{"id":18173,"date":"2016-12-09T09:00:43","date_gmt":"2016-12-09T14:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/accessniagara.com\/blog\/?p=18173"},"modified":"2016-12-16T13:53:46","modified_gmt":"2016-12-16T18:53:46","slug":"dinner-at-sparks-steakhouse-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/accessniagara.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/09\/dinner-at-sparks-steakhouse-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Dinner at Sparks Steakhouse – Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Back in August I blogged about a new restaurant in Niagara Falls<\/a>, Sparks Steakhouse<\/a>. This used to be the location of The Beef Baron on Centre St, but at some point it had re-opened as two separate restaurants. One portion of the building is\u00a0Maharaja Grand<\/a>\u00a0which sells South Asian (Indian) food, while another part is Sparks Steakhouse<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from the General Manager. He had seen my posting, and invited me to come and check it out. Well, about two weeks ago my wife and I went and had the most wonderful meal.<\/p>\n

Note: The meal was courtesy of Sparks Steakhouse. I hope that you accept my comments here honest, and not just because they offered me a complimentary meal. The food truly was amazing, and the service was exceptional.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Seeing as I was there on a cold night in late Fall, the restaurant was not very busy. This gave me lots of time to chat with our server, Walter, as well as one of the owners. Jordan, the General Manager, was not there that night.<\/p>\n

The original owners of The Beef Baron sold the restaurant to someone several years ago.\u00a0The restaurant continued under that new ownership until this past Spring, when the current ownership bought it. I commented that I hadn’t really seen any promotion for the new restaurants, and they said they originally had\u00a0some plans, but then were delayed. Despite the lack of advertising, they had a very good summer.<\/p>\n

The new owners have the rights to The Beef Baron name, but decided to go a different direction. With plans to open part of the building as a restaurant selling\u00a0South Asian (Indian) food, they wanted to \u00a0choose a name that was less “beef” themed (cows are considered sacred<\/a> in the Hindu faith). They decided on the name Sparks Steakhouse<\/a>, and decided to use a mobster theme. There are prints on the walls of John Gotti and others.<\/p>\n

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Although the two restaurants are in the same building, they are two distinct restaurants. The large doors are for Maharaja Grand<\/a>, and a smaller door on the right is for Sparks Steakhouse<\/a>. On the evening we were there, since business was slow, they were using only the main doors (you can get from one restaurant to the other from inside). As we walked into Maharaja Grand<\/a>, you could smell a hint of spices that would be used when cooking\u00a0South Asian (Indian) food. However, as soon as we walked over to the Sparks Steakhouse<\/a> side, the smell was gone. When the separate door to Sparks Steakhouse is used, I would assume you wouldn’t notice the smell of spices at all. We asked about this, and was told that they are very aware that people may have concerns about going into a steakhouse and they won’t smell the steak. We were told that food is cooked on different stoves\/grills in the kitchen, and that the exhaust fans are always running to minimize the smell. I’m not sure what it would be like when the restaurants are a lot busier, but it seemed fine when we were there.<\/p>\n

The restaurant is very nicely decorated. My wife said it was “classy, but comfortable”. We enjoy good food, but overly “fancy” restaurants kind of make us uncomfortable. Sparks Steakhouse<\/a> is definitely on the higher end of restaurants that we would go to, but compared to others we’ve been to, felt quite comfortable there. The lighting was low, but not too dim. Since we were there near the beginning of the Christmas season, there was some nice classic Christmas background music.<\/p>\n

Here are a few other pictures I took while inside the restaurant:<\/p>\n