Sam and Harry's - Schaumburg

Hi, anyone have any good experiences here? I've read mixed reviews on other sites.

Sam and Harry's
1551 Thoreau Drive
Schaumburg, IL 60173
(847) 303-4050

Nope, haven't been there....but I wanted to comment on your interesting "nickname"....

wow - cool nickname!

luvtoeat wrote:Hi, anyone have any good experiences here? I've read mixed reviews on other sites.

My wife and I ate there about two weeks ago. Very nice decor, free valet, pro service all the way, and the food was great but I do offer the caveat with the entrees.

Service was good - wine and water glasses were filled appropriately, everything was spaced out timewise well, no rushing, no ignoring...a manager walked around to everyone's table and addressed those who had reservations by name - classy.

We started with the crab cakes which were fantastic - I'm a big fan of crab cakes and somewhat picky about them - I'd go back and have the entree in a heartbeat.

There's a large wine by the glass list - easily 30 glasses, if not more, and the bottle list was a good size as well. We went with a $45(ish) bottle of Cab and thought it was great. A bread basket with at least four types that I can remember was on the table and the best was the cheesy flatbread. Also on the table were a selection of three olives - couldn't tell you what they were though.

We shared a side of potato au gratin and it was fantastic - and huge, we barely made a dent in it.

About the steaks - to be honest, my wife and I don't know a whole lot about steak (we've both come back to the fold after being vegetarian for 10+ years) so I don't feel qualified to really get into assessing the entree to serious steak lovers. I can tell you that since coming back to meat I haven't had a steak I didn't like.

From our limited knowledge, we both found them to be great, perhaps slightly undercooked, but overall we were both very content.

I enjoyed my dinner there, it's easily one of the nicest places in Schaumburg that I've encountered, and while I'm more likely to try some of the other big name steak places first, I'd gladly go back.

It's in the Renaissance hotel on the other side of Meacham from Motorola. We ate there last night (at the suggestion of the friends with whom we were dining). The restaurant and the hotel are stunningly gorgeous. The service was excellent in every way. The breads were amazing; they included the best flatbread I've ever had (amazingly flaky) and a great pretzel bread. The rest of the food was just okay; the steaks were slightly chewy and the short ribs were tasty but rather fatty. Their "doneness" scale on steaks is different from elsewhere but the server helpfully alerted us to this (what they print about doneness on their menu is accurate). It was also a bit pricy (you can see the menu with prices on their website).

Had dinner with a friend last night, he wanted steak & to try bone marrow.

The cheesy flatbread is still served.

We split the bone marrow appetizer, 3 6" horizontal halves of bone roasted with delicious marrow. That would have been enough but also served with this is oxtail marmalade which is over the top great. Only gripe about this appetizer is the bread was barely grilled.

Next up was the lobster bisque, nice pieces of sweet lobster in a rich bisque. Quite enjoyable.

We both had our own steaks. As mentioned above, their cooking scale is a bit different. I had the KC bone-in dry-aged strip steak and my friend the Delmonico. His steak came out at least a couple levels more done than he requested and was dry. He did request another. Waitstaff/mgr were quite prompt on the issue and he had a steak to his liking in short order. Both were very tasty steaks, great flavor.

They still offer free valet service.