Steak review and our Christmas tree

Good morning Crushers!

Remember last week when I was really excited for our date night at a steak house? No, well you can read about it here. Let's just say I was really looking forward to trying one of the best steak places in the city. I was not disappointed in my steak. I had a great dinner, but I had to wimp out and get a take-home bag. You'll see why in a few photos.

The cool part about the 5 O'Clock Steakhouse is that you feel like you either step back in time or you're instantly transported up north to a supper club. We started out at the bar and ordered a drink. I did get an old fashioned and it was terrific! The hostess explains that you sit and have a drink and your waitress takes your order at the bar. Then she goes and sets up your table.

When we were seated there was a HUGE bowl of salad at the table with a lazy susan filled with different dressings. There was also a relish tray. I almost took a picture of it, but we were really hungry and then... well, it didn't happen. I can tell you that it had a few spicy peppers, sweet peppers, carrots, radishes, olives (black and green) and green onions. I definitely enjoyed the veggies. Our waitress also brought out a warm 1/2 loaf of sour dough bread, which got devoured quickly. It was a nice reminder of our California honeymoon!

The only bummer about steakhouses is that you often have to order everything a la carte. While this was true of this restaurant, I feel like we really got our money's worth. Steve ordered a bowl of French Onion Soup that was amazing (and better than the one I made, but probably because it was not the low-cal version). The soup broth was flavorful and loaded with onions. The croutons and the cheese that was gratinéed over the top was perfectly crisp and bubbly. We also ordered crab stuffed mushrooms because when we get our once-a-year fancy dinner out, we like to splurge on calories and a random appetizer.

These mushrooms were so stuffed with crab and cheese that you couldn't even seem them!
They were very rich and tasty, but I don't know if I would order them again.

On to the steaks, the main event! I ordered a New York Strip Sirloin since it was described as "for the love of the finest". I was served a perfectly "medium" steak with a nice char and a generous portion of mushrooms and au jus (French for "with [its own] juice"). Now, I say steak like it's a regular portion of meat. Ha ha, no. This was the size of a small roast. I'm totally planning on taking the leftovers (I could only eat about 1/3 of the steak) and making them into fajitas later this week.

The whole steak wouldn't fit in the picture. It was HUGE, but so very delicious and flavorful.
The rumor goes that only the chefs know the secret to the perfect char and the seasoning.

Steve ordered Bacon Wrapped Filets which were filet medallions surrounded by bacon and then covered with blue cheese. It also came with a Parmesan sauce. Steve said he could have done without the sauce, but it was a nice way to cut the sharp flavor of the blue cheese. We eat traded bites and declared that we made good choices. The bite I had of Steve's steak was very interesting because it was very tender and yet it had the smokey flavor of bacon infused into it somehow. I'd be very interested in trying to repeat all of these at home.

It was smothered! We both agreed that it could have done with less sauce.

This dinner was a nice kickoff to a fantastic weekend. On Saturday we did some marathon shopping and I got to see the Nutcracker ballet with some of the ladies from church. The dancers did a great job! We ate dinner at Elsa's, which makes fancy sandwiches the size of your face. If you go, I highly suggest a burger or the turkey and avacado club. So good!

Sunday was another Christmas-y day. After church we spent time with my sister-in-law's family making Christmas cards and then we went home to decorate our tree. It was a wonderful weekend of family, food and friends!

Makes you want to sing some carols doesn't it?