Steak House - suggestions needed!

My in-laws are coming into town and I am looking for suggestions for the ultimate steak house experience in Chicago. We don't want to take them to Gibson as this will be too much of a "scene" for them. They live in a small town in the midwest so I am trying to stay away from some of the more trendy spots. Price is not much of a concern. I was considering the Chop House but have seen mixed reviews.

Any recommendations?

For good steaks with not too much of a "scene", I would recommend The Saloon. Overall, my favorite is Primehouse, but it can be very loud and might make the in-laws uncomfortable based on your description.

jesteinf wrote:For good steaks with not too much of a "scene", I would recommend The Saloon. Overall, my favorite is Primehouse, but it can be very loud and might make the in-laws uncomfortable based on your description.

I would wholeheartedly second the Saloon. By far my favorite steakhouse in the city. Great filets but the super-excellent sides are what makes this place stand out. It does get noisy but I'm not sure it's any more noisy than other steak places.

If I needed a #2 choice it would be the Chophouse for some surf & turf.

Both of these can be crowded, but less of a scene than Gibsons. My favorite places for steak in the city are David Burke's and Smith & Wollensky. Both dry age their prime meat in house.

For a trip into the wayback machine, you might think about Gene & Georgetti's.

Gene & Georgetti
500 N. Franklin St.

I know you're looking for a Chicago-style steak house...but lately I've had the best steaks at French bistro type places. The steaks are really great and I can definately say that the tab at La Sardine/Le Bouchon or Bistrot Compange would be less expensive than a steak house. They're also WAY quieter than the usually busy River North steak places. Also: La Sardine is a hop skip and a jump from the loop (near Harpo!) and you can impress the in-laws by taking them to a "French" place


La Sardine
111 N. Carpenter (roughly Randolph and Morgan)
Chicago, IL 60607
(312) 421-2800

Le Bouchon
1958 North Damen Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60647
773-862-6600

Bistro Campagne
4518 N Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL 60625
(773) 271-6100

rdstoll wrote:I would wholeheartedly second the Saloon.

I third it! We went based on a recommendation from this site and it was excellent all around. Our out-of-town friends from Paris and San Francisco really liked it.

Smith and Wollensky or the Capital Grill for me.

John

jkseger wrote:Smith and Wollensky or the Capital Grill for me.

John

Thanks for all of the suggestions. These are very helpful. The Saloon looks like a great option.

jesteinf wrote:For good steaks with not too much of a "scene", I would recommend The Saloon. Overall, my favorite is Primehouse, but it can be very loud and might make the in-laws uncomfortable based on your description.

Josh,

Agreement in full, Primehouse overall, Saloon, if my Saturday night experience is any indication, for good steaks, atmosphere and sides sans scene.

It was my first time at the Saloon and I was a little surprised at how much I liked the place, starting with the nicely done dirty martini w/blue cheese olives at the convivial bar. Semolina crusted calamari, tender, greaseless, crisp, made for a perfect start and paired beautifully with a glass of St. Supery Moscato.

Creamed spinach is served piping hot topped with toasty rich bread crumb crust, sauteed mushrooms were fine, if a little nondescript. My favorite steak, at least at the moment, is a bone-in rib-eye, The Saloon's uses choice Black Angus, tasty but a half-step off the rich buttery beefiness I'm looking for in a Steak House steak. Truthfully, I should have know better as we were chatting at the bar with Wylie, who is the sous chef, and he twice recommended either bone-in filet or Wagyu rib-eye.

Overall the Saloon made for a very pleasant big city Steakhouse experience, lively atmosphere, conversation friendly, excellent service and a reasonable, if not especially deep, wine list, we drank a '05 Four Graces Pinot noir with dinner.

For the original poster, who I am sure has long since been, I'd recommend Erie Street Cafe as well.

Enjoy,
Gary

Saloon Steak House
200 E Chestnut St
Chicago, IL 60611
312-280-5454
www.saloonsteakhouse.com

David Burke's Primehouse
616 N Rush St
Chicago, IL 60611
312-660-6000

Erie Street Cafe
536 W. Erie Street
Chicago, IL 60686
312-266-2300

I have found that when you get to a certain point on the food chain of steakhouses, they all have high quality prime, aged steaks. What separates one place from the others more than anything else in my mind is how consistently they cook my steak properly. (I like it charred on the outside and warm and red on the inside.) Gibson's, for example, has a lot of great things going for it, but I rate the place a few notches below some others because literally half the time my steak doesn’t come out right. Primehouse suffers from a similar problem to a slightly lesser degree. The original Morton's in Gold Coast (none of the other Morton’s), on the other hand, nails it for me every time. For that reason, if I wanted to show someone from out of town the ultimate Chicago steakhouse experience, I’d go there. The food is delicious and chances are nobody will have to send their steak back to the kitchen.

I also like Saloon and Erie St. Café a lot. If you go to Erie, I suggest ordering for the table the family-style platter that includes sliced sirloin, chicken breast (I usually hold the chicken) and cottage fries surrounded by the best lamb chops in the city for my money. I have dined there many, many times and just can’t say enough about that dish.

Morton’s
1050 N. State St.
Chicago, IL 60610
tel: 312-266-4820

No matter how good the Steaks are at Morton's, I would find it hard to to deem them the ultimate Chicago steakhouse experience when they have more than 50 locations.

Marshall K wrote:No matter how good the Steaks are at Morton's, I would find it hard to to deem them the ultimate Chicago steakhouse experience when they have more than 50 locations.

I believe the posters are talking specifically about the original location on State Street, which is head and shoulders better than any other branch of Morton's...even others right here in Chicago.

Tramonto's Steak and Seafood
The Westin Chicago North Shore
601 North Milwaukee Avenue
Wheeling, IL 60090
847-777-6500

I have to strongly disagree with the high praise for the Saloon. I went there last Saturday night with my girlfriend and my parents. I had the wagyu rib eye, my dad had the bone in rib eye, and my mom had the prime rib. My girlfriend just had sides and some of my steak. I have never had a more disappointing meal after reading all the positive reviews here. The service was wonderful and the wine list was pretty decent. All of the meat was very mediocre though. It was all cooked properly at medium rare, but it just didn't have very much flavor. I've really never had a steak so under seasoned, and the sauteed spinach was almost inedible because it was so garlicky. I really wanted to like the Saloon, but I won't be going back. At least we had an incredible lunch at Hot Doug's, so the day wasn't a complete culinary disappointment. The 3 chili wild boar sausage was incredible.

Was just back in town and went back to Gene and Georgetti's for my 2nd time in my life. I adore this place. The ribeye is amazing as are the people who work there. One complaint- print your frickin vintages on your wine list.

Anyone been to The Saloon Steakhouse in the past 2 months? We're going tonight and I'm checking up on which steaks people have recently enjoyed. I'm normally a fan of Ribeye or Kansas City strip, DH enjoys filet, and we're going with two friends whose preferences I don't know. I'm kind of wondering about the Wagyu beef vs the dry aged.

Thanks for any suggestions,

leek wrote:Anyone been to The Saloon Steakhouse in the past 2 months?

Leek,

My post above just hits the under the two month mark and, as mentioned, sous chef Wylie suggests bone-in filet or Wagyu rib-eye. My angus bone in rib-eye was fine, but I left thinking I should have taken his advice.

Enjoy,
Gary

GWiv and I went a couple of months ago, but I can't seem to find the thread where we posted about our experience. As I recall, the meal was pretty good. I'd place the Saloon solidly in the middle of the pack of downtown steakhouses. While not mind blowing, the steak was good and the service was outstanding. I ordered the ribeye (might have been the wagyu ribeye) and was happy enough.

Edit: Duh...the post was a little higher in this very thread. Thanks GWiv.

Edited to correct my own stupidity.

I had the bone-in filet -- which was highly recommended by our server -- when we ate there over Memorial Day weekend. It was pretty good, but, candidly, I left thinking that our dinner was not as good as some of our past meals there. The service was very good, the calamari was excellent (if you're interested in an appetizer), and the creamed-spinach was above average. However, I thought my steak was a little dry and not too flavorful. You probably can't go wrong with the Wagyu, but it's pricey.

We had 4 people at the Saloon on Monday. The server was REALLY pushing appetizers and before dinner drinks. We ordered a shrimp cocktail (which was fine, but nothing special) and a bottle of one of the featured wines (a Chardonnay from Chalone, which was nice and not too "oaky buttery").

For dinner we got 2 bone-in fillets (one very rare, one medium-well), one bone-in strip, dry-aged (medium-rare) and one wagyu ribeye (medium-rare) with fries and 2 kinds of spinach. Dinners all come with soup or salad, we got the salads, which were mostly iceberg lettuce. We could tell that the ranch and bluecheese dressings were different, but we couldn't tell for sure which was supposed to be which. We also had a Guigal Chateauneuf-du-pape with the steaks, which was quite good.

We were surprised by the meat. None of the steaks had the quality we expected at that price point. I'd never had wagyu beef before, but it wasn't any better than steaks I have gotten from other places (Whole Foods, Costco, etc) and cooked myself. The strip was mealy and dry, and also not better than steaks I've gotten at Tango Sur, for example. It says on the menu that the bone-in fillet is prime, is that the only cut that is? (it says wagyu is prime, but I'm not sure that designation applies to wagyu, which is so different, does it?) The fillet was also not very flavorful. It was better nearer to the bone, but compared to this cut when I have made at home or had it elsewhere, just not great.

I don't frequent too many other steak places, but definitely liked the steaks we have had in the past at Pete Miller's in Evanston more.

Morton's is excellent, but you should try Rosebud Steakhouse (not the typical Rosebud Italian restaurants) on Walton east of Michigan Avenue or the new Rosebud at One North Dearborn.

Their qualithy food, preparation and service is outstanding.

For a less formal (and not as expensive, lower quality of meat, but no less good eating) Mon Ami Gabi and Tango Sur are great. For a great Mexcican carne asada, try Perez Restaurants: one is at the corner of Randolph and Peoria and the other is in the 1100 block of west 18th Street in Pilsen. Make certain you ask for the "outer skirt steak."

Morton's is excellent, but you should try Rosebud Steakhouse (not the typical Rosebud Italian restaurants) on Walton east of Michigan Avenue or the new Rosebud at One North Dearborn.

Their qualithy food, preparation and service is outstanding.

For a less formal (and not as expensive, lower quality of meat, but no less good eating) Mon Ami Gabi and Tango Sur are great. For a great Mexcican carne asada, try Perez Restaurants: one is at the corner of Randolph and Peoria and the other is in the 1100 block of west 18th Street in Pilsen. Make certain you ask for the "outer skirt steak."

leek wrote:For dinner we got 2 bone-in fillets

I admit, I'm more an eater than a sophisticate. But isn't bone-in fillet an oxymoron?

It is, but it's pretty commonly understood what this is: A steak cut from the tenderloin with the bone still attached.

midas wrote:I admit, I'm more an eater than a sophisticate. But isn't bone-in fillet an oxymoron?

The term "filet mignon" refers to a specific cut of meat, the tenderloin. While it is most often served without the bone attached, some places leave a portion of the t-bone attached while cooking, hence the term "bone-in filet".