Birthday at a Steakhouse

From the beginning I wanted to try an American steak at an appropriate location. My birthday seemed like a good excuse to make my dream a reality. Upon some investigation I chose Black Angus Steakhouse to have my celebration dinner. I certainly didn't regret my choice of the venue. It was a genuine American steak house. The place was similar to a ski lodge or a hut. Everything made of wood, sloping roof, wooden floors. Colours --- a dark finish. The layout was that there was a bar type counter in the middle and on the sides there were these semi private booths with three walls about a meter and a half in height with glass pannels spanning the top 30 cm. The atmosphere was a mixed one. On the one hand I was conscious of the ranch --- cowboy pictures everywhere on the walls. On the other hand I felt like I'd go outside and jump onto some dog sleds in one of Jack London's stories set in Alaska/South Pole...

The three of us --- Brendan, Tina, and I --- were shown to a table and some freshly baked round bun was brought to us with some souce. We then promptly ordered a sampler dish as an appetizer. I can't remember the names of these things now, but there was some vegetable stuff deep fried, chicken also deep fried, prawns, and a strange potato shell --- potato with most of its inside mass removed. Tasted quite good. To complete the American experience Brendan and I decided to order the Prime Rib Steak, a whole pound (454 grams raw weight) as our main dish. Suffice to say that we got pretty full after the total time of about two hours in the steakhouse. The meat was great, I ordered mine medium, and it was as soft as jelly! Note to self is to order steak medium well done to make it a little more chewy. On the side there was a large dish of salad, mash potato with garlic (surprisingly tasty!), and some boiled vegetables. The size of the steak was impressive, but not overwhelming --- nothing that I couldn't handle. It was probably the size of a good portion of steak... and twice as thick, about 2 cm! For the sauces to go with the steak I had mild horse radish and ranch sauce. Brendan ordered full strength horse radish and that thing was the most spicy thing I've ever had in my life! I put literally a drop of that radish on a tiny bit (less than 0.5 cm cube) of broccoli. Immediately I turned all crab red and my eyes started to water. That sauce gave me a whole new meaning to spicy. The spice in Wassabi, at least one that I've tried in the past, fails miserably in comparison to this horse radish. I won't attempt that stunt again in the future...

I mentioned to the waitress that it was my birthday so we got to choose one free desert. I chose a chocolate cake slice, which we each had a third of. I don't eat desert normally, but it was a special day in a special place so I made an exception :) The waitress also took a couple of polaroid pictures of us --- old school photography, but still cool. If we get hold of a scanner I'll post those pictures up later.

Overall impression of the place exceeded all my expectations. I was really impressed by the atmosphere, quality of the food, and the service. Not bad, for a reasonable $100 (including tip and tax) for the three of us. We were the last customers out of the place at around 11.40 and the place shut at 11 officially I think :D

Mission birthday celebration dinner --- accomplished. Over and out.