Downtown Las Vegas doesn’t have a lot of restaurants that qualify as destinations – places that would make you go out of your way just to eat there. The Pullman Grille unfortunately doesn’t change that but it is one of the best restaurants in the area - one you should seek out if you’re going to be in the neighborhood.

Located at Main Street Station, just a block away from The Fremont Street Experience, The Pullman Grille suffers only in comparison to other steakhouses in this city, of which there are legion. It doesn’t do anything new or particularly different but its one of your few good steakhouse choices in Downtown Las Vegas and good enough to warrant your notice.

The room certainly is a stunner. Filled with antiquities and ornately carved woodwork from ancient homes in Europe, the Pullman Grille is infused with a warm ambience making it the type of place where you’d want to go with old friends for a glass of cognac and a cigar. In fact, if you enjoy that sort of thing you can step into the classic Pullman train car that takes up one entire wall of the restaurant where you’ll find aperitifs and a fully stocked cigar humidor.

The menu is humble and steakhouse basic with (mostly) seafood based appetizers, a couple of salads and soups, several different meat cut choices (New York Strip, filet, rib eye, etc.), and a few other poultry and seafood entrees to round things out. There is absolutely nothing to be found here that you won’t find at other steakhouses in town but sometimes that can be reassuring for folks so as long as you’re not looking for a thrill you won’t be disappointed.

A big basket of oven-hot sourdough bread started the evening and is worth fighting over the last pieces of. If you come with a big group, ask for a lot of this – you’ll thank me later.

We wanted to start with the only non-seafood based appetizer, one of those big blooming onion type things, but a problem in the kitchen foiled our attempts to pump some high-octane cholesterol into our veins. So instead we made due with a cup of the chicken vegetable soup and a rather standard Caesar salad. Neither made us jump out of our chairs but the soup, filled with big meaty chunks of chicken and hearty veggies was quite good and finished off to the bottom of the bowls with relative haste. Since a soup or salad is included in the entrée price it was a nice way to begin the meal but nothing we would’ve wanted to pay extra for.

For main courses we selected the New York Strip and the standard Filet Mignon, each coming with a choice of potatoes on the side also included in the entrée price. The filet was unexceptional at first but the more I dug into it the more I started to enjoy the smoky, woodhouse flavoring. A side of the peppercorn sauce didn’t hurt the proceedings but the bearnaise sauce was too lemony for my tastes.

The New York Strip wasn’t the best cut in town and wound up being tougher than it should’ve been. Probably best to stick to the more traditionally tender cuts of meat here.

For dessert you have your choice of crème brulee, cheesecake, warm fruit torts, and more but of course we went, as always, with the chocolate cake. It was a little heavy, with dense cake and extremely rich frosting adding up to chocolate overwhelm especially as a meal ender. I don’t usually say that about chocolate, ever, but in this case it applies.

The service at the meal was attentive and efficient, although we could’ve done without being parked at the bar before being seated. A five-minute wait for a table would’ve been fine on a busy night but we were one of a handful of guests and it felt like nothing more than an attempt to get us to buy a cocktail before dinner.

Prices are on par for restaurants of this caliber in this neighborhood, which is to say substantially cheaper than you’ll pay on The Strip. If you can’t do appetizers, your full meal (with all the pre-courses and sides included), dessert, wine, tax, and tip for WAY under $50 per person you’ve done something drastically wrong. Our check for two including cocktails came out to around $90.

The Pullman Grille is not the best steakhouse in town but it is worth your consideration if you happen to find yourself in the Downtown area and you’re looking for a traditional steakhouse meal.