didn't get a picture of it, it was a decadent treat covered with gooey caramel and cinnamon, and we devoured it fairly quickly.
Overall, this was a great dinner, with good ambiance, a wonderful server, and excellent food. The only things keeping me from giving this place a full 5 stars would be portion size and price. With two half-appetizers, two meals (one of which was a half order), one drink each (a glass of wine and a beer), dessert, tax, and a well-deserved tip, we dropped $170 for 2 people. Yes, Wagyu beef is expensive, but it shouldn't be that expensive. We don't normally throw that kind of money around for a dinner, but it was a special occasion (and with a 9-month-old, we don't get those often). We will definitely keep Metro Grille in the pocket though for future occasions like anniversary dinners.