Restaurant review: House of Dawn Steakhouse chef drills deep into the details of beef

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House of Dawn Steakhouse

Where: 8171 Ackroyd Rd., Richmond
When: Dinner, Wednesday to Sunday
Info: 604-284-5038 | houseofdawn.ca

Opening a 10,000-square-foot restaurant, dressed in marble and glittering with chandeliers exploding with crystal ginkgo leaves, takes confidence.

House of Dawn opened with an Asian fusion food concept but struck out after a few months. Confidence intact, it rebranded as a steakhouse, and chef James Yang plans a pull-out-the-stops Michelin-luring tasting menu next year in an exclusive Dawn Tasting Room, which will be added to the current main dining room and two private rooms.

Over-confident? We’ll see. But Yang is obsessive. He spent an unpaid year at Noma in Copenhagen (which topped the World’s 50 Best list five times) and worked at the late two-Michelin L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon in Shanghai to learn from the best. But then he pivoted to not-so-haute Wolfgang’s Steakhouse and Peter Luger Steak House in New York.

Why such a pivot? Cooking at Noma and Robuchon’s restaurant, he faced reality. “I’m not talented enough to be that kind of chef,” he said, referring to the agonizingly precise, next-level cooking and mindsets in those kitchens.

He was encouraged by iconic British chef Marco Pierre White’s words: “He said, ‘Go deeper into yourself and discover what you like and serve what you like.’”

Deep down, Yang’s a steak guy.

“I could eat steak every day,” he says. “Steaks will never lie to you. It’s a simple ingredient that you don’t have to explain. That’s the magic of it. When you spend $100 or $200, you taste the difference. You just have to serve the best.”

During his time at Wolfgang’s, the pandemic struck. His boss, noting Yang had spent his days off in the restaurant’s butcher shop, eager to learn, referred him to the award-winning Australian ranch that supplied the restaurant’s beef. There, Yang learned how they raised great beef cattle, as well as butchering skills.

“I want to go deeper on everything,” says Yang.

The storied New York Peter Luger Steakhouse, founded in 1887, is no longer the beacon of great steakhood it once was, but there, Yang learned dry aging skills and restaurant operation. Combined with culinary science take-aways from Noma, he’s equipped to run a well-rounded, elevated steakhouse. Is steak a big draw for the Chinese community in Richmond?

“They never say no to a good steakhouse,” Yang says.

And prices at House of Dawn Steakhouse are a little lower than its Richmond competitor, Gordon Ramsay Steak.

The wagyu tartare ($29.50) is perfect, with truffle chipotle emulsion, sous vide egg yolk, pickles, potato crisp, a cloud of Parmigiano Reggiano and a topper of black truffles. The seafood tower includes fresh P.E.I. lobster tails, Alaskan king crab, oysters, prawns, kampachi crudo and condiments ($278 for full, $148 for half portion).

A Caesar salad ($18) is crisp, fresh and yummy, with hits of lardon and Parmigiano Reggiano. Truffle bison carpaccio ($29.50) is strewn with compressed cranberry (I love those pops of sour), Parmigiano Reggiano, garlic crisp, puffed amaranth, and black truffle, served with burnt garlic aioli.

And for the main attraction, the 14 steaks on the menu are from producers in Alberta, P.E.I., the U.S., Australia and Japan. And for Yang, it’s not just about the highest grade. He needs the story behind what the cattle ate, for how long, and the age when slaughtered. He looks for cattle that were grain-fed for 150 to 200 days for maximum marbling — any more and you lose some tenderness (although wagyu can be grain fed longer).

“The most flavour is from marbling. You get a cheesy, nutty, buttery flavour. That’s how you get super umami.”

Yang uses different producers for different parts of the animal. For example, he buys Prince Edward Island beef for striploins because of the potatoes in their diet.

“Normally after grassfeeding, they’re grain-fed but in P.E.I., they’re fed potatoes. There’s more fat, more flavour and it melts in your mouth. Rib-eyes, however, already have good fat, and you don’t want over-marbling.”

He dry-ages the meat for 28, 35, 45 or 60 days for tenderness and concentrated flavour, losing 10 to 15 per cent of the meat’s weight in the process. On the menu, you’ll notice the chocolate and the butter-aged striploins — sounds gimmicky but after dry aging for 28 days, the steaks are encased in cocoa butter or butter to mimic a wet aging environment for 14 days, further tenderizing and adding complexity, he says. I’d need a side-by-side tasting to detect the difference but all steaks I tried were super tender and flavourful enough, in my opinion.

They’re initially grilled over binchotan charcoal, infusing a light smokiness, and then finished under a blazing hot broiler for a crusty finish. It takes skill, he says. “That’s why I’m cooking all the steaks myself.”

Many of the 14 steaks on the menu are 16 ounces or more. Do steak lovers have enormous appetites? Not necessarily. There’s a gastronomic reason.

“We do offer small cuts, too, but for the steak experience, it’s best to share the larger cuts with friends because the bigger the cut, the more moisture and tenderness. There’s no bleeding of juices at all. Smaller cuts lose more moisture.” As well, he says, some people love the crispy thinner part and others love the tender. The larger cuts have both.”

Six sauces are offered to smother the steak with extra loving — Madeira demi-glace, bone marrow Bordelaise, cognac green peppercorn, brown butter Béarnaise, cowboy butter and blue cheese crust (each $6).

Should you make it to dessert, it’s Leo Liu’s first gig as a pastry chef and I’m impressed. A stylized tiramisu in a stemmed glass shows precision, as does the tumbleweed of chocolate curls crowning it.

The approachable wine list has, somewhat surprisingly, as many whites as the big reds you’d expect at a steakhouse. It’s nice that there are some reasonably priced offerings as well as the splurge-worthy Napas and Bordeaux. There’s a decent selection of Japanese whiskeys, and a variety of martinis on offer, but otherwise, cocktails lean to the tropical and fruity, often made with Asian ingredients.

The steak theme continues into some of their elevated, classic cocktails, which use wagyu-washed cognac or whiskey. Just want a beer? There are interesting choices of local craft brews.

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