New Chef Bringing Table-Side Service Front & Center to Bourbon Steak at Levi’s Stadium
Raised in Yorkshire, England, Executive Chef Lee Bennett was head chef at Gordon Ramsay’s Savoy Grill, worked at Alain Ducasse’s Hotel Plaza Athenee in Paris, and has cooked at events for the likes of David Beckham, and the royal family.
Now, he’s bringing his years of classical training and a bit of British sensibility to Bourbon Steak & Bourbon Pub at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.
Most notably with table-side service with carts, which he hopes will distinguish Bourbon Steak from other steakhouses in the area.
“The older people remember table service and love it,” Bennett says. “And it’s so old-fashioned that Millennials have never seen it, so they think it’s cool.”
Each day, Bennett plans to feature a rotating special done table-side. It will include everything from beef Wellington or Dover sole finished table-side to bananas Foster flamed in front of diners.
Last week, I had a chance to check out the new offerings, when I was invited in as a guest of the restaurant.
Bennett took over the helm at the steak house and adjacent Bourbon Pub in January — just in time for the Super Bowl. Although his wife is American, Bennett says he was still getting the hang of football in the states, when the big game descended upon him.
“I don’t know the game too well,” he says with a chuckle. “But it was a phenomenal experience. We opened up the restaurant after the game because Beyonce, Stephen Curry and others wanted a bite to eat. It was great!”
You may not spot celebrities like that on a daily basis, but if you go on a weeknight as I did, you will see many tables with parties of men exclusively. It points to the fact that this spendy restaurant is a prime place for conducting business with big expense accounts.
No matter when you go, though, just remember: Because the restaurant is situated right on the ground level of the 49ers’ stadium, you can’t get into either the upscale steakhouse or the casual pub when the Niners are playing home games — unless you are a game ticket holder. In fact, the whole restaurant and pub becomes the ultimate gourmet tailgating extravaganza on game days — but only for season ticket-holders who pony up $5,000 each for the 10-game season. After the game ends, the restaurant and pub are open to any ticket holder.
Similarly, if One Direction, Taylor Swift or any other concert or special event is holding court at the stadium, you can’t get into the restaurant or pub, either, unless you have a ticket to said event.
In other words, it pays to call ahead just to make sure you can dine when you want.
As at any Michael Mina restaurant, the meal starts off on a decadent note — the signature duck fat-fried fries that come with three seasonings (ranch, barbecue, and seaweed) and three dipping sauces (caper aioli, a Thousand Island-like “secret sauce,” and Korean chile sauce).
Dinner began with ahi tuna & hamachi poppers ($19). Addicting little crisp rice cakes are mounded with chopped ahi and hamachi, then garnished with tobiko. A bowl of ponzu sauce is alongside for you to add at your will. You’ll wish you could eat about a dozen of these.
That was followed by a lobster salad ($24). The plump tail meat was arranged beside an avocado wedge seasoned with togarashi. Pickled radishes added vibrancy, as a sumac-jalapeno vinaigrette added just a touch of heat. Fried phyllo shreds provided a nice crunch. Even though lobster and avocado are both rich ingredients, the salad still managed to be light and clean tasting.
Then came the first table-side preparation — Dover sole straight from England. It’s a classic fish you don’t see very often anymore. And Bennett wisely prepares it the old-school way — pan-cooked, then filleted at the table, presented on a bed of garlic-laced spinach, and finally finished with sauce Meuniere, redolent of brown butter, capers and fresh lemon juice. The fish, so delicate and moist, needed nothing else.
Next came another table-side dish — double-cut Wagyu strip steak with a robust beefy flavor. It was sliced on the cart, before being plated with beef cheek tortellini garnished with a few black truffle bits, parmesan cream, and sauce Bourdelaise. This is the kind of dish you come to a steakhouse for — expensive, high-quality beef presented with aplomb.
The steak arrived with three side dishes ($9) each: red wine-braised mushrooms with pearl onions, which is a nice counterpart to all that heavy, rich beef; black truffle mac and cheese, which was as creamy and indulgent as it sounds; and an unexpected spicy fried rice topped with a fried egg. Bennett says some people like the rice so much they order it as an appetizer. It’s a fun dish with heat and big bits of pork belly throughout. The texture of the rice isn’t as crisp as you’d expect for fried rice. It’s more fluffy, paella-like. But as my husband joked, it’s probably because a Michael Mina restaurant is not going to use day-old rice like a Chinese restaurant would.
A smidge of blackberry sorbet arrived to clear the palate, before the next table-side show arrived: crepes Suzette. As Bennett energetically rolled the cart to our table, he exclaimed, “When’s the last time you had crepes Suzette?”
Frankly, it’s probably been years. But there is something wonderfully nostalgic about seeing it made in front of you — huge flames and all when the orange liqueur is poured into the hot pan with the orange segments and tender crepes. Soft chantilly cream is spooned over as a final touch. You dig in and think some things like this just never go out of style — for good reason.
Would you believe there was more dessert to follow? But who can ever pass up cinnamon sugar-dusted warm beignets ($11), especially when they are dipped in butterscotch custard made with real Macallan scotch? This is butterscotch pot de creme for grown-ups — not cloying in any way, and with that unmistakable throat-warming scotch to cap it off.
Finally, there was a deconstructed vanilla cheesecake ($11) with brown butter foam, quince and spice cake. Drag your fork through it and you get bits of each to enjoy all at once. It doesn’t weigh you down like a full-on big slab of traditional cheesecake would, either.
At Bourbon Steak at Levi’s Stadium, what’s old is definitely new again.
More: My 2015 Visit to Bourbon Steak Levi’s Stadium Complete with Bourbon Cart
Wow, that was a lot of food for two people. With the tableside service, it does have a certain nostalgic feel to it.
Love tableside service. Miss seeing that with most places these days.
Looks fantastic! We don’t get a lot of table service here. I’m wondering why because it is so much fun. I remember seeing it suggested quite a bit on Gordon Ramsay’s Hells Kitchen.