So, I actually want to give 3.5 stars, but I don't think that's an option. I went to Chophouse for a Girl's Night Out/birthday dinner and we were looking for glamourous and fun. They definitely delivered on that front. The food was very good, but the service was kind of scattershot, bouncing between great and kind of off.
The restaurant is very buzzy and glam inside, lots of white marble, velvet banquets, and touches of hot pink lights and art work, along with funky fake trees. Pretty much just what you want for a fancy night out! It is also rather dark in there, so sorry about the photo quality! I arrived first, and though there is a small sign stating that incomplete parties will not be seated, they took me through to our table right away. One of my friends arrived later and was seated at a different table where she sat by herself for about 10 minutes until she came to find the rest of us - I guess our seating assignment had been changed at one point. Our reservation had included a note that we were celebrating a birthday and I was asked to point out the celebrant when she arrived. We had a 7 PM reservation and were there until well after 9, and did not feel rushed to leave at all.
For cocktails, I had the French 75 and my friends both had the Orchid Martini. I loved mine, it was fizzy with a sugared rim and just a little sweet.
We ordered a round of starters. My favorite was the Firecracker roll, a huge sushi roll with spicy crab and tempura shrimp. Soy sauce and chopsticks are offered, but do not come with the rolls unless you want them. My friend had the Urban roll, with, I think lobster and waygu sliced on top. I preferred mine, but she enjoyed it! We also tried the burrata salad, because, burrata. It was very good, with big chunks of tomatoes and microgreens.
For dinner, I actually stuck with the starter menu and ordered another Firecracker roll! I also tried the truffle fries, which were good, but not my favorite. We had an order of the lobster macaroni and cheese and the chicken breast entree as well. Everything was nicely plated (in spite of the dark pictures!) and we enjoyed it.
Finally, my friend got a birthday treat - a sparkler in a champagne glass and an order of strawberries topped with whipped cream and filled with Ketel One pureed with strawberry. I thought they were lovely, a cute presentation and I love strawberries with cream. I saw about 5 of those things go out, so I think a lot of people were celebrating that night!
Our server, Lauren, was excellent. She hit that balance between letting us relax and making sure we were taken care of. But there were several glitches that were a little awkward. After we finished our starters, another server came by and bussed our table. Completely. They picked up our unused dinner forks and knives and disappeared. When our entrees were dropped, we didn't have chopsticks, forks, knives, or the condiments we had requested. When the final entree dropped, we had to remind our server that we needed utensils. Before we got our entrees, a third server came over with a plate of deviled eggs and a little tray of the whipped cream strawberries and bent over to put them on our table. We hadn't ordered either. As he was standing back up to take them away, one of the strawberries fell off of the tray and landed whipped cream side down, on the chair where my friend had put her phone, right on the charger port. He was very apologetic, and we weren't terribly upset (mostly laughing) but then we were left to clean up the sticky phone mess ourselves with wet wipes from my purse.
Overall, we had a lovely time, and I will say that it was getting busy as it got later, but for the overall price of the experience, the service was not quite up to par. We enjoyed the food and the cocktails and the overall ambience, though! read more