Donovan's New Digs

A new entrant in a competitive meat market

Comments (0) By Stephen Lemons Thursday, Feb 3 2005

...continued from page 1

Despite this, the appetizers were magnificent, especially the Maryland crab cake, the bacon-wrapped scallops, and the seared lamb chops. The crab cake was one of the best I've ever had -- a big, flat patty wherein I could actually see nice chunks of crab as I ate. And just enough creaminess and spiciness had been added to make it more than plain crustacean meat. The bacon-wrapped scallops were big, plump, and with that ham-wrap, exceptional. You get four of them, as you also do of the lamb chops, which had been dusted with cayenne pepper and came with a béarnaise dipping sauce. With appetizers like these, screw the steak, I may just come back to eat starters at the bar.

Desserts were more of an afterthought: a brownie with vanilla ice cream, Key lime pie, crème brûlée, and so on. Not bad, by any means, but not extraordinary, either. Want to get me up to 100 percent satisfaction? Do something unusual, and go old school with cherries jubilee or bananas Foster, prepared tableside, or maybe even baked Alaska. Otherwise you risk being just one more great steak house in a Valley of great steak houses. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Jackie Mercandetti

Meat mavens: Executive chef Patrick Bria (left) and general manager Robert Volpe pimp that prime all the time at DonovanÂ’s.

Location Info

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Donovan's Steak and Chop House

3101 E. Camelback Road
Phoenix, AZ 85016

Category: Restaurant > American

Region: East Phoenix

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Details

Bacon-wrapped scallops: $11
Maryland crab cake: $13
Prime filet mignon (10 oz.): $35
Prime New York strip (16 oz.): $45

3101 East Camelback Road, Phoenix, 602-955-3666 (www.donovanssteakhouse.com).
Hours: 5 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday; closed Sundays.