Restaurant Steak?

deonb said:
If you like value, yes. If you like steak, no.
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The most expensive meal I have ever had was in one of those places. As for value - well, it definitely was a feast. Probably worth it for the experience. I would do it again - but there are none near me.
Like others have said, I almost never order steak in restaurants. Barbecue is another matter.

Dave
 
I just took 4 ribeyes off the grill.

My wife and I decided to “do it right” one night at a high end steak house in KC. They had some outstanding dry aged steaks. It was better than what I can do at home, but only because I won’t spend that much for a steak at home.
 
Minturn Country Club. I70 west out of Denver, 2hrs, turn south on the road between Vail and Avon, in the little town of Minturn.
 
Ravioli said:
[funny story: I used to not like Ruth's Chris because I eat slowly and the sizzling plate made it over cooked by the time I was done. After years someone said, "Ask them not to heat the plate." Duh!]
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Hah. Good luck with that. I generally order my steak rare at Ruth's Chris, and ALWAYS ask for it be served it on a cold plate. They have never actually done that.

So I now have a ritual where I order my steak and cold plate, but then I also sit ready with the bread side-plate. As soon as the waiter comes over with the steak, I grab the steak off the inventively sizzling hot plate onto my side plate (couple of times before the waiter even puts down the plate), and then ask the wide-eyed waiter again for a cold plate. Happened at least 4 times last year.

I don't really like Ruth's Chris's steaks, but they had a great Tenderloin & Arugula Carpaccio with White Truffle Vinaigrette last year, so we kept going back there.
 
Sac Arrow said:
I actually don't like Kobe beef. Too fatty for my taste.
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Aren't you following Keto...?

Either way, it takes a great Chef to get the fat on Kobe or any A5 Wagyu just right without overcooking the meat in the process. When done right, the streaks of marbling will be as soft as Foie Gras inside the meat. I

Tip: When you're at an ultra high-end steakhouse where you can really trust the Chef, don't order rare/medium rare etc. Order it: "Chef's choice". It gives the flexibility to the Chef to do what's needed based on the particular cut.
 
As "chains" go, The Palm isn't bad, but I usually get lobster there, but I've had steak as well.
 
We don't eat a ton of red meat and steaks for dinner are a once or twice a year occasion. By far the best steak I've ever had was at Bohanon's in San Antonio. Also by far, the most expensive meal I've ever had, surpassing even Le Pressoir in Grand Case, St. Martin... Which we go to every time we make it to the island. Incredible restaurant in all respects...although we've never had a steak there. Bohanon's steak was a mind blowing experience. The sides were merely good, and way overpriced.

And yes, the tip re/ "chef's choice" is dead on if you're in a good restaurant. I know it sounds snobby, but if you only like your steak medium well or well done, that means you don't like steak... You like whatever it turns into when you overcook it. It's like the difference between fresh tuna and canned tuna... Both of which I enjoy, but they are really two different foods.
 
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We had side by side Australian and Japanese Kobe-style beef at Victoria & Alberts at DisneyWorld as a part of a ten-course meal. That was by far the most expensive dinner tab I've run up.
 
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This is a hanger (hangar?) well flank steak anyway from Harris Ranch, cooked perfectly. From the Purple Board fly in meat-up. Pricey but good.

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Now this gem here was from a new American style steak restaurant in Vietnam about 30 steps from the apartment. This was about a $30 USD steak, probably Australian beef, and it's about as good as you're going to get around here save for the $$$$ hotel restaurants in the D1 HCMC (tourist district.) Low grade, gristly, basically Denny's quality but not burnt to death. They tried. I was the only one in the place, and this was like 7:00 p.m. on a Friday. That should have indicated something. I'm not exactly sure who they were trying to cater to. There is no way a Vietnamese is going to spend the equivalent of $30 USD on a meal, and there is no way the ex-pats, almost all Aussies and Brits, are going to trust a Vietnamese steak house pretending to be western style.
 
Texas Roadhouse is about the only chain place I'll attempt get a steak - always ribeye - unless I'm getting carne asada at a decent Mexican restaurant.

There is a place in downtown Greenville, SC called "Husk" that has a 44 oz (sharable) bone-in ribeye that is by far the best restaurant steak I have ever had.
 
The last steak I ever ate, I cut it with a switchblade I’d bought in Mexico. I had a full head of hair and Reagan was POTUS.
 
The best steak I ate at a restaurant was at a place called "The Grate Steak." You order your steak and they brought it to you raw. They had a room on the side which had a giant charcoal grill. You went in and drank beer and cooked your steak and baked a potato. The salad bar was 20 yards long. It was near Norfolk VA but the owner passed away and it shut down.
 
Half Fast said:
I’m so sorry. Maybe we could start a go fund me campaign and raise enough for you to have another.
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I suppose if I gave up the airplane I could afford to eat steak. That said, I gave up meat long ago and have no desire to look back.
 
cgrab said:
The best steak I ate at a restaurant was at a place called "The Grate Steak." You order your steak and they brought it to you raw. They had a room on the side which had a giant charcoal grill. You went in and drank beer and cooked your steak and baked a potato. The salad bar was 20 yards long. It was near Norfolk VA but the owner passed away and it shut down.
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Oh man. You had me hooked for a split second. I have to go to Norfolk sometimes for work and thought "Perfect! I can check this place out!" then I read the last few words of the sentence. DOH!
 
Ryanb said:
What restaurant chain do y’all think has the best steak? I’m usually not a fan of restaurant steak, as they all taste alike, and the higher end joints like Ruth’s Chris are just waaay overpriced. I went to LongHorn the other night and was thoroughly impressed with their 8oz Renegade steak. Had it cooked medium-well and it was excellent. Outback, Texas Roadhouse, and most other common chains aren’t anything special imo. The best steak is cooked at home on the grill, but when it comes to restaurant steaks, where do you go?
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If you have steak cooked medium-well, they will all taste alike. Medium-rare, or less, per Hank Hill.
 
FlySince9 said:
Everybody gets their steaks from COSTCO.
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Or Restaurant Depot. I finally got into our local Depot, when they suspended the membership requirement due to some combination of civic-mindedness to help people find food that was in short supply due to the pandemic, and to bolster sales at a time when their restaurant customers were either closed or doing take-out only. Normally they only grant memberships to businesses who can show their tax exempt status.

It's a fascinating place, both to marvel at the quantities sold and the low per-unit pricing. Of course, if you can't justify buying half-gallon quantities of condiments at Costco, you probably won't be coming home with 5-gallon buckets of hot sauce and mayonaise from Restaurant Depot. But when you find something in a quantity you can use, the prices are usually astonishingly good.

And it's a great place to get huge cuts of meat for the smoker!
 
I get a "free" membership to Restaurant Depot. I haven't been yet, but I do have a few buddies that like to pop in to check out some of their food prep equipment they use for catering jobs.
 
Ravioli said:
Texas Land and Cattle or Salt Grass for that restaurant tier.
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Not a fan of Texas Road Horse ... Salt Grass here is OK, but WAY better in Austin. Great American in our area is good, but the top of the line is Cattleman's Steakhouse in Fabens TX (one of a kind). If you're ever in El Paso, try Cattleman's ... you won't be disappointed.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
We have a place called Perry's that is probably the best I've ever had. I don't know if it is nationwide or not.

Check out these photos. Drool.
https://perryssteakhouse.com/
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Oceanaire is a better chain in town. And Bob's, Nick and Sam's, Al Bernat's, and Javier's are superior IMO.

The Place at Perry's (the old Perry's) was also better than Perry's, but alas, it is no more.
 
Most expensive steak I ever had was at Charley’s in Orlando. Took my wife there on our first date. So far that steak has cost me at least a half million. And counting.

Excellent steak, though.
 
flyingron said:
I'm not overly fond of any of the chain steakhouses. The ones that have decent meat are usually insanely overpriced (Mortons and the like). There are some pretty good local ones around the country.

The place I was immensely disappointed with was my trip to Nebraska (Omaha, Grand Island, etc...). Having lived in Denver and traveling to Dallas a lot on business, I just assumed you could find good steaks in what I considered cattle country. Not so Nebraska. I never had a decent steak while I was there. The one place that had acceptable meat, fouled it up with terrible preparation.

Since lockdown, I've been picking up USDA Prime cuts at Costco which aren't too unreasonably priced (though the quality of the butchering is bizarre). One of my neighbors got me hooked on sous vide preparation, easy peasy. Take your meat, sprinkle a little salt and pepper (or if you're lazy, McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning) and add the meat and a little olive oil to a zip lock bag and into the sous vide bath. I had experimented with various herb additions, but decided they really didn't do much. Throw it in the sous vide bath for about an hour or so and you get something uniformly medium rare throughout. It's at this point I prepare a big salad and Margy usually has her homemade bread ready and goes and cuts fresh chives from the garden. I throw two baked potatoes in the Advantium (what I called the EZ Bake oven, the potatoes are done in 11 minutes). Get a cast iron skillet hot and add olive oil and butter (oddly, I've tried both individually and they do not work as well). Using tongs, sear the meat on the top and bottom and edges.

The nice thing about sous vide is other than the light surface char from the finishing, everything else is uniformly at the 130 degree temperature. This is rare enough for my purposes. A lot of people order things rare because by the you get a char with regular preparation, you've over cooked the middle of all but the thickest cuts, and even those have a good amount of overdone meat.

Mine is a Joule unit (about $120 off Amazon if I recall properly).
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Your detailed description of a two-person two-hour kitchen assault reminds me why places like Morton's and Ruth's Chris are worth the money to me. :D
 
CJones said:
Oh man. You had me hooked for a split second. I have to go to Norfolk sometimes for work and thought "Perfect! I can check this place out!" then I read the last few words of the sentence. DOH!
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Sorry to burst your bubble. We go to the beach cabins at Dam Neck each year and really miss it as well.
 
schmookeeg said:
Your detailed description of a two-person two-hour kitchen assault reminds me why places like Morton's and Ruth's Chris are worth the money to me. :D
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Nope, sous vide is easy. It takes about three minutes to prep and then you can let it go as long as you like (within reason). The thing just sits there at 130 degrees or what you set it to. The finish step including baking the potatoes, and searing the meat takes another ten minutes. Margy's job is purely to get us fresh chives (which none of the restaurants I've been to offer).

The only downside is cleaning up my cast iron frying pan, but that only takes a few minutes more.
 
I can't recall anything spectacular in any restaurant. Some are good, others not so good. I agree about Ruth's Chris being expensive. I recall eating at three of them over the years, and walking by many others. If you want, I can tell you where the one in Taipei is located (at least as of over 5 years ago), but I haven't stopped in there. It was certainly conveniently located, about half way between the hotel I usually stayed in and Intel's office in Taipei. Same building as a Mickey D's. :D

Now, a number of years ago the butcher at Foodland in Princeville, Hawaii turned us on to a simple Chuck Eye, marinated in teriyaki sauce, then BBQed. That's been our go to steak at home ever since. Very tender, nice and tasty, and far less expensive than most other cuts. The downside is that it isn't always available at Safeway, so when it is we get a few and toss them in the freezer.
 
Ghery said:
I can't recall anything spectacular in any restaurant. Some are good, others not so good. I agree about Ruth's Chris being expensive.
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I personally can't stand the way Ruth Chris cooks their steaks. Not sure what it is, but didn't like the taste and texture. Ate there once, decided not to go back, then a year or two later one of my in-laws decided to "treat" me to a meal there. Still didn't like it. Ate once or twice at Morton's; Meh, not bad but not really a standout.

My personal favorite is the Metropolitan Grill in downtown Seattle. El Gaucho in Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland isn't bad, either.

Ron Wanttaja
 
The original question said chain, so Longhorn. When traveling, it is the choice. When not traveling, why eat anywhere but home?

For those saying your own grill, is that carry on or are you checking it? I presume you’re getting charcoal or a propane tank when you arrive?
 
Years ago I showed up in Taipei for my sister's wedding. The groom's father thought he was going to give us a special treat by taking us out to a restaurant he knew we'd like... The Ponderosa Steakhouse. Fortunately, the line was too long and we decided to go eat Chinese food instead.
 
Ghery said:
.. Hawaii turned us on to a simple Chuck Eye, marinated in teriyaki sauce, then BBQed. That's been our go to steak at home ever since. Very tender, nice and tasty, and far less expensive than most other cuts...
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Would you PLEASE shut up? We discovered chuck eyes a couple years ago, and are REALLY hoping the word doesn't get out. Remember what happened to the price of chicken wings after people got wind of how good they can be about thirty years ago or so?

(said good-naturedly, of course). Chuck eyes, since they're usually a little on the small size, make GREAT steaks for a steak and egg breakfast. The tenderness and flavorfulness of a Delmonico/Ribeye, but about half the size.

Re/ another poster who mentioned cleaning his cast iron pan as the only drawback to his prep.. I've never understood that. I find them incredibly easy to wash... except for hefting the larger ones and tucking them in the back of the cabinet where my wife insists they belong. After the food comes out, a couple tablespoons of water go in the hot pan (unless I'm deglazing and making a pan sauce, in which case the pan pretty much washes itself in the process), the intense steam loosens everything immediately, a quick rinse'n'wipe, then film w/ oil. Done. Takes 15 seconds, tops. NOTHING sticks to mine. I've got a cast iron griddle that spans two burners on my stovetop, and it's incredible. Never had an issue with fried or over-easy eggs, and it's the kind of cast iron w/ a pebbled surface. LOVE me some cast iron.
 
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I didn't say it was hard. I just said it was the biggest part of the project. It was to counter someone else complaining that my sous vide strategy was too much work. The only thing that needs washing is the pan. It just takes some hot water and a metal brush I have for the purpose to remove the excess fat from the pan.
 
Lindey's Prime Steak House in the Twin Cities. Harris' in San Francisco. Three Forks in Addison, TX.
 
Shawn said:
I don't know how you screw up a steak but Denny's does a pretty good job at it.
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Patton Oswalt does a great bit on Denny's in his latest special, "I Love Everything." On Netflix now.
 
cgrab said:
The best steak I ate at a restaurant was at a place called "The Grate Steak." You order your steak and they brought it to you raw. They had a room on the side which had a giant charcoal grill. You went in and drank beer and cooked your steak and baked a potato. The salad bar was 20 yards long. It was near Norfolk VA but the owner passed away and it shut down.
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We have a place like that here in central IL. Come on over.
 
I once travelled with a couple who claimed snobbily to be restaurant owners and were always talking about gourmet issues. Somewhere in the middle of the trip I found out they had a couple of Denny's franchises.
 
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