Today was a pretty important day for me, and I was looking for a steak dinner. After a Yelp search of Northern Illinois, we settled on this place, which was a little over an hour from our home.
The menu had 4 steaks on it, and I ordered their filet mignon, medium rare, with a baked potato with sour cream, and their regular sized bowl of French Onion soup (it was a slight upcharge, but SOO worth it.) My wife ordered their Osso Bucco which was lamb, along with their soup of the day, which was clam chowder. She thought the soup tasted more like chicken, but did find a clam in it.
The interior attributes were nice lighting, nice wall artwork and nice carpets. That's hard to do in a restaurant, but they keep it clean here. The bathrooms were a bit dated, but were clean and did not smell bad at all.
Before we could get to dinner, fresh dinner rolls and butter were provided. These were hot out of the oven, and went well with the butter. The restaurant also provided a relish tray with onions, carrots, radishes and celery, and a small cracker and bread stick assortment to choose from. This was accompanied by a cheese and pimento spread, which worked great.
Dinner arrived. The filet was clearly dry aged, and it was cooked to medium rare as I had ordered it. It was served with au jus, was quite tender, and needed a little salt and pepper.
The French Onion soup was marvelous - a nice layer of mozzarella cheese was baked over a nice piece of bread, and there were plenty of onions in the soup.
The Osso Bucco was served with vegetables, noodles and sauce. The filet was served with vegetables and the hot baked potato.
Wine was $7 for a pour of a house variety - no wine list other than what is in the menu, which was no names, Red - Cabernet, Merlot, Pinot, and White which I didn't note.
Service was outstanding - the water stayed full, and our waiter Mike was very attentive. He brought my wife a box without being asked, and bagged the box for her after she transferred her leftovers to the box, again without being asked. Very good service.
This place was busy on a Friday night - I'd suggest you phone ahead for reservations. We arrived a little early for ours, but were seated within three minutes at a nice booth.
Other stuff: They do have a gambling machine area. They also have a pianist playing live music, who is quite good. If they are playing, leave a tip please - I did.
They also have a Touch Tunes Juke Box that you can karaoke on, if that bumps your starter. read more