This elegant, 350-seat steakhouse is one of the fancier restaurants in The Village at Gulfstream Park Racing & Casino. The sprawling space is divided into five rooms, each with its own look, plus there’s a bar and patio.. A little more innovation would be welcome but everything is made in-house and most dishes are bound to be crowd pleasers. Steaks rule (we’d recommend the rib-eye) and other good bets include the III Forks salad, seafood medley starter, catch of the day and bread pudding.
The dust has mostly settled. Business is underway at gleaming new stores like Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn and West Elm. And more than half the 20 restaurants and clubs coming to The Village at Gulfstream Park Racing & Casino in Hallandale Beach have opened.
Judging by Saturday night, albeit the last night of the racing season, an early favorite is the elegant steakhouse III Forks. A well-heeled crowd packed the 350-seat restaurant, the seventh location for a Texas-based chain that also owns Cantina Laredo, III Forks' next-door neighbor at Gulfstream.
III Forks has a sophisticated setting, with dark woods, vaulted ceilings and glass-enclosed wine rooms showcasing 1,500 bottles, from a $28 Chateau St. Michelle reisling to a $1,900 Screaming Eagle cabernet. There's an on-site sommelier as well as a pastry chef.
The sprawling space, which opened Feb. 11, is divided into five dining rooms, a patio and bar. The coziest might be the Legends Room, with beaded chandeliers and black-and-white photos of icons like President Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra.
The limited menu of starters sticks to basics like shrimp cocktail, French onion soup and wedge salad. A little more innovation would be welcome but everything is made in-house and most dishes are bound to be crowd pleasers.
Our friendly server started us off with a terrific III Forks salad -- a summery mix of Granny Smith apple slices, toasted pecans, blue cheese and field greens in a light maple walnut vinaigrette. The kitchen even split it for us.
The seafood medley features three rich items from the appetizer list -- a delicious two-ounce crab cake, bacon-wrapped diver scallop meunière and two chilled shrimp with a zesty cocktail sauce -- that's fine for two.
Steaks star, with a choice of eight to 10 cuts. Our favorite is the 18-ounce, bone-in rib-eye, perfectly cooked medium-rare with a warm, rosy center, phenomenal charred crust and flavorful marbling.
Specials on our visit included an $89.99, 36-ounce ``Tomahawk'' long-bone rib-eye and a $69.99, 16-ounce Wagyu New York strip. The prized beef is certainly juicy and buttery tender, but I can't say that it's worth $40 more than our excellent rib-eye. (Most steaks are butchered in-house so you can get the size and cut you want.)
There are a half-dozen seafood choices, including an Australian lobster tail, Atlantic salmon, shrimp platter and Chilean sea bass. The fresh catch was glistening grilled grouper, a moist and juicy plank of fish served with a slightly sweet coconut beurre blanc sauce. (If you're here for lunch, Forks makes a wonderful blackened fish sandwich -- whatever's the fresh catch -- with fries for $14.95.)
There's also roasted chicken, rack of lamb and prime rib. Most entrees are a la carte, so you'll want to share a side or two. There's asparagus with sliced toasted almonds, creamed corn and button mushrooms in a potent Maker's Mark sauce. Six Cheese Potatoes is too much of a good thing -- sliced Idaho potatoes topped with a bechamel sauce plus asiago, provolone, Cheddar, Parmesan, mozzarella and Monterey Jack.
Desserts are also over-the-top, like the gigantic six-layer chocolate ganache cake with ultra rich icing and toasted coconut. Even better: heavenly bread pudding -- challah in a decadent bourbon-pecan-caramel sauce, served with house-made cinnamon ice cream and strawberries.
Odds are III Forks will help The Village become a destination even if the ponies aren't running.
