Introduction:
Honestly, something about steakhouses has never sat well with me. I have always been skeptical about the exceptionally high prices and always thought the food to be excessively simple. Being a newly emerged food blogger, I wanted to share my opinion about the coveted American staple, the steakhouse.
Eddie Merlot’s:
Eddie Merlot’s is a steakhouse restaurant located in Centennial, Colorado. In order to make this post, I deemed it necessary to have a steakhouse that I used as an example throughout the article. At Eddie Merlot’s, I ordered a 7 oz filet mignon, mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, mac and cheese, and a creme brulee to finish off the meal. In my opinion, these are the quintessential items that are ordered at a steakhouse.
All of these dishes were very tasty. The steak was perfectly cooked to a medium-rare, the mashed potatoes were creamy, the creamed spinach had lots of flavor, the mac and cheese was plain but good, and the creme brulee had a wonderfully crisp layer of caramelized sugar. In general, Eddie Merlot’s is a great restaurant to go to if you are looking for a quality steak. However, the fact of the matter was nothing amazed me. Although tasty, the food was nothing incredible and the bill was obnoxiously high. As a truly passionate lover of food, judging by the amount of money spent on dinner at Eddie Merlot’s, I was expecting to have a unique food experience that would leave a lasting impression, but instead, I had a good meal that was very shortly forgotten about.
The food:
My issue with the food at steakhouses is that it lacks uniqueness. Whether you go to a steakhouse in Colorado or to a steakhouse in West Virginia, the food served will be very much alike. A wide variety of different cuts of beef, classical sides such as mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, creamed spinach, french fries, and grilled asparagus, and a selection of desserts ranging from chocolate cake to key lime Pie. Steakhouses do not differ from one to another, making steakhouse meals, no matter the restaurant, fairly repetitive, and uninteresting. The food served at steakhouse restaurants is also very easily recreatable at home. Items like mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, and grilled vegetables are very easy to make. Even a delicious perfectly-cooked steak is relatively simple to prepare with the right kitchen equipment. Although consistently cooking high-quality cuts of meat and preparing traditional steakhouse sides, requires much skill from the chef, any home cook can prepare a fantastic homemade steak dinner. There is no need to spend large amounts of money on a meal that you could make at home for a significantly cheaper price(see graphic below).
My entire dinner at Eddie Merlot’s was good, but I just wasn’t blown away. On the other hand, two years ago on my birthday, my family and I went to a restaurant named The Plimoth in Denver, Colorado. There I tried a dish that consisted of crispy chicken, blue cheese dumplings, and thin slices of pear. This dish impressed me tremendously and I think of it quite often even two years later. This dish was remarkably delicious and made me think about food in a new light. Personally, I believe that going to an upscale restaurant is a new experience in which I will have the opportunity to taste something different and see the new culinary limits that food has been taken to, and unfortunately, with steakhouses, this exciting occasion is lost.
The Price:
The price of a steakhouse meal at a quality steakhouse is shockingly expensive. In my eyes, the most accurate representation of a steakhouse dinner for one person includes a filet mignon, creamed spinach, mashed potatoes, and a slice of chocolate cake. I compared the prices of these four dishes at the 4 best steakhouses in Denver according to uncovercolorado.com. The average price per restaurant was $84.50.
Even for a special occasion, these prices are much too high, knowing that there are many more unique and interesting restaurants for a much smaller price. For example, the chef’s tasting menu at Fruition Restaurant, one of the best restaurants in Denver with a James Beard Award-winning chef, Alex Seidel, costs $60 per person and includes 6 separate courses ranging from Spanish octopus with artichokes to Icelandic cod and potato risotto.
Image of Fruition Restaurant. https://traveltoeat.com. October 3, 2013. https://traveltoeat.com/fruition-restaurant-denver-colorado/
For nearly $25 cheaper per person, you receive a variety of different dishes and truly indulge in a tasty, unique, and interesting meal in which a highly acclaimed chef displays his culinary skills. The difference is certainly visible: the value for a steakhouse dinner, simply put, is just not there.
Conclusion:
Steakhouses are immensely popular throughout the United States, and understandably so. Some people just prefer a good old steak and love the classy ambiance that a steakhouse provides. However, due to steakhouse restaurants serving basic food, as well as, having very high prices, steakhouses rank at the bottom when it comes to my restaurant of choice.
