My girlfriend wants me to take her Ruth Chris tonight for an early Valentines day. I have never been to the place, any advice on what to order. We already have reservations so I am stuck into going, slightly against my will. I cook a pretty mean steak myself.

Any of their steaks are good, but I prefer Daniel's Broiler steaks instead. If you ever go to Daniel's, get the sweet onion/tomato salad with blue cheese dressing and crumbles. That, bread and a bottle of wine is almost a meal.

Snake

Thanks for the advice, she has her heart set on Ruth Chris, I do want to try Daniels sometime, when i do I will try the sweet onion tomato salad and some bread.

I see from the menu their signature steak is the Filet, is that better then the Ribeye or the New York Strip?

Pick your favorite kind of steak and order it....my guess is it will be good. When I get to go to a place like that (Ruth,Daniels,Metropolitan,El Goucho,etc) I usually order something I don't cook at home. Step out of the box so to say and discover something new (if that is possible with cow!).
I think it's impossible to get a bad meal at a high end steak house.

On that note who has been to the Wolf Lodge off I-90 in Idaho near CDA? That place is a must if you are traveling through the area during dinner time. Make sure you have reservations. The antlers and other old west stuff on the walls is almost as good as the food. They cook the meat in an indoor bbq in front of all the guests in the middle of the place. Very good.

I've been twice. Both times the service was slow and the food was cold. I'll never go back.

Hard to get a feel for what to order when your steak arrives at room temperature.

Highly overrated IMO.

Hope your dinner turns out better than mine.

Well I have never done a Filet, except wild game ( backstrap) I think they are the same thing.

I had to go to a Ruth Chris in So Cal for a meeting with some venders once. We were waiting in the bar and some lady was blabbing at the top of her lungs about her hair ( old blue hair type with a massive doo ) ANYWAY... after forever we got our table. So we are sitting down and one of the guys we were with totally misses his chair and winds up on his back on the floor looking up at this same lady .. and says " OH MY GOD WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR HAIR !!!"... The whole place cracked up.

The chopped salad is what was good that I remember

If you order the filet, it'll be a lot smaller than your steaks you cook at home.

Next year try Snake's Valentine's Day special............buy some big filets and "ready to go" caeser salad at Costco, put some big baked potatoes in the oven. Buy a couple of really nice bottles wine, top shelf stuff(still less than 1/2 of what you would pay at the restaurant). Don't have her do anything, but sit and relax sipping some wine and just chatting with you while you barbecue the steaks to perfection. Some port and chocolate-covered strawberries for dessert. With the money you saved on over-priced restaurant food, tip, parking, etc. you can also whip out a dozen roses. The big plus.......the bedroom is only 25 feet away and nothing makes your lady happier and more "excited" than being pampered and some roses.

Snake

I always leave steakhouses feeling like I was cheated. I can get a real good steak for $50if I barbecue it at home, plus a six-pack of beer. I am not sure steakhouses do anything different with the meat. They just have real expensive cuts I would not typically buy at home. The $8 potatoe my wife ordered last time we went to the Met didn't help me feel any less cheated. +1 for what Snake said.

$50 for a steak at home? Must be expensive beer...Is that you Dan Quale?.. referring to the $8 POTATOE...

Ribeye at home.

Read up about the cuts of meat.

As to what to get depends on what you like in your cuts.

As a whole, Ruth's does a good job on their steaks.

http://www.culinarycafe.com/Meat_Dishes/Steak_Glossary.html

I shelled out $160 for two of us at Gibson's in Chicago. Got the filet and it was great.

Sounds pretty good to me, although the shellfish would make me hurl.

I'd pass on the appetizer but upgrade to the Porterhouse!

Toss in a caesar sald.

The '95 Woodward Cab is excellent.

K.K.: I googled the '95 Woodward Cab, 92 points, nice. I'm not familiar with that winery, any other of their wines you or Parker might want to recommend? Are the '95's all gone? I'm pretty much a Cab Sav guy, no more Pinot Noir and just like in the movie: "Sideways": "if anybody orders Merlot, I'm leaving, I'm not drinking any fu%king Merlot!"

Damn it Aunty! Must you always kick me to the curb on this board?

Been to Seattle twice thanks to the Simpson Door Company - El Gaucho was great as was Ruth Chris. What I really enjoyed though was the old theater down near the bay that was/is an adult bookstore/stripjoint. The marquee read "Crack whores with tight asses." Unfortunately, that was all I got to see of the place

Thanks for the info KK. A few years ago, I had a VP from my home office fly out a couple times a year for business dinners and the guy was a wine buff. We always had some thing different......Gundlach Bundschu and Stag's Leap were a couple of good ones.

While we are on the topic of high end places to eat..

I don't like male waiters for the most part. I feel that they are condisending, and probably gay. They have this smug thing going on that just really gets to me. Not all of them but alot of them.

Took the girlfreind out a while ago to a place thats pretty upscale for Boise anyway. Get this male waiter. He seemed to have sugar in his tank from the get go. So, he does this deal. He gets down on one knee and is right up in girlfreinds space, has his hand on her knee and is "helping" her look at the menu. He is also checking out her cans.. they are giggling like little girls and I swear to god he looked at me and winked. He used the word "excellent" about 50 times. We get in the car and she says " that guy was great "... I just shut up and said "yea he was !!"

Maybe its just me that bothers ???

Whatever you choose tell them exactly how you want it cooked. One steakhouses medium is anothers rare.

I usually order the Filet Mignon. Nearly impossible to find a grade AAA Filet anywhere other then a high end steakhouse.

My menu tonight starts with a RAM Blonde Ale and ends with a Husky ASSWHOOPIN!!!!