Jason P.
Yelp
Taino Prime ("Prime") in Meriden and Taino Smokehouse ("Smokehouse") in Middletown, are like two charismatic siblings, who decided to walk different paths in life. While Smokehouse, and especially its cool outside eating area, has an awesome vibe in its small digs, it shares a nondescript plaza with a hardware store. Prime, on the other hand, is in a large, handsome, residential-looking, stand alone structure. Prime is stylish and elegant in a way not of Connecticut. Its gorgeous stained woods, cattle horn art, orange splashes, cool light fixtures and myriad accent pieces would be more comfortable in Dallas or Oklahoma City. But I'm glad Prime is in CT. I think it has one of the coolest interior restaurant designs in CT.
The food at Prime and Smokehouse intersect in many places - ribs, brisket, burgers, wings, sides, etc. However, Smokehouse is comfortable hosting the best backyard BBQ. Prime aspires to a fancy life in the big city, and offers $50 dry aged strips, penne alla vodka and seared Faroe Island salmon. Smokehouse serves Mac and Cheese with a velvety Southwest cheese sauce and traditional kid fav - elbows. Prime glams it up with shells. Smokehouse would be happy to win blue ribbons at the State Fair for best desserts. Prime has a pastry chef who is experimenting to get just the right taste for the lemon meringue flavor and pistachio flavor eclairs. Both Prime and Smokehouse are favorites, they just go about it differently.
I visited Prime for lunch this week. Service was friendly, attentive and interactive. By interactive, I mean guests were given samples of the above-mentioned eclairs and asked for feedback. I'll just say they were delicious since they may be works in progress.
I ordered the smoked corned beef Reuben grilled cheese special and subbed Mac and cheese for the fries. The sandwich consisted of thinly sliced house smoked corned beef, gruyere, sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing on buttered and grilled Texas Toast. I also ordered a piece of killer corn bread with a tasty vanilla butter.
The sandwich didn't completely work for me. It looked great and had great "bones", but the corned beef was very salty (even by corned beef standards). Some bites tasted and felt more like pastrami because the meat had a peppery seasoning. I prefer the corned beef chunks that I've had at Smokehouse than this thinly sliced version. Given the strong salty flavor of the meat, it was hard to pick up the other flavors in the sandwich beyond the buttery grilled Texas toast. When I separately tried the individual sandwich components, they were all good.
Prime's Mac and Cheese tasted similar to Smokehouse's, which is a very good thing. I don't always like shells for Mac, but they were a good fit for Prime's velvety and substantial cheese sauce.
Given the saltiness of the corned beef, this wasn't my best experience with Prime. But in light of the great service, awesome interior design and quality ingredients, it was still a Four Star experience for me. I'll probably stick with tried and true favorites next time though.