Fancy Steakhouse-Meh

[Spock]

We have been planning to go to a nice steakhouse for awhile to celebrate something that happened last summer and we finally pulled the trigger.

Littlest Spock and I both had an $80 dry-aged ribeye-Medium rare of course.

Mrs Spock had a filet mignon and Li'l Spock had a wagyu something. His girlfriend went for a pasta dish.

Not that there was anything wrong with it-but general feeling all around was "Meh-we have just as good steak at home from our own cattle and L'il Spock can grill a mean steak that beats what we had there."

Personally, I was a little surprised that there wasn't a bit of char on the steak.

[mrkelley23]

I have found that steakhouse are a little like Mexican restaurants, in that they will eventually settle into mediocrity, as they try to satisfy the greatest number of people rather than stick to their values. I bet many people in your area equate char with burnt, so they don't serve steaks that way any more. It's funny to watch the regression in Indiana, as immigrants will open restaurants serving true Mexican (or central American or South American) food, but within a year will be serving a bunch of crap with melted cheese on it, just to stay in business.

[silverscreenselect]

Littlest Spock and I both had an $80 dry-aged ribeye-Medium rare of course.

For $80, I can go 6 1/3 times to my favorite steakhouse, the Golden Corral. It's best not to ask how the meat is aged there or exactly what cut you're getting. Also, it's kind of catch as catch can about how well done the meat is. But, if you don't like your cut, you can always go back for more. And now you get butterfly shrimp on their current promotion, along with about a dozen other entrees. Of course, to get the best deal, you need to go just before 4:00. That's when they switch from lunch to dinner pricing and bring out the steaks and shrimp (or whatever other promotion they're running at the time. A couple of months ago, it was hot wings and ribs.) I also save an extra buck with senior pricing. And I pay for it with a Golden Corral gift card I get from Amazon whenever they run a promotion selling a $50 card for $40. And I put it on my Amazon credit card and opt for slowboat shipping and get an additional 6% off (as a credit on future Amazon purchases).

Life (and steak) just doesn't get any better than that.

[Vandal]

[Bob Juch]

I have found that steakhouse are a little like Mexican restaurants, in that they will eventually settle into mediocrity, as they try to satisfy the greatest number of people rather than stick to their values. I bet many people in your area equate char with burnt, so they don't serve steaks that way any more. It's funny to watch the regression in Indiana, as immigrants will open restaurants serving true Mexican (or central American or South American) food, but within a year will be serving a bunch of crap with melted cheese on it, just to stay in business.

Mexican restaurants don't do that here; they'd be tarred and feathered.

The owner of the company I worked for in Boise had a favorite Mexican restaurant that served a bunch of crap with melted cheese on it. There were authentic ones there, though.

[BackInTex]

Littlest Spock and I both had an $80 dry-aged ribeye-Medium rare of course.

For $80, I can go 6 1/3 times to my favorite steakhouse, the Golden Corral. It's best not to ask how the meat is aged there or exactly what cut you're getting. Also, it's kind of catch as catch can about how well done the meat is. But, if you don't like your cut, you can always go back for more. And now you get butterfly shrimp on their current promotion, along with about a dozen other entrees. Of course, to get the best deal, you need to go just before 4:00. That's when they switch from lunch to dinner pricing and bring out the steaks and shrimp (or whatever other promotion they're running at the time. A couple of months ago, it was hot wings and ribs.) I also save an extra buck with senior pricing. And I pay for it with a Golden Corral gift card I get from Amazon whenever they run a promotion selling a $50 card for $40. And I put it on my Amazon credit card and opt for slowboat shipping and get an additional 6% off (as a credit on future Amazon purchases).

Life (and steak) just doesn't get any better than that.

Golden Corral serves aged steaks as well. But the clock starts ticking once the steak arrives on the buffet.

[Spock]

There are a couple of fun stories about when this place (Prime Steakhouse, Morris MN) opened about 3 years ago.

TPTB in that smallish town are mostly from a religious sect that doesn't do alcohol-well, unless they are out of town and then you hear some stories-but, anyway, my understanding is that there were 7 investors that built it to have a nice place to bring clients and such.

6 of the 7 are from that sect and they did not want to serve alcohol at Prime-no wine, nothing.

The 7th investor owns a large excavation company and he said, if you don't serve alcohol, not only will I not be an invest or-I won't even do the dirt work. People want the option of a drink with a nice meal.

When it opened, I had to laugh a little at how long-time local cattlemen denigrated the place. "Too expensive-I would never go there" etcetc.

Well, be that as it may-my theory is more power to them-places like that serve a lot of beef and we are fortunate to have them.

Mrs. Spock and I ate there once on New Year's Eve a couple of years ago and I noted a big change. At first, sides were not included and you had to pay extra for them. Now they were included-so that was a probably a bridge too far for the area.

Littlest Spock noted the lack of butter on the steak. That is one of his little touches in his good steaks at home.

Don't worry SSS-this is not the Spock Family's favorite restaurant.

That is "Maverick's" in the Twin Cities known for awesome roast beef sandwiches, among other things. I will talk about this in a hagiographic post to follow in a bit.