Ruth's Chris

Ruth's Chris Steakhouse

Order: New York Strip (Medium-Rare)

 

 

Juiciness: Okay

Beefyness (Natural Flavor): Okay

Size: Good

Preparedness: Good

Seasoning: Moderate-to-heavy salt saturated very heavily with butter

Advertised Weight: 16 oz.

Estimated Weight: 15 oz. 

I had the pleasure of joining my fellow tax accountant Chris Malicdem for a steak dinner (about 7 hours earlier than dinner time) this past Friday.  Like me, Chris is a rabid Bulls fan who enjoys pondering hypothetical questions such as "would you carry Derrick Rose's baby if it were possible".  At least until it was revealed on WGN this Saturday that 76ers rookie point guard Michael Carter-Williams was Derrick's daddy.  I'll just have to have Jimmy Butler's kids if this keeps up.  Anyways, like me, Chris also enjoys a good steak.    

There's a lot of pressure to write a negative review on this steakhouse.  It's a non-Chicago based chain.  I walk down the street every day and run into meat lovers on the way to work telling me they would like to discredit Ruth's Chris because they'd rather taste meat than butter.  (Every day).  Is it fair to assume the quality of the steak is any worse because the flavor gets masked behind the butter?  No, but I understand their desire to not have butter be the dominant flavor.  

Another concern people have with Ruth's Chris is that the sizzling plate cooks the steak as the meal goes along.  This, in theory, makes it impossible to have the steak cooked the way you want for the duration of the meal.  Being paranoid that this could happen to me, I did lift my steak a few times throughout the meal to blow on the bottom of my steak.  I'm sure I looked weird doing this.  Who knows whether or not that actually helped but at the end of the meal the steak was still medium-rare and any effect the 500 degree plate on the steak's "doneness" was minimal.  

The steak itself?  It tasted great.  Is a buttery, perfectly cooked piece of meat going to taste bad?  That's a rhetorical question.  I did, however, find it very difficult to judge the quality of the steak itself under all the butter and seasoning.  A quality steak should be able to stand on its own, and while I have no evidence to believe the steak can't, I really can't tell.  

What I liked:  Thick steak.  Cooked perfect.  Butter tastes better than I want to admit.  I'll definitely think back on the experience and remember the endorphin rush that came over me and how excited I was when I heard the sizzle of the plate as the waitress put the steak in front of me.  

What I disliked:  Eating a steak knowing it's going to make my stomach feel somewhat ill afterwards, again because of the butter.  I could only give grades of "Okay" for juiciness and beefyness because the overwhelming texture and flavor was butter.  

What I would do different next time:  Next time I go to Ruth's Chris I would like to order a steak without butter to see how the meat stacks up.  Ruth's Chris does serve prime steak, appears to have an attentive staff, and the cooks nailed the preparation so there's nothing to make me think it won't do fine.  I will followup sometime down the line when i get the opportunity.  

Part of me wants to give this steak a higher rating for tasting so good going down and a part of me wishes to give it a lower rating for making us both feel moderately ill from the butter we ingested.  

A view of the crowded room (we were a bit early for our dinner steaks)

New York Strip - don't touch the plate

Ribeye - sizzle sizzle

A piece of buttery art

Fleming's Steakhouse

Fleming's Steakhouse

Order: Seared New York Strip (Medium-Rare)

Juiciness: Okay

Beefyness (Natural Flavor): Good

Size: Good

Preparedness: Okay

Seasoning: Moderate salt lightly brushed with peppercorn

Advertised Weight: N/A

Estimated Weight: 15 oz. 

I stopped by Fleming's as I passed by it on my walk home from work last week when I realized that I was both hungry and anxious to start reviewing steaks.  I had 90 minutes to kill before an obligation that evening (I am obligated to watch Bulls games) so it was obvious that I should fill that time by eating/writing.  

I took my first step inside Fleming's and thought the atmosphere was in-between classic and modern.  Very nice though lacking any particular character.  There was downstairs open bar table seating while the main dining room was upstairs. 

As previously mentioned, I'm a New York Strip guy so unless there's clearly a house specialty of another cut, that's my go-to option.  When I placed my order I was presented the option to have the steaks lightly seared before preparing to "seal the juices in".  This option was only a recent addition to Fleming's though it came highly recommended.  I was hesitant but decided to go for it after asking the waiter which method he preferred.  

The steak arrived on a fairly hot plate and looked divine.  This hunk of meat looked like a serious contender on the plate.  However, it became apparent after a few bites that the preparation would be the downfall of this steak.  Where did all my sealed in juices go?

The searing option was not for me and though I would recommend it to someone who enjoys steak with a made to order interior and a heavily charred outside (think Gibson's), I dispute the notion that this steak was any juicier than it would have been had it been simply put on the grill.  "Pittsburgh rare" is a method of preparation where the steak is charred on the outside and left essentially raw on the inside.  I would have described this particular steak's preparation as "Pittsburgh medium-rare" with its charred top layer.  

What I liked:  This had the thickness of my ideal steak.  The size was good and the interior was just right.  The light peppercorn seasoning was a nice touch. 

What I disliked:  Not dry but dryer than an average steak of such thickness.  The char flavor on the outside overwhelmed some bites.  Not particularly tender.

What I would do different next time: I'd skip the seared option.  It formed a somewhat thick crust which detracted from the tenderness of the interior.  Next time I would try the dry-aged variety of the strip.  The two star rating was simply a review of my steak but I believe the enhanced flavor of dry-aging combined with a lighter charring on top would give this steak 3+ star potential in this blog, which is a rating steakhouses everywhere yearn for.  

CostCo in Chicago has occasionally carried $100 in Fleming's gifts cards for the price of $80, which could convince me to give Fleming's a try in the future.  American Express has also at times offered a $50 statement credit in the past for spending $100, a deal I would certainly take advantage of for this quality of a meal.  If I didn't come back for steak, I would consider taking advantage of their happy hour special (before 7PM) in which a steakhouse bacon cheeseburger and various wines/cocktails can be had for just $6.

New York Strip - Thicky Thick, just how Nelly likes it

Rough and crusty exterior, warm and gentle on the inside

Where Do I Start?

 

I've compiled the below statistics from the internet as of October 31st, 2013 which I felt would be helpful for both myself and my reader/readers in their mission to find the steakhouse that suits them best. 

Chicago isn't short on steakhouses. This makes choosing where to start difficult. In the past I've had consistently great experiences at Mastro's. Joe's Stone Crab and Capital Grille have delivered mostly great but some poor experiences for me. I've had multiple sub-par experiences at Smith & Wollensky.

The intent of this blog is to find the best steakhouse in Chicago but I believe it's important going forward to grade each steak on a steak-by-steak basis. Unlike the referees at last night's Miami Heat vs. Chicago Bulls season opener, I will try my best to set my biases aside.

I will evaluate each steak on a four-star scale as follows:

4 STARS - Perfection, the kind of steak you want to order for dinner and then consider ordering again for dessert. The kind of steak that you can't stop eating yet each bite you get a little more sad knowing that it, like everything else in life, won't last forever. The Derrick Rose of steaks.

3 STARS - You spend the rest of the night thinking about how good it was. Cooked to perfection and bursting with flavor. A step below the best you've had but still leaves you wishing you had an infinity stomach with which you could forever dispense steak into.

2 STARS - Your average steakhouse steak with some strong points and some room for improvement. I don't leave the steakhouse thinking I couldn't have done it better myself but I do leave feeling happy and fulfilled. Maybe it was good but wasn't worth the price. The Carlos Boozer of steaks.

1 STAR - I don't need A-1 Sauce but I thought about it. It was good, I liked it (mostly because it was steak), but it wasn't worth the price. The kind of steak that is only marginally better than the steaks I ate as a kid at the truck-stop in the Middle of Nowhere, Wisconsin served by pregnant teenagers with missing teeth on the way to visiting my grandpa. I certainly enjoyed those steaks but I wasn't paying $40 for them either.

0 STARS - Not only would I rather to go to Steak and Shake, I would consider eating a vegetable instead. The Dalibor Bagaric of steaks.

I will also comment on each steak's size/thickness vs. advertised weight, beefyness, preparedness, juiciness, and seasoning. While it's difficult to compare different cuts, different methods of aging, and different styles of preparing, I will do my best to explain why I like and dislike each steak so my reader/readers can form their own opinion. For the record, I like a very thick cut medium-rare (occasionally Rare Plus) Strip but realize each steakhouse will have their own specialties.  

My Mission

Without children or mortgage payments, I'm free to spend my savings on lots of things that aren't practical. I have a closet full of shoes, another full of Bulls jerseys, and I love steak.

 
Joe's Stone Crab has always been my most frequented steak establishment since I moved to Chicago. The Lettuce Entertain You points and close proximity to my home have made Joe's a favorite of mine ever since I used to go there around Christmas time with my family. Sometimes when I get down, I pull out my Lettuce card and the sparkly gold reflection lets me know that everything is going to be okay. 

The service is usually great, I love their bread, and I always save room for a variety of desserts from the Gold Brick Sundae to the Chocolate Fudge Pie. I will even occasionally put down a couple of stone crabs despite a mild allergy that prevents me from breathing. The temporary lack of oxygen is always worth it the moment I realize that I'm going to live. Of course, this blog wasn't set up to discuss shellfish allergies or chocolaty desserts. Read the title. 

 

Due to a strenuous accounting busy season, I hadn't met up with my sister and brother-in-law in a while. I was delighted when a message from my sister popped up on my gmail offering the chance to not only meet and catch up but also to devour a delicious steak at Mastro's. (Paris Club was also presented as an option but was quickly dismissed based primarily on a lack of prime steak). 

That Thursday I was happy as a clam as I looked forward to the steak to come after work. I was sitting in my cubicle doing tax accountant stuff when I then received an exciting opportunity from one of my co-workers to go to Joe's for lunch. Two steaks in one day? I paused for roughly half a second debating whether it was practical to have two steaks on a day that I have a volleyball game before deciding this was an extremely rare opportunity that could not be passed up.

 

Off to Joe's we went for what was sure to be a spectacular meal. Then our waiter happened. Befuddled by our request for more bread, this guy was a bit slow and off to a rough start. I ordered the "Dinner Size" variety of the strip steak. It wasn't so much that I needed a huge steak but the thickness of the cut is vital to my steak enjoyment. Instead of my rare plus dinner sized strip steak, a bone-in medium-well strip steak was placed in front of me.

 

After a couple of bites of trying to convince myself it was still good, I gave up and asked them to make it again.  They accidentally brought me the bone-in version again for the 2nd time. Rather than acknowledge that my rare plus was cooked about 10 minutes too long, they must have determined that they needed to overcompensate the other way and brought out a nearly uncooked steak. I'll take that over medium-well so I ate it and it wasn't bad. I left very happy I had a good lunch but still somewhat surprised they hadn't got my steak right in two attempts. This was, after all, my favorite restaurant. I went back to the office and fueled by my meat, continued on to have a productive afternoon. (Or slept in a food coma, I don't remember).

 

Later on that night I met my sister and her husband "Big Al" at Mastro's. I figured walking from the office to the restaurant might make it easier to digest my lunch in time for dinner but I still felt a bit full and wasn't sure if I could pull it off. We were quickly seated and after sharing taxation stories, North Korea travel advice, and engaging in discussion over how weird my brother Patrick's blog pictures are, our steaks quickly arrived. What followed was 16 ounces of pleasure. Mouthwatering steak that only made me want more with every bite. Every bite was beefy bliss as my steak was cooked to perfection. The meal was spectacular.

 

I fought through the two steaks that night to partake in 3 glorious victories for the Fist People volleyball team. When I got home though, rather than focusing on the victory with my fellow Fist People, I couldn't stop thinking about how good my steak that night was. I love steak. Shouldn't every steak be that good? What if I was short changing myself by always picking Joe's?

 

It then occurred to me that not only do I not have a favorite steakhouse, there are a lot of steakhouses in this wonderful city of Chicago I've yet to try. What if there was something even better that I was missing out on? It was a deeply disturbing thought that there could be great steak out there that I'm not eating. As I lay awake, thinking about steak, I then realized that I need to try every steakhouse in Chicago. I need to never let a good steak go uneaten by me. I want to find the best steakhouse in Chicago. This is my mission. This is my blog. The time I've wasted of the couple people who will probably read this (my brother Patrick? my sister Kathleen? Big Al if I'm lucky?) is just collateral damage.