Yes, friends! It's another house turned into a restaurant, complete with multiple dining rooms that look like home and even a gift shop by the front entrance. But you're probably wondering....does the food measure up with the décor? Well..
Much to our delight, the evening's dinner was better than anticipated. Not quite top notch, but...let's just say we may have finally found a prime rib that's worth its weight in water because it actually has SOME seasoning. Granted, that implies it needed a bit more but...at this point, we'll take what we can get, right?
I should mention now that when we get in, service was a bit...spaced out, gap wise. We'd essentially wait like, 10 to 15 minutes before the server came back for drink orders. What's worse is we apparently had two servers anyway. Which means service should have been twice as fast. I dunno...perhaps my math is off a bit here, but...two times one = ?...eh..moving on.
We start the evening off with a couple of Caesar salads which...ain't half bad. Croutons could have been slightly more bite sized and less stale. There could have been a touch more dressing, too. Not overwhelming so to the point of soggy lettuce or anything. Just...more than a spritz. Flavor was fine, though. 7 out of 10, would *probably* get it again.
Now then. The main course. Both the wife and I ended up getting the same thing: the slow roasted prime rib. We got different sides, which we'll talk about in a minute.
BLUF: the prime rib was better than we expected, but certainly not perfect. For one thing, we expected them to serve the au jus in its own cup (like you do). But no...this place simply allows the au jus to rest comfortably at the bottom of your plate. Not too elegant, but it still gets the job done. Plus, I like to dip parts of my baked potato in there anyway so....still a tasty win.
As I briefly mentioned earlier, this prime rib still needed some seasoning. The good thing about that, however, is that it actually augmented the beefy flavor. Few sprinkles of salt here and there, and it was everything I thought it could be.
The only minor problem I have is availability of certain cuts. You see, prime rib has to be prepared ahead of time. So, the later you arrive, the harder it is to get cuts of beef that are less well done and more towards the rarer side. I prefer my beef mid-rare. Unfortunately, so does about 85% of the prime rib eating population, evidently. Needless to say, I got stuck with a medium cut...which still ended up tasting pretty good. Even the edges which were mid-well, still ended up tasting juicy and full of flavor. So, while it doesn't hold a candle to the prime rib we used to get in Texas, this one's a workable 8 out of 10 for me.
Wifey decided to be the guinea pig and try the truffle fries. Now, when you hear the term "truffle fries", you expect....fries, right?
What we got looked less like fries and more like unrecognizable, over greased potato crisps. Not only that, they technically had too much truffle (yeah...I actually said that). I mean, they weren't completely terrible. Just not what we were expecting. The real tragedy here is they tasted of grease more than anything. Anyways, 5 out of 10, would not recommend, unless you have an oral fetish for grease infused potato crisps.
Tell you what though. It basically made the baked potato I had stand out as being bad ass. They gave me plenty of butter and sour cream to work with, so I was a happy camper. 8 out of 10.
I also decided to take a chance on the sautéed mushrooms, which....*sigh*....I'll never understand why these are always somehow a hit or miss with steakhouses. But, here we go.
The good news is these aren't the inexplicably sweet mushrooms you get in some places. The bad news is....they had no real seasoning to speak of. At all. In fact, they literally tasted like...well....mushrooms. If you don't understand why that's a bad thing, let me break it down for you.
Imagine you buy a carton of mushrooms from the grocery store. You want to cook them on the stove top, so you decide to do so with just canola oil or some type of unsalted butter. You put no additional seasonings in there whatsoever and serve it as is.
That's what these things tasted like. It's as if someone just picked them out the ground that morning, then threw them straight into the pan without so much a thought of washing them, adding ANY seasoning, thought, or anecdote of culinary common sense.
What I'm saying is these mushrooms were a total waste of time and the recipe for which needs to be unequivocally reevaluated like...YESTERDAY! 1 out of 10. Just...do better, guys.
Despite minor set backs though, this place is worthy of 4 thick cuts of mid-rare prime rib with a juicy, beefy flavor out of 5. We already discussed returning, if only to try one of their steaks next time. read more