disneymike: Jocko’s Steak House
We were amazed how large the steak was. Our waitress told me the Filet Mignon is even larger than the New York Steak. I can’t wait to go back on our next trip to try that one.
If you find yourself traveling near Santa Maria on the 101 and are craving a great steak, please give Jocko’s a try. Just make sure you bring your family or friends to help you finish your meal or a very healthy appetite.
Baseball Steak - inside - Pacific Dining Car
Originally uploaded by Marshall Astor / Life on the Edge
Wow. I really love this picture, and the brief capsule review he gives the baseball steak as well as the fabulous Pacific Dining Car in the LA area.
Marshall Astor, the author of this photo, and many others, seems to have a penchant for eating and photographing marvelous food. Check it out!
 A cool blogger reviews a new steak place in Atlanta GA. Let’s do the bullet points:
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From Metroblogging Atlanta:: Via :: Technorati.
I think I’ve heard of this before. Before I went to Vegas with My Fiancee last year, I was looking into where best to have steaks there, and ran across some who were disappointed in Ellis Island Casino and Brewery.
But, it would seem that from me with lots n love: foodie review, ellis island steak special counter-indicates those impressions somewhat. Here:
since eating there i’ve actually dreamed about it several times.
… to summarize, we asked for the off-the-menu steak special and got (with excellent service) a delicious 10 ounce steak, the size and shape almost like a softball, a really good baked potato (i even ate the skin it was that good) with butter and sour cream, a lot of green beans which were so-so, and a green salad.
… nothing can beat a steak dinner for less than $5.
The emphasis there is mine, which is my way of trying really hard to remember “order the off-the-menu steak special at Ellis Island in Vegas!!”
So, it had been a while since Charlie and I had added to our list of Minneapolis-St. Paul steak experiences so we decided to go classic at Jensen’s Supper Club.
How can you go wrong at a place that claims supper club status. It just evokes ladies in pantsuits and “relish trays”. We were not disappointed. In fact, besides it’s far away location in far flung Eagan, MN. (Truthfully, it’s not that far from the center of Minneapolis but I start to feel uneasy any time I leave the city limits.)
After being ushered to our table by the teenage hostess, we were greeted by Judy, our waitress, who surely has worked at Jensen’s for most of her adult life. Judy provided us with the obligatory relish tray.
Jensen’s only got a C grade on the Big Beer Test–an A grade requires beer by the liter, a failing grade a dry restaurant. Jensen’s had only pints.
I chose the Filet Medallions–2 little filets, wrapped in bacon. They were $14 less than the real filet but I was poor that week. Here’s the menu.
True to supper club form, salad, choice of potato and “rolls” were included with the meal.
So, the meat:
my medallions were superb–almost tender enough to cut with the fork, grilled to absolute perfection. Somebody in the kitchen knows how to make a tenderloin. Charlie got the New Your Strip and was extremely happy as well–he said the fat was succulent. I say that’s gross but each to their own.
The other thing to note: the roasted garlic mashed were amazing–served in a ramekin, they’d been toasted under the broiler before being served so they had that tasty little crust that makes any food item taste better.
As we were eating, the “band” started playing. The band gets quotes because they consisted of a dude on a guitar, a drummer with what looked to be a toy drum set and a keyboard player. They played mostly waltzes and polkas and even let a drunk lady from the bar sing along on one number. Oddly, no one danced while we were there.
We skipped dessert in favor of the ice cream shop near my house but, after paying the bill, I was treated to a classic supper club moment, when, outside in the parking lot, I was treated to the sight of a mint condition Trans Am with personalized plates: Itza 92. You couldn’t end the supper club vibe any better way.
MyFiancee and I have been trying to get HerMom out to dinner for a really long time, because we believe that everyone needs to try our Favorite Little Italian Place Down the Street. So, it was her birthday on Friday, and she consented to join us for what we like to call “the best” Italian (in town). They had lovely crab + asparagus + five cheeses handmade ravioli.
I had a NY Strip with port wine sauce, topped with gorgonzola, sauteed shallots.
I new there was going to be a problem as soon as Franco took more than 20 minutes to visit our table to recite the speciales. He was very distracted, and kept looking over his shoulder, watching the service staff, and the kitchen. Franco, a real Italian guy with tons of energy looked weary. We were to learn soon that this was the first night of service with doubled seating capacity. The worst possible night maybe, to bring HerMom for her first time.
The raviolis were lovely, the ladies said. The service was, although agonizingly drawn out, basically accurate. When we asked Franco politely if we could pay and leave, we’d been there almost three hours. Thank god the chianti was kept filled.
I think I’m going to have to go down there, or call down there or something though, because what I was served as a NY Strip was almost unrecognizable as that cut of beef. I have no idea what was going on in that kitchen, but it must have been difficult enough that the kid at the grill wasn’t able to see my steak. There’s no way this thing would have passed a visual “is this a New York” test. It came apart in three weird sections with barely any meat between great tangles of other tissue. It was almost like chuck steak, cut 3/4 inch thick. Oh, and there weren’t any shallots, anywhere.
The thing is, with all their difficulty that night, it would have taken an additional forty-five minutes for me to try and get a better cut of New York. If I’d had the heart to mention it… If I wasn’t a Minnesota-no-send-back’er.
I hate to think I’m not able to order a good steak at my favorite Italian joint. I’m left puzzled. What happened to the real NY Strip that night?
Sorry Mom.
I know it might not be fair, but it is on the internet.
We haven’t had the chance to do a fully-staffed review of a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse yet. I’ve never really thought of it as an important destination — more like in the same category as Stuart Anderson’s (Black Angus). Apparently though, it’s quite impressive!
Through the miracle of internet myspace homepage blogs, we get a peek inside what seems like a very fancy, high-class operation Ruth (or should I say “Mrs. Fertel“?) puts on in New York.
Please read about Joe and Ricky’s Bdays on Simply ~ Dee’s Myspace blog. It speaks for itself.
From @llie’s @ttic a really sweet review of Morton’s of Chicago, The Steakhouse
I haven’t been to a Morton’s, but now at least I know it’ll cost me 3 C’s without wine. I think we have one in Seattle.
We described our wish to compare a bistro-style steak recipe to an actual bistro steak, prepared according to the same method. Nobody from Boston signed up to eat at Hamersley’s, and that’s probably because we didn’t offer them a comp, or dangle a crisp fifty for the tab.
Anyway, since then I’ve ruined two pairs of lovely rib steaks, trying to pull off the the sear-roasted ribby recipe in the book. Okay not actually “ruined” … but my results have been on the sketchy side, especially presentationally.
The first shot was overcooked, even for The Lady, who tends toward the more done end of Medium. My steaks were thinner than those Hamersley described, so my timing was borked. I should know better, but the method here is new to me, with the brief hot pan-sear and slower oven-finish combo.
The second shot, I got the thicker bone-in rib-eye steak, and paid a LOT more attention to the timing and feel of the meat. It would have been perfect, except for one thing: since ribbyes were the bone-in type, and not well trimmed, ignoramus that I was that night, I ended up with my steaks really nicely Medium, but warped or cupped by the constriction of the thick fat band around the edges. Rookie mistake, I know! It didn’t even occur to me to score the fatty edges until the big puddle of melted thyme-garlic butter started to form in the ever-deepening well formed by each steak.
Gordon doesn’t mention it in his book, and it’s not talked about in this crib of the same recipe by Food TV. However, I’ve learned it in the best way: as basic steak handling behavior, from experience.
Anyways, I doubt The Lady will humor me again for a while with this recipe, even though I still have the Hamersley book… Maybe I can fake her out by making a different bistro rib steak…
My new mantra: With a sharp knife, make small incisions, about 1 1/2 inches apart in the fat around the outside of each steak.
So Saturday was my birthday, and the Fiancee is one million percent excellent so she took me out to dinner at a new favorite little Italian place in Lacey (98503) called Ricardo’s (I’m not sure if it’s ‘ristorante’ or ‘restaurant’, it depends on where you look). Her boss, Dr. Mike, had hosted their office Christmas party there, and it was really really good, so we chose to go back and do some free-choice dining, cause we were stuck with the ‘beef or chicken’ drill at the party.
So, after reading the PDF menu Ricardo’s put up on the internet, I really had my heart set on this bastard :
Big Momma’s Steak $29.95
Nebraska Beef at its best… ” USDA PRIME ” Thick cut rib-eye seasond & char broiled to perfection
(Medium Rare) then topped with a fresh mediterranean salsa & finished with roasted red potatoes,
( This will be the best Thrity bucks you’ve ever spent )
On the one hand, I was really disappointed because it wasn’t on Saturday’s menu. On the other hand, it gives us a needless excuse to go back to Ricardo’s for more steak. And on the third hand, I got to have the Surf And Turf from the specials menu. Our server said that the prime rib special was filling in for the Big Momma, and recommended it, but I’m not yet recovered from a really awful prime rib from years ago. We’d both had excellent little filets at the Christmas party, so I chose to extend that a bit with the S-n-T. My lovely companion chose some “do the truffle” ( or something? ) special of a 5oz filet with black truffled mashed potatoes. We was not disappoint! (Although, are truffles known for being, erm, gassy??)
Both (little tiny) steaks were perfectly medium, with a lovely outside — seared and carmelized — and practically fork-tender inside. ‘Course it’s a cliche , but the words “like buttah” were said at least twice.
The surf part of my dinner was way above average: crab cakes done absolutely correct with TONS of crab, and great flavor; and some wild Mexican white prawns that were slightly over cooked but had great flavor. All this was sauced nicely with a white truffle Bernaise sauce, and great big roasted red potato wedges, with some barely noticeable field greens or basil or something. Who cares? The truffle-bernaisey filet was heavenly. I didn’t miss having “the veg” at all.
We didn’t spend much time looking at the wine list, because it’s way over our heads (especially budget-wise). And we already knew from the office party that the house pours a great chianti for six bucks. I had a 6 buck primitivo, and it was great too.
Bottom line, GO HERE!!! Ricardo’s is a winner on every point except one: the decor. Which I won’t really pick on, because it’s adorable, and you know, A for effort and all that. But, who cares? You really can’t go wrong with this place. I haven’t had a better steak anywhere within about 300 miles of here, except that Argentine place in Seattle which I keep forgetting to write about.
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