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!!!!

I didn't know that New York is cheap meat. Must be why they were on sale at QFC yesterday. And I bought seven.

Just stick to Hooter's and Deja Vu. Buy her a lap dance for dessert.

Y

Mf

Thanks for all the shared info KK, I'm making a list. Redmond isn't too far away and while there aren't a lot of special occasions lately, some nights just deserve one hell of a bottle of wine.

Memo to B-Run: Many years ago, I took ex-wife #2 to a nice restaurant and our waiter was............a little limp. While uncorking the champagne, he hit his head with the cork and squealed like a little girl and sat down next to my wife and fanned his face with her napkin..............true story, every bit. My wife laughed, he regained himself and was actually a good waiter. I left him a good tip.

Having a nice glass of cab sav as I type this.........

Snake

Well I am back, the Damage was $130 for the two of us. I had the Filet with a Crab stufffed lobster tail. My girlfriend had the filet with shrimp. We also got a side of mashed potatos and a side of french fries. The Filet and crab stuffed lobster tails was only 40 bucks I was suprised.

I have never been to a high end steakhouse and my filet was the best steak I haver ever had, tender with great flavor. However, I would expect nothing less. I didnt expect my grilled 10 dollar rib eyes to stack up to a Ruth Chris Filet. Service was good and the food came out pretty quickly.

Now you know what it's like to be a Husky.

By the way my bro in law ran the Met for about 15 years. Haven't been in a while but my fav was the New York peppercorn. One of my favorite lessor known restaurants is the Cafe De Paris in downtown Edmonds. Family owned. Try it sometime. Better prices and fantastic food. I usually have the rack of lamb with bernais and my wife has the peppercorn filet. Great french onion soup.

Aunty,

I know top round. I was an impoverished student and only bought round when it was ground. NY ain't like any round, top or otherwise. I buy ribs, T-bone, and NY because they are marbled and tender. Well the rib isn't as tender, but the flavor can't be beat, at least in the price range I live in. Porterhouse is good too, but I don't often see them at the store.

KK,

I like a $30 bottle of wine some times, and always expect to get laid for the effort. For a while my motto was life is too short to drink cheap wine. But the more I look around I'm finding wine at lower and lower price points that are completely drinkable to me, and I still get laid. Wine is nectar of the gods.

Sg

Yeah, Salmo.......but can you talk about earthy oak overtones if the bottle doesn't cost you an arm and a leg?



I watched a show on Food Network about wine........they had 20 wine "experts" and 20 Joe Blow's do a blind taste test of wines ranging in price from 6 bucks to 300 bucks. Among both groups, nobody was able to identify the most expensive wines. The wine experts were better able to identify the least expensive wines, and overall the top-ranking wines cost about 12-20 bucks a bottle.

Earthy overtones.

People generally drink 200 dollar bottles of wine so that they can say they drank 200 dollar a bottle wine..........not because it tastes any better than a wine a quarter that cost. Find a good bottle for 15 bones, and you really have it going on.

But it ain't easy being in the cool goup, and it ain't cheap either.

I would like to thank all those who contributed to this thread. This thread inspired me to go to the butcher and pick up 4 nice porter house steaks which were grilled to perfection last night and served with some large baked russet potatoes( with all the fixin's) a nice salad of mixed field greens, chevre goat cheese, toasted pecans, and a balsamic vinegarette, a diet coke, and some home made strawberry short cake. Needless to say I wont be having breakfast, but damn it was a great dinner. Thanks for the inspiration.-TBJ

I've heard 2008 was a great year for Diet Coke...

Kobe Ribeye Cap steak!.......Mmmmmmmmmmmmm...

You will kill for it.......You can cook it with a small propane torch and it will still make you kill for it......

This year I will get the Kobe Poterhouse and try it....

The Kobe NY Striploin is on the list to.....

They should offer financing...

KK, Dan,

I attended a mixed red wine tasting last winter. No really expensive bottles were in the mix, but a nice range of cabs, merlots, and zins. Popular acclaim picked the Columbia Cellars cab-merlot blend which can be had at Fred Meyers for $5.99. Since I had contributed what I thought was a nice $20 merlot, I concluded I was only fooling myself. I've devoted my time to sampling anything I can find for less than $10, and am finding that bad wine is uncommon. Excellent wine for cheap is also uncommon, but pretty drinkable stuff can be had for cheap routinely. Got two cases of Crane Creek chard at 3.99 minus the 10% case discount for everyday and feel satisfied.

Sg

My mistake is I never remember WTF I drank. So if I dummy into something I really like, I can't recall what it was so I know what to grab next time. All the vintner, year, type jargon just does not register with my gray matter, so I rely on guys like KK who know all that sh!t to line me up with some good wine.

I think maybe 1 person in 1000 can really taste the things they talk about tasting, so I don't bother myself with all the overtones, accents, and crap like that. I try it, if it tastes good, I drink more of it. I've never noticed much or a correlation between taste and price, so I leave the high-priced stuff on the shelf.

It's gotten me by so far.

Carlo Rossi Blush, from Bi-Mart....tasty

Mf

Everyone's wine taste buds are different as are their fishing gear choices. I'm sure there are some of you that will drink $2Buck Chuck wine and drive an expensive truck/boat rig and use nothing but top of the line rods/reels. I've got an '89 Lund and a 1990 F-150 with matching dents, but I won't drink cheap, shi%%y wine.

KK,

Yes, white wine. I nearly always have white with chicken or pork - unless it's BBQ ribs, in which case beer is better IMO. Red with hearty foods isn't a bad rule of thumb, but a light bodied red like Pinot Noir goes well with BBQ salmon or even baked halibut. Zin= steak, roast beef, etc.

Columbia is a good value, both the chard and cab and merlot; at leasat for me.

Snake,

I tried 2 buck Chuck, which was $3 at Trader Joe's a few years ago. It's flat out bad wine. Amazingly, to me is Tisdale at $3 and Crane Creek at $3.99 at Fred Meyer - cheap and good enough for everyday wine. And I drink wine pretty much every day, so dropping $10 or more for wine on a daily basis makes me feel weird when I go grocery shopping and wine accounts for 70% of my bill. I agree about not drinking crappy wine, but some of the values I've been finding are well above that catagory. I agree that $20 wine usually tastes better than $10 wine, but it sure doesn't taste twice as good. My take is that you have to spend larger and larger increments of money for smaller and smaller increments of improved wine flavor, earthy oak overtones notwithstanding.

Sg

I'm partial to Bordeaux's. A cheap decent example is Mouton Cadet. No matter what price you pay for a wine if it hasn't been transported and stored right it's garbage.

I've noticed recently the increase in boxed wine varieties on the shelves. Must be the economy.

My wife bottles wine for Sutter Home Winery in the Napa Valley.
Lower price, very high production.
Business is good.

Their claim to fame was the white Zin.
They have branched out considerably with Trinchero, Montevina, Wild Bunch, Trinity Oaks, Folie à Deux, Ménage à Trois, Napa Cellars several other festive blends including "menage a trois" which is becoming more popular all the time.
It's kind of funny to listen to discussions of Napa Valley wines.
I grew up there and have lived amongst the vines in Oakville along the St Helena Highway .
I was the only working stiff with a pasture of horses, surrounded by multi million dollar estates.

My house was plowed under to make way for a hobby winery that an eastern business tycoon owns for fun.
I now live in the eastern hills overlooking the valley.

It is a beautiful valley.







Right now the mustards are blooming making a beautiful contrast.

i miss lake berryessa...heard its raining like crazy there...miss those pics

if i go out and order steak, it will only be Rib Eye, or Prime Rib...otherwise i would rather have a burger...c

I spent many a summer at my great Grandma's in St. Helena when I was just a smolt. It was a great small town in the early 60's.

Rain poured down ALL DAY yesterday somewhere around 6" with the current storm....We need it & the fishees need it!
Sonoma county had already drafted a water rationing plan things were so dry.

My inlaws grew up in the town of Monticello that now is underwater, the gov't flooded the valley to create the lake.
I've lived in the Berryessa area for the last 15 years, Currentley I live less than five minutes from the lake.

My son and I spend many days hunting blacktails & turkeys in the mountains above the lake.

I grew up making wine with my dad. He had a deal with the vinyards in Eastern WA. We'd drive over after the pickers had gone through and fill up a one ton pickup each trip with what they missed. Made mostly Cab and a couple of whites. About 1974 he tried his hand at Champagne. It was not so good and three quarters of the bottle would end up on the ceiling when popped. 25 years later he found a couple of cases so we tried it. Would rival Dom now. He still researches wines and buys them on the cheap when they first come out then stores them for years. So, pretty much every time I visit I get to try wines that are now worth hundreds of dollars and at their peak. There is a huge difference between wine stored right and that bought off of store shelves.

My parents, dad being into wine, went to the Mondavi vinyard in the late 60's and met an old farmer. After a discussion about grapes and wine the farmer invited them up, laid out a picnic and starting opening wines. It turned out to be Robert Mondavi. So they had an afternoon one on one with the man who started it all.

too freaking cool stlhead....

as for salmonella...i love the pics...im from Benicia, near Vallejo, but im sure you know where that is...grew up there but my love is here...i actually wanted to move here...hahahah...

looks like i booked a trip to Cali this weekend...my gramps finally passed last night at the ripe old age of 102!...im not sad, he had a great life, he was a wagon builder! and i cant wait to see all of my family together....ill be there a couple extra days, but not enough to get a fishing trip in...maybe next time...i keep telling my freinds that fish Clearlake to hit Berryessa...they just dont understand....c

Sorry about your Gramps--- you should be able to fit in a striper trip--- midnight under the lights. I was raised in Lafayette so I know where Benicia is.

Sorry to hear bout your loss, but Wow 102!
You've got some good genes to draw from.
Sometimes I doubt I'll make half that!

Weather looks like it's clearing.

Still gonna be a while on the steelies, but you could prolly get into a sturgeon out in the bay or the mouth of the Napa river.

Best Wishes.
Sal

Alcalanes High School---- graduated in 69. What was your maiden name?

speaking of old, are you ever going to catch a steelhead this spring KK? get ur ass on the water grandpa...cheers

Salmonella-

I still drive over St Helena to get to Headlsburg to see my folks - I love those views from the mountain looking down on the valley. I hunted just up from you in the geysers area for several years - talk about a hot mofo in August up there!

Russian is blown out, gonna check with dad to see if it will be fishable before the next rains.

Napa and Sonoma counties are wine central! It's obscene how many wineries there are now, but that just means more variety. I really like Sebastiani's cab, any vintage, as well as Louis Martini's cab. There are just too many to keep up with.

Pretty amazing how many people on this thread are from such a small geographic area in California!