The other night we went out for a birthday celebration and this time around it was my choice so breaking from the normal we visited a local steak house. The last time we visited a steak house was over 10 years ago as steak ribs and burgers you can cook yourself and more often than not are better than what is on offer.
We decided on a couple of garlic and herb focaccias along with 3 portions of peri peri chicken wings to start. These two starters cover most bases and they were actually perfect and hit the spot.
There were 5 adults and two kids and the kids had a shared main as there were no kiddies menu available. granny had the local specialty being the Stevens steak which had a fillet steak and mussels with a cream sauce. The metal skillets the food was served on were very hot and the only criticism everyone besides I had was they had ordered medium cooked steaks and should have selected medium rare. The skillets carried on cooking the steaks long after they had been served.
My daughter had the bone marrow sauce steak which I avoid and very happy I was not sitting next to her. The bone marrow sauce is that strong a flavor and reminds me of Bovril/Vegemite of which I am no fan. A flavor you either love or hate and I am a hater.
The sauce is rather thick and you pry out the bone marrow with a special fork. I have not seen other restaurants offer this sauce and it was good to see they have it available for those that enjoy this kind of taste.
A boring dish of ribs and sweet potato chips which I would never order out as ribs you can have anytime at home. As long as everyone is happy each to their own.
Myself I opted for the 600g T-Bone with a monkey gland sauce. Every time I see this sauce I order it as we make our own at home and I always judge our home made sauce against the restaurants. Ours is so much better and need to do a post of the recipe and how it is made as a sweet and sour barbecue sauce is always a firm favorite with steaks or burgers. Ours is so good we could sell the finished product and has crossed my mind to get it done so we shall see.
The steak was great as the T-Bone offers the best of both worlds having fillet on one side and rump on the other. I rarely order steaks out as this for me is a diet sized steak, but was the biggest on the menu. Twenty years ago there would have been a 1kg T-Bone on the menu and they have cut things down because prices have risen that much.
The bill including tip was R4000 or $250 which for me I thought was expensive mainly for the reason I know how much meat costs at the butchers and the pricing was roughly a 500% mark up. This is excessive as most restaurants used to work on a minimum 100% mark up so 500% will not see me returning any time soon. If I was to judge the food it was very good and was definitely not worth the price which in my view should have been in the region of half the price of what we paid. Still it was a good family evening out and this is what is important.