one down…

The first stop in the Dine About Town lineup was Ruth’s Chris.  It seems like it’s the go to place every year for dine about town, since it’s such a deal.  And it is!  In my previous entry I estimated the value to be ~$50+.  After going we found the correct value to be $68!  But a deal can only get you so far.  Now it’s time for the food review.  Dun DUN DUN!  And I’m not going to be nice.  grrrrrr (I’m a bear after all)  =)

thebargainbear, his sister and I had reservations for 8:45pm.  We weren’t going to get there in time, so we called in to tell them that we’d be in at 9.  The hostess was very pleasant, and we didnt’ have a problem with being late.  However, after arriving at 9 we had to wait another 20 minutes to be seated.  It was really busy.

The first course consisted of a steakhouse salad.  What can I say?  It was a salad.  Nothing special.  I think Guinea the guinea pig would have loved it but as a person it was just aight.  It comes with 2 cheesy croutons.  thebargainbear enjoyed those.  I thought they kinda tasted like cheeze-its with less crunch.

Next course was the 12 oz rib-eye steak.  The majority of people on yelp have been raving about it.  When you get it, the plate is super hot and has a giant blob of butter on it.  Within seconds the butter has melted onto the steak.  This is not yummybear recommended for people with high cholesterol.  I like my steak medium, and it was cooked perfectly.  Well salted and seasoned.  Very tender.  I can’t really complain about that, but I was expecting more.  I was expecting a steak that was slightly crispy on the outside from the broiler with a juicy center.  That would have totally made this dish.

We also had a choice of mashed potatoes or creamed spinach.  I chose the potatoes.  They were good but again not amazing.  They tasted like mashed potatoes with lots of butter.

And lastly dessert.  There was a choice of bread pudding and key lime pie.  I thought the bread pudding was okay.  It was moist with a rum sauce, but it didn’t make me say wow.  The key lime pie fared better than the pudding pudding.  It sweet but not to sweet.  The star in this dish was really the crust.  The thin graham cracker crust was very yummy and made me want more.

Overall it was a good dinner, but if I had to pay a dollar more above the $35, it would not have been worth it.  That was not a $42 piece of steak.  The problem with Ruth’s Chris is that it’s a good meal, but it’s not a great meal.  It didn’t change the way I look at food or eat steak.  It is completely respectable and a good chain, but don’t expect it to blow your mind.

It’s DAT time of year again!

Did you get it?????  It’s time for Dine About Town! I crack myself up sometimes.  Well, it has been some time since my last post, and technically I’m not supposed to post until I pass my LEED test….but I’m not being productive, and since I’m already looking for the best of dine about town, I might as well write  a post about it.  Was that the longest sentence ever???  I think so.  So it begins….(can you name the movie this line is from??) from January 15-31, 150 or so restaurants participate by providing 3 course pre-fixe menus ($21.95 for lunch and 34.95 for dinner)  If you do it right, this can be a great deal.  If you don’t do it right, you could be paying regular price or more!

Some of the problems with dine about town is that many of the restaurants dumb down the menu, so you are paying for less expensive ingredients and desserts.  I don’t want no sorbet for dessert.  So I took all the 4 star yelp restaurants.  (I’ve been to some of the restaurants on the list, and the overall yelp rating was quite similar to my judgment, so I have confidence that the restaurants in the semifinals are quite good)  Next I looked at the Dine About Town sample menu and compared it to their menu prices.  For me, dine about town is about eating at a restaurant I couldn’t normally afford, so I want the most bang for my buck.  No protiferoles for me.  I thought I would have a top 10, but there were only 4 that actually had a good deal, and some were GREAT DEALS!  So here they are.

1. Big 4 Restaurant (~$46 value)

2. Luce (~$50 value)

3. Plumpjack (~49 value)

4. Ruth’s Chris – there are no prices on the website, but I have a feeling the value is ~$50

There were a few on my 4 star list that did not have sample menus, so I could not caluclate their value.  These were Aziza, Campton Place, Dosa, Foreign Cinema and Jeanty at Jacks.  There are also some places that are normally expensive because of their view and not necessarily their food.  If you’re looking for an ambiance deal, I recommend Forbes Island and the Hornblower Cruise.

BON APETIT!  and make your reservations early!  yum Yum YUM!