Prime Seafood Palace

"Open for: DinnerPrice range: $$$Raucous celebrity chef Matty Matheson (you may have caught his turn on a little show called The Bear) owns numerous restaurants in the city via his Our House Hospitality Company. Prime Seafood Palace appears calm, as if it could moonlight as a Scandinavian sauna or secluded lodge in Northern Canada, but once you’re inside this wooden shrine to beef, Matheson’s soul shines through. At the pass, you’ll find culinary director Coulson Armstrong serving up brazen dishes with calculated panache, like a bougie caviar bite served on a hash brown; strands of perfectly bouncy al dente spaghetti with a mound of delicate lobster nuggets; and opulent, 20-ounce, dry-aged prime rib complete with velvety bordelaise and A5 wagyu drippings.Must-try dish: Their dark chocolate, Matilda-inspired cake is the stuff of sweet dreams." - Tiffany Leigh

"Chef Matty Matheson's ambitious steakhouse featuring a dazzling interior and a menu balancing seafood and big meats cooked on the grill." - Michael He

"Think of Canadian celebrity chef (most recently of The Bear) Matty Matheson’s Queen West restaurant as a luxe, contemporary take on a classic surf and turf house. The menu oozes with luxurious touches such as a halibut filet drenched in an eye-popping beurre blanc with orange trout roe, and more caviar than you could shake a mother-of-pearl spoon at. But don’t be distracted by the Wagyu steaks and over-the-top flourishes, because the details are where chef Matheson really sings. A local stracciatella covered with painstakingly aligned slivers of white asparagus and topped with ember-grilled squid requires the type of precision and vision of a chef who is so much more than just a hype master. Come for the classics, stay for the unexpected twists. A trip to the Prime Seafood Palace will cost you, but everything about this place looks, tastes, and feels oh-so-indulgent." - Todd Plummer

"To find the front door, you’ll have to follow your nose. The scent of barbecue wafts down an alleyway fitted with stacks of firewood. Inside, find a dazzling space lined with maple slats, a domed ceiling and salmon-pink booths and walls. There is nothing like it around, and no surprise that Chef Matty Matheson is the mastermind here behind the city’s newest and most ambitious steakhouse. The menu is tightly curated balancing fantastic seafood, big meats cooked on the grill and serious vegetable preparations. Sicilian crudo and delicate ricotta dumplings are proper preludes to a bone-in dry-aged strip loin. Supplements like palace potatoes, cacio e pepe-inspired cauliflower and steamed carrots with pink shrimp aim to be more than sideshows." - Michelin Inspector

"For raucous and lovable celebrity chef Matty Matheson (you may have caught his turn on a little show called The Bear), who owns numerous restaurants in the city via his Our House Hospitality Company, Prime Seafood Palace feels like an antithesis. The steakhouse appears calm and reserved, like it could moonlight as a Scandinavian sauna or cozy lodge in Northern Canada. But once you’re inside this wooden shrine to beef, Matheson’s soul shines through. At the pass, you’ll find culinary director Coulson Armstrong serving up brazen dishes with the calculated panache of a lavish steakhouse: The bougie “tea-time” sandwich layers sea urchin, tuna, and kaluga caviar; strands of perfectly bouncy al dente spaghetti embrace a mound of delicate lobster nuggets; and opulence is served as a 20-ounce caveman-size dry-aged prime rib, complete with a velvety sauce composed of bordelaise and rendered-down A5 wagyu drippings." - Tiffany Leigh