Vigilucci's Seafood, Steak & Chop House

Review

location > 909 Prospect Street, Suite 290, La Jolla
phone > 858-454-9664
chef > Giorgio LoVerde

WHEN YOU WANT an all-American steak sandwich for lunch, here is the recipe. It’s expensive, but when you’re in that meaty mood, no lunch hits the spot quite so happily.

The previous evening, dine at a good steakhouse. Order:

1. Shrimp cocktail

2. Tossed salad with blue-cheese dressing

3. Steak of your choice

4. Baked potato with sour cream, butter, chives, bacon and Lipitor

5. Vegetables (optional, except in California)

6. Dessert (cheesecake for traditionalists)

Eat these courses in the order given, saving a nice hunk of steak to take home. This should not present a challenge, since you’ll be stuffed if you finish the potato, and there’s still dessert to come. The next morning, remove meat and butter from refrigerator two hours ahead of lunch, so they come to room temperature. Butter some excellent bread (French baguette preferred), slice the meat, arrange neatly, dust with salt and pepper, and there you go: a steak sandwich to remember.

Several generations of Americans have defined the ideal steakhouse dinner with precisely the menu given above. Grand and glorious, this meal wallops diners with fat and cholesterol, but even so, deluxe steakhouses continue to sprout in big cities across the country. And for many connoisseurs, the dividend of a dandy sandwich the next day ices the steak cake.

The meat started sizzling at Vigilucci’s Seafood, Steak & Chop House in La Jolla shortly before Christmas 2007. The place occupies sizable premises on the second floor of the Prospect Street complex that houses the Hard Rock Café and Forever Fondue. This seventh link in Roberto Vigilucci’s North County–based chain of quality Italian restaurants also is the most luxurious, and prices that match the high-flying menu and chic décor haven’t discouraged an eager public, so make reservations.

The terrace tables with views of La Jolla Cove likely rank among the most coveted in Southern California; otherwise, the adjacent front dining room is the preferred choice by day. However, this space can become rather frantic and loud at night, which makes the charming back room perfect for anyone who savors the sibilant sounds of spaghetti swirling onto spinning forks. The flattering lighting glows brightly enough to allow guests to read menus but softly enough to reinforce the mood of la dolce vita created by entrées such as the 20-ounce slab of prime rib ($37) and the thick, buttery 12-ounce veal chop with forest mushrooms and creamy cognac sauce ($41). The lighting fixtures themselves are gorgeous, exuberant sconces and chandeliers that tip sinuous, many-leaved metal vines with lily-shaped globes. On one side of this quiet room, a cozy wine room is visible through thick cutglass panels overlaid with cast-iron filigrees. In every detail, Vigilucci’s is a nice place to drop a bundle.

Contrarily emblematic of steak houses, shrimp cocktails also are indispensable, and this eatery might well win a nationwide contest to present the most impressive. Many places disingenuously describe their shrimpy shrimp as “prawns,” but the four behemoths that ring a footed glass cocktail dish at Vigilucci’s must be the largest of their kind available ($16). At some establishments, these big guys have been known to be tough as rubber hoses, but not here, where they are tender and tasty. The excellent tomato-based sauce punches the nose powerfully with fresh horseradish.

Alternative appetizers include oysters or cherrystone clams on the half-shell ($13.50), seared diver scallops with a brightly perfumed saffron sauce ($16), garlicky sautéed calamari in spicy tomato sauce ($12) and a carpaccio of ahi tuna decorated with crunchy pink peppercorns ($14). The menu’s lengthy salad list skips the blue cheese–bathed classic but offers a nice plate of greens, raspberries and pears with Gorgonzola cheese and lemon vinaigrette, and another winner with arugula, hearts of palm, tomatoes and black olives (each $9.75).

STEAKS, STEAKS, STEAKS——the menu lists seven, all prime, commencing with a “petite” filet that nonetheless weighs 8 ounces ($33) and going on to a 12-ounce filet ($41), a 20-ounce porterhouse ($42) and, if you can handle it, a 25-ounce rib-eye chop served alla Fiorentina, traditionally quite rare and flavored with salt, lemon and olive oil. There are a couple of bone-in cuts, too.

True steak fanciers may well favor the 16-ounce New York strip ($36), a beauty of a cut with a good, slightly chewy texture, excellent flavor and virtually no fat along the edge. On separate occasions, the kitchen sent strips that were precisely medium-rare, an impressive accomplishment given that many steakeries undercook as a matter of policy.

Steaks are lavishly garnished, an accommodation that contrasts favorably with the expensive à la carte sides sold by some fancy steakhouses. The kitchen piles on heaps of perfectly cooked baby vegetables, such as tiny green zucchini, Brussels sprouts, carrots, green beans and little yellow squashes. Lots of them. For starch, the choices range from French fries to a baked potato, fettuccine Alfredo or spaghetti tossed with garlic, olive oil and plenty of red-pepper flakes and parsley. It’s excellent with entrées like the pan-crisped, batter-coated giant prawns in lemon-garlic sauce, which is another Vigilucci’s triumph ($32). But with a New York strip, nothing betters the baked potato, baked to a near-molten texture and shamelessly slathered with butter, sour cream and any other goodies you want.

Worthy specials have included thickly cut halibut in a pungently perfect puttanesca sauce with black olives, garlic and capers ($18, at lunch). Otherwise, the sizable menu offers treats like spiedini skewers of assorted meats and vegetables ($30), a mixed grill of assorted fish and shellfish ($28) and lovely pastas like spaghetti allo scoglio tossed with seafood in a spicy sauce of tomatoes, onions and white wine ($20).

Smooth, tasty and filling, the orange-flavored crème brulee does the trick ($8). But the most memorable splurge is the tartuffo al caffe ($12), an elaborate presentation of cocoa-coated chocolate gelato placed atop layers of whipped cream and Grand Marnier–spiked espresso in a pretty glass goblet. There’s even a cherry on top.

Vigilucci’s Seafood, Steak & Chop House serves lunch Monday-Saturday, brunch on Sundays and dinner nightly, upstairs at 909 Prospect Street in La Jolla. Reservations: 858-454-9664.

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