The Golden Steer in Forest Park

I am going to the Golden Steer tonight for dinner, located on Roosevelt Rd. in Forest Park - I have driven by this place on my way home from the city several times - I love the old school look of the place from the outside- I have received recommendations from Peggy wright , and Lindsey Geannopulos. I will submit a reveiw tommorrow about my expereince. Please offer any reccomendations. I am looking forward to the French Onion soup and maybe the pepper steak - wish me luck


GLOCK

There are some posts about the Golden Steer in this thread.

Who are Peggy Wright and Lindsey Geannopulos?

Good luck, and God speed.

I've heard numerous rumors that the onion soup is a (relative) "do not miss."

God speed!

A large group of us went to the Golden Steer a few months ago for my birthday, and overall we enjoyed the food and relaxed atmosphere - old school all the way. There are no windows, and a peculiar entryway, which, according to local legend, were accommodations to the local mob's request for privacy when dining. It's dark and slightly crowded inside, and yes, there's a faux golden steer head on the wall. The waitresses are old pros, and as a nice touch for the birthday girl, I got to order first, was served first, and got a comp dessert.

The onion soup was pretty darn good as I recall, and the T-bone I ordered was excellent - tangy, crusty on the outside and medium rare inside as ordered...better than the one I had at Gene and Georgetti some months before, and certainly a better value. The place was packed with a slightly graying crowd chowing down with serious abandon.

I hope you have nice time, too.

which, according to local legend, were accommodations to the local mob's request for privacy when dining

I've heard this as well. It's not impossible knowing the neighborhood.

The one time I was there, my order was identical to yours - T-bone and soup. Tasty and inexpensive, but the oppresiveness of the dark and musty space turned me off from repeat visits. If I want dank and fortress-like, I'll go up a mile to Klas.

Some miraculous (in those or any conditions) pictures and notes on a recent LTH event visit are here.

The encounter I cited in the previous post was from late high school or early college with my folks, and I remember the place being relatively empty and very dark; I'm sure I've changed much more than the Golden Steer, but I also think that Christmas lights, a full house, a martini, and good stories at the table bring out the life in any space, since this time I 'got' it.

The food may be an afterthought, but I did think the smelts, liver (bacon!), cottage fries, hash browns, and Greek salad dressing were exactly how I like them. Baked clams are not my thing but seemed right. The french onion soup was well-presented but not particularly flavorful, and at least in my portion the crouton offered no textural or flavor contrast, which it sometimes can even when disintegration is the point. My Mediterranean <chuckle> steak was just how I expected it; big portions, overcooked, served in a puddle of its own juices, and elevated by good seasoning; I was actually quite happy. Substantial soup, salad, side, and steak for $20 (drinks, apps, desserts aside) has me more excited to go back, at least in the holiday atmosphere, than to any of the chain or big name steakhouses, and I'll look forward to comparing with Tom's soon. Maybe we'll run into Peggy Wright and Lindsey Geannopulos there.

I've been going to Golden Steer for over 20 years and have never been disappointed. The same chef and servers from way back. Soup and salad with dinner, and those great garlic melba toast thingies!! They have a nice bar crowd, very friendly people.

My wife and I wanted to go "old school" for our date night this weekend, and we chose the Golden Steer since we had read about it some, and saw it on Check Please...it looked like just the cure from our usual fancy-pants fine dining, as well as the farm-to-table restaurants that we usually dine at. We called for a reservation on Saturday and were told 9pm would be the earliest available...can anyone say martini at the bar while we wait?

We arrived around 8:30 and were greeted by the vivacious hostess (she is quite vocal), who said that we should go have a drink in the lounge. The bar is on one side of the restaurant, with about 4-5 tables in that section as well as the 8ish stools around the bar. We dove into two martinis (my wife likes hers dirty), and enjoyed the people-watching. A great crowd of lively regulars, everyone from families in sweatshirts and jeans, to a group of businessmen in ties. The bartender, Elba, was very friendly and offered us a menu to peruse when I told her it was our first time in.

Classic menu of steak, seafood, burgers (they call them steer burgers), with VERY reasonable pricing.

After we sat at our table, we asked if we could bring in our own bottle of wine (their list is EXTREMELY basic, and we are both wine professionals), and our server Paulette happily said sure it's only a $10 corkage. I ran out to the car to grab our nice bottle of Ristow '03 Cab Sauv.

We ordered a nice little line-up of dishes:


Shrimp Cocktail - 4 jumbos for about $12 (ask for Tabasco or extra horseradish, since the cocktail sauce was very mild)

We ordered some "surf" and some "turf" and, unfortunately, they had sold out of the prime rib (Fri/Sat only) by the time we sat. Every entree comes with a house salad (we went bleu cheese w/crumbles for extra $1.50) and their delicious French onion soup



For entrees we decided to go prime ribeye (all their steaks are U.S. prime) and crab legs.


16oz Prime Ribeye - about $25


Snow Crab Legs - about $20ish I think

We had a full spread, since we got a baked potato and cottage fries which were included side choices with the entrees as well.


Love that drawn butter over the flame!

We chose the tiramisu for dessert since our server told us that the chef/owner makes it himself from scratch. It was delicious, very light and flavorful...and full of booze!



Our bill came to about $90 altogether (the martinis were paid separately and we BYO'd) so we will definitely be going back. If on a weekend, I advise you go early if you want the prime rib...if we go on a weeknight, I may opt for the Grecian style chicken, and some shrimp de jonghe

Ha!

How many of your wives, when said, I'm in the mood for fried chicken, would steer you to the Golden Steer? That she did, and we also at their on Saturday (although doing the opposite of the above, arriving very early).

Man, I too love this place, and now having been to it and Tom's in about the same span, will say, that, you know what, I guess I like Golden Steer better.

For me, it's all about a decent (if not great) old fashioned, some soup*, the up-charge greek salad, which is really my favorite thing here, some of that desired chicken (just like Arvey's used to make way back in the day), canned peach on the side! some chopped steak loaded with soft, cooked bermuda onions, and the cottage fries, especially good on Saturday. Culvers, thank you very much for dessert.**

*My wife suggests that next time she have mine and her onion soup, and she pretty much stop eating there as the soup means little to me. In fact, I'd say that what the greek salad is to me, the crock o'soup is to her, and to both of us, most of the rest of the food is leftovers.

**Call me crazy or call me a homer, or maybe it's the newness factor, but the Culver's in Berwyn is one of the better versions of Culver's I've come across.

We were debating going to Tom's as well, and opted for GS. I was also eying that Greek salad, will definitely order it next time. We may do some custard at Culver's also, since we passed it on Roosevelt.

My Bride’s Birthday Festival week so a festival of great eating was in order.

Friday, March 29th

A favorite of ours. We usually will order specials but tonight was a special night so we went for The Beef!

Since we were planning to arrive for the second seating (8:30) we opted for the lively crowd in the lounge.

Once again we slowed it down, had a drink or two, some appetizers. Relax...


Well mixed as usual. Nice and strong.


Tasty as an appetizer. A great butter and garlic sauce. Big order as I was planning to also have them with our steaks.


No visit to a steak house would be complete without a nibble on a few of these.


My Bride is not a soup fan like I. Not to worry as I ate both.


Fresh, crisp, with all the requisite ingredients. Always welcome.


Special pricing on Friday and Saturday. Big, thick, tender. Very good! The waitress mentioned you can order it as thick as you want (for a price I’d imagine).


What a thick and properly cooked piece of beef. You could smell and taste the wood broiling. Not quite as tender as some twice as expensive steaks I’ve had but very good. Small tenderloin.


Not huge, soft and flaky. No problems here.


Nicely grilled and tender. Just a light butter sauce. Big order!

Always glad to visit.