And so it continues ... a brand new set of tastes for 2017 ...
here's the NINTH of FIFTY tastes of FLORIDA
(coming to you on sequential Thursdays. All. Year. Long.)!
Establishment: Chuck's Steak House
Location: Ft Lauderdale
Meal: (Annual Birthday Steak) Dinner
Drink: Whiskey Sour
Appetizer: Salad from the Salad Bar
Main: New York Strip with Garlic Butter Sauteed MushroomsAngus beef, tender with great flavor.....10 oz
Side(s): Baked Potato
Dessert: Homemade Mud Pie
Server: Mr. Surly at first, who then thankfully passed us off to Kim
Website: http://www.chucksflorida.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chucksflorida/
"Happy Birthday to ME!" for over a dozen years has meant a dinner out at a steakhouse -- and the majority of them recently have included members of my Indiana family. Prior to the big move from Chicago to Florida, we were making our way through all of the great Chitown steakhouses, and that tradition continues down here in a place where the surf side of surf-n-turf usually reigns supreme. That does mean that there's likely to be only one steakhouse per year in this series. The good news -- this place is better than last year's selection. The bad news -- a bit of surliness can bring your Troy-score down, even if we swoon over your salad bar option (see all the numbers below):
AMBIANCE: 9/10 (I like big booths and I cannot lie ... and we were seated in one that comfortably fit five, as this evening out happened when family was in town visiting, and that was in a back corner and close to the salad bar ... we got a nice view of the whole place and it wasn't diminished when the lights dimmed shortly after being seated [although that dimness did affect a picture or two accompanying this post] ... the only point deduction is because we recommend some enhanced signage related to how to find the restrooms, as we got to see a few folks wandering around lost from our vantage point in the corner booth near the restroom entrance nook)
FOOD: 8/10 (you go to the steakhouse for a steak ... and a baked potato ... and, if you're lucky, a salad from the salad bar ... and I had no problems with any of those basics -- the steak was juicy and flavorful, the potato was a little small but enhanced by being able to load it up with goodies from the salad bar and the salad was made precisely to my liking ['cause I was the one who made it] ...by the way, I was talking about that homemade mud pie all the way back to my own home ... the disappointments were in the add on garlic butter sauteed mushrooms that came on the side and were good, not great and didn't amp up my steak like I wanted them to [a point lost] and in the fact that I couldn't get a side of creamed spinach at a steak house, which I thought was a mandatory offering from all my time spent in Chicago [the second point deduction])
SERVICE: 7/10 (kudos to Kim for salvaging this scenario ... because the initial impressions made by a hostess who simply didn't listen as we tried to engage her in conversation [explaining that a birthday steak house excursion was our family tradition] and the gentleman whose name we didn't get [a bigger bald guy] who took our order without a smile and oozing surliness from every pore left us with a bad taste in our mouth before any actual food arrived ... I don't know if it was a "captain server" style set up or what, but luckily we didn't see our order taker again for the rest of the evening and his replacement was sweet, personable and friendly as well as being efficient ... that being said, it's a point off for the hostess, and double points off for captain surly)
BACON: 6/10 (on one hand, there's only one reference to bacon on the official menu [served atop a southwest chicken dish] ... but on the other hand, there's a salad bar with unlimited bacon crumbles on it that you can add to just about anything [I chose to do so on my baked potato] ... so let's split the difference and give one point more than half in this category)
BONUS: 10/10 (+3 for that damn salad bar making us feel all Ponderosa-y [in a good way], +3 for the presentation of the dessert menu on that bottle [as pictured], +3 for a mysterious light switch in our booth that no one knew what it turned off or on but that kept our nephew entertained throughout the meal and +1 for being a place to which we will likely return because we do so love us a salad bar)
TroyScore: 40 out of 50 -- aka 80, a B
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