Ottawa Foodies

Forum thread on places to get steak: ottawafoodies.com/forum/95

I hate to sound like a steak snob, but I love my meat:) We regularly BBQ and cook various cuts at home and have tried steak at many restaurants in Ottawa.

The Keg is very hit and miss. I like my steak rare to blue and I never order steak there anymore because I have frequently gotten overcooked meals or lots of gristle. I think because they are a chain, they do not get the best selection of meats and are not aged well. They also do not hire top end career chefs who pride themselves in excellent preparation of the meat. I now always stick with the prime rib and ask for the rarest piece when I go.

I have found that if you want a good quality marbled and aged steak you need to go to a smaller, higher-end restaurant (there are some that seem to have good relations with the better butchers and get priority on the better supply)...or a good butcher and cook it yourself. The Keg is not the place for quality. I go there with large groups because they can handle that, esp if a bit rowdier (eg. sports teams).

Must have been a bad night - For a real treat if you like your steak med to med rare, try the Baseball Sirloin and have them cook it Chicago style ...it will be the best steak you have tried.

JDK

Can I put a question out to the group? The last time I was at a Keg (in Toronto), I ordered one of the top sirloin cuts.

It was almost inedibly tough. I realize that the sirloin, especially the top cuts, are tougher, but I wasn't expecting it to have the consistency of shoe leather. And this was rare.

I don't go to steakhouses normally, since I just cook them at home, so I don't know if I should have complained about it or just expected it. Have other people had this experience, or did I get a bad night?

The filets here are nice sized piece of meat, and that of adequate quality. I like the side of bernaise sauce.

It's interesting. Just for fun, I brought up menus from both Hy's and Al's. The prices are really not that much different, but from what I remember of the last time I had lunch or dinner at Hy's, the quality of the food and service was outstanding.

Perhaps it's worth a revisit to Hy's :)

"The Man" has been buying Steaks for the BBQ from Pete & Gus since the 1980s. He used to buy from them primarily when hosting a Summer BBQ and having Guests over... the rest of the time, purchasing his steaks from Loblaws.

This Summer however, all that changed. He began to find that the Steaks at Loblaws were much more tougher than they had been in the past... and it didn't seem to matter whether he bought from the self-serve area or directly from the Loblaws Butcher... he just wasn't satisfied with the quality he was receiving. Add to that, our latest interest in buying local vs mass produced, and it was only natural that we both ended up at Pete & Gus'.

The steaks here are not really any more expensive than the Grocery Store, but the quality is a lot better. Not a tough steak in the bunch. Sure the location is a little more out of the way (a stripmall at Jockvale & Cedarview), but the friendly and personal service has made up for the minor inconvenience.

And as an added BONUS with every steak bought the customer gets a FREE tin foil wrapped baking potato ready for the BBQ also.

Outstanding quality New York Striloin steak at a great price.

Found a rare (at least from my experience, and pardon the pun) treat at Saslove's on the weekend: bone-in ribeye steak, aged at least 30 days.

The price difference wasn't that much over the standard, unaged variety, and it was so melt-in-your-mouth good and tasty.

I think I would have preferred them to be more thickly cut, since they were about three-quarters of an inch thick, but that's not a deal-breaker for me.

Also, Saslove's has hanger steaks. Sure, they're cryovaced, meaning you have to dry them out really well if you want a good crust on the outside. Sure, they may come from the States (the fellow at Aubrey's told me that hanger steak is a USDA cut, so it's difficult (illegal?) to produce here). But I don't care. If you've got side dishes (or lots of fries) you can feed three people for four bucks, and the taste and texture are fantastic.

The Steak-Frites Paradiso was decent, although I asked for medium rare and it was more like medium *well* in most places. The absolutely thickest part was a good medium rare, so I didn't feel justified in complaining at the time.

Fried onions were a nice visual but didn't add much to the taste experience. In fact, combined with the frites and steak there was a bit of grease overload. But then steak frites is supposed to be a heavy meal. The Beaujolais demi-glace was good and made the steak interesting.

I can't comment on their oysters, but I had their angus steak in a pepper sauce last week. It was about $35 and fantastic. Much more flavourful than the the pepper steak at Hy's, presented in a more appealing way, and at 2/3s the price.

The Bar Steak was perfectly cooked to a medium rare with exceptional precision. Unfortunately, it didn't have much flavour. The fries were really salty and that was awesome... for a while. This is probably the first time in my life that I feel I was given too many fries. The 1/2 fries and 1/2 salad option that tnt mentioned would definitely be the way to go!

This was an overpriced plate, at $26.99 + $4 (or was it $5) for the mushrooms.

Re the dressing, I dont eat meat, but could live on their salad dressing, I complimented it to our server once and she mentioned that in fact they sell it by the bottle, Ill be picking some up for summer entertaining.

Agree with Monty. The steaks aren't bad, but they're not $30 worth of steak.

Very average food, at best. Better value out there for your money as far as steakhouses are concerned.

I heard this from my friend and I found it funny. My friend's son (4th year at Queens) asked his mom for a steak place in west end. Her mom told him that the only steak place she can think of is Al's Steakhouse in Bells Corner. So, my friend's son went with his high school friend to Al's for dinner (just get together before he went back to campus).

When he came back home, his mom asked "How was the dinner?"

He told his mom: "Mom, service wasn't good. The place was expensive as well, around $30 for a steak dish! So, we just ordered one steak dish and shared that dish with my friend.".

Mom laughed: "No wonder the service wasn't good. What do you expect? One dish shared by two young men. If I was your server, I wouldn't think you guys would give good tips."