"""<strong>The Reviewer: </strong>Pete Wells, <em>The New York Times</em><strong> Choice Cuts: </strong>Wells has not always hated the well-known steakhouse. At the start of his <a href=""""https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/dining/peter-luger-review-pete-wells.html"""">brutal zero-star review</a>, he recalls happily emptying out his wallet to eat one of their sizzling porterhouse or rib steaks in the 1990s. """"Because a Peter Luger steak made me feel alive in a way that few other things did, I considered this a fair trade."""" But a visit back in October 2019, did not encourage the same exchange. He likens the shrimp cocktail to """"cold latex dipped in ketchup and horseradish,"""" calls the dole """"dry and almost powder,"""" and the Caesar salad """"drippy"""" with croutons straight out of the bag. """"I know there was a time the German fried potatoes were brown and crunchy, because I eagerly ate them each time I went,"""" he writes. """"Now they are mushy, dingy, gray and sometimes cold. I look forward to them the way I look forward to finding a new, irregularly shaped mole."""" His porterhouse was equally disappointing. Though he """"could live"""" with its ranging degree of doneness despite his request for medium-rare, Wells still called the meat """"far from the best New York has to offer."""" <strong>The Pièce de Résistance: </strong>""""There is almost always a wait, with or without a reservation, and there is almost always a long line of supplicants against the wall. A kind word or reassuring smile from somebody on staff would help the time pass. The smile never comes. The Department of Motor Vehicles is a block party compared with the line at Peter Luger."""""""
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