Category: Steak

All about food blog categorises Steak on its own since most steakhouses do not have association to a particular country in terms of the steak they serve.

Outback Steakhouse

Rating:

7 / 10
Taste: 7/10

Price: $40 per person

Place: 8/10

Review:

When you step into an Outback Steakhouse, you will experience a Wild West saloon. Outback provided us with a nice hint to their specials in their menu: just look at the highlighted item on the list.

The first dish of the day was Bloomin’ Onion ($9.95). It was a ginormous onion with dipping sauce in the middle. I wasn’t expecting a dish this big for a microscopic price. It was like ordering 5 plates of onion rings but tasted so much better than any rings I’ve ever had. It also gave a true meaning to ‘share plate’; you really MUST share this dish! The next one was No Rules Burger ($17.95). The name said it all! You can customise your burger according to the items on the list, 13 in total. The burger was quite small when compared to the bloomin’ onion that came in just before this one. Otherwise, it was just a simple burger.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to take picture of the next dish: it was Original Slow-roasted Prime Rib ($28.95 for medium). There was only a tiny difference in pricing for its sizes, ergo buy the largest. As usual, the steak came in a variety of cooking, with medium-rare being my favourite choice. It also came with complimentary soup or salad of the day and freshly made side dishes. You could also order a mini main course for a fraction of the price. In this instance, we ordered Half Lobster Tail ($15.95). I think the lobster was so much better than the steak. It was cook perfectly and off its shell easily. The lobster was accompanied by butter sauce. It really accentuated the lobster’s taste whilst lessened its seafood flavour.

Lastly, we had the BBQ Beef Ribs ($33.95). With this dish, you can just forget about pretty dish presentation. It is a meat-lover dish and it should be presented the way it should: gloriously barbaric. It was a slab of smoky, chargrilled ribs with a serving of fries. The ribs was nice and juicy.

The final verdict: I dare not think calories when eating Bloomin’ Onion from Outback Steakhouse. It was unbelievable and unfortunately the cheapest dish of the night.

Did you know?

Although it’s called Outback Steakhouse, this restaurant chain was actually started in America in 1988. It didn’t reach Australia until much later when the first Parklea restaurant was opened in 2001.

When I read Wikipedia, they mentioned that Outback’s Cheese chips dish was one of the unhealthiest dishes in America – and I missed it!

Details:

Level 1, 3 George Street, North Strathfield, NSW 2137

+61 2 8756 5741

http://www.outbacksteakhouse.com.au/

May 27, 2012
Hogs Breath Cafe

Rating:

7.5 / 10

Taste: 7.5/10

Price: <$35 main course

Place: 7.5/10

Review:

My experience with Hogs Breath Cafe was a long and turbulent one. I have tried a lot of Hog’s Breath locations, including Hobart, Tasmania and some were less nice than the rest. For this particular review, we went to Cronulla. This one was a nice beach-side venue with your familiar Hog’s Breath interior design.

For the starters, we always ordered its Finger Food Combo. I think it has got the most value for your money. It consisted of calamari, potato skins, spring rolls, chicken tenders and two mouth-watering dipping sauces (honey sweet chili and honey mustard).

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When it comes to the main course, I would strongly recommend Prime Rib. This is Hog’s Breath signature dish and it was slow cooked for 18 hours. They recommended (and I do too!) to take the medium rare one as it was the most ideal serving condition. I’ve tried the longer cooking ones and it tasted nowhere near the medium rare one.It also came in 3 cuts with Mega Cuts being the biggest one.

The one I chose was Garlic Prawn Prime Rib. The steak came with a choice of Hog Tail fries or mashed and veggies. I particularly liked the garlic taste on this succulent prime rib.The prawns further accentuated the steak with a fresh ocean taste.

For those who wished to have a lite meal, I would suggest their burger range. This time, we tried Boss Hogg Double Burger. It was the perfect bite-sized burger with a nice touch of blackened seasoning. There was also the Chicken & Rib Combo, but I wouldn’t recommend ordering it.

The final verdict for Hogs Breath Cafe

Just one simple conclusion: Prime Rib.

Did you know?

Hog’s Breath is an Australian chain steak restaurant. Unfortunately, they are not available in two of the biggest Australian cities.The closest to Sydney is this Cronulla branch or Parramatta.

However, there are some items in the menu I’d suggest you not to try, primarily the Tex-Mex Combo. Secondly, I wasn’t sure whether it’s because of the cooking level, but some restaurants were not as tasty as others.

Details:

Lot 1, 8-18 The Kingsway, Cronulla NSW 2230

02 9544 0644

http://www.hogsbreath.com.au/

Nov 29, 2011
Boncafe Steakhouse

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7 /10

Price: Rp. 100,000 pp = $11

Place: 8/10

Review:

This week we’ll visit (possibly) the oldest and most well known western restaurant in Surabaya, Boncafe Steakhouse. It manages to survive amongst the elites due to its ability to reinvent itself over the years and bring in new and attractive menu to its customers. This improvement is apparent in its renovation of the building and a change in its fries and some other new food.

You will always start your lunch/dinner with complimentary bread when you order the steak. I chose to go heavy on the drink by ordering a mixture of coconut and avocado juice, named Snow on the Desert. I love avocado juice in Indonesia because of its soft and sweet taste. The coconut was sort of sprinkled on top with coffee syrup sprayed over it.

For starters we ordered two of Boncafe’s originals: Kulit Ayam (Crispy Chicken Skin) and Butter Corn. Although it might not be the healthiest starter, the skin was incredibly crunchy. Combined with their special sauce, it became one of my favourite starters of all time. The butter corn was boiled corn with a hint of butter and a sprinkle of grated cheese served in a petite corn-shaped bowl. It was also sweet and nice.

Before we move on to the steak, I must tell you that unless you stated otherwise, it will always come with Boncafe’s legendary mushroom sauce. I would also recommend you to have the steak medium well, considering the meat products of Indonesia.

The steaks were served in sizzling hot plate and I personally love the sound of the sizzling when the waiter pours the sauce onto the plate. The first one we ordered was the original Sirloin Steak. It was a decent-sized steak with a little extra side dish. Then came the new food on the menu, BBQ Lamb Ribs. Slightly bigger size than the Sirloin, but I guess it was due to the bone part of the Ribs.

However I would still recommend you to taste their original collection: Cordon Bleu, Spring Chicken, or Mixed Grill.

The final verdict: Old favourites like Spring Chicken and Cordon Bleu are still better than the new additions. Unfortunately this time we didn’t order them. Otherwise, It’s a decent restaurant with a local taste.

Did you know?

The one I visited was actually the branch. The main restaurant is located in Kertajaya. Boncafe is one of the rare few restaurants that manage to withstand local Surabaya’s harsh food climates. People continually crave for innovative new choices in restaurants or they’d face the inevitable decline of patrons.

As with most restaurant in Indonesia, unfortunately they do not have a website that we can go to.

Location:

Jalan Raya Gubeng 44 – 46, Surabaya, East Java

Mar 22, 2011
American Grill

Rating:

7 / 10

Taste: 7/10

Price Range: Rp. 120,000++ » $15

Place: 8/10

Review:

After so long tinkering on what would have been my first review on Restaurants in Surabaya, the choice fell to American Grill. There are some candidates to the review that I decided to shelve until sometimes in the future. I personally think that American Grill was a nationalised version of US’s steak giant Sizzler since I don’t have any evidence on the correlation between the two. However, the restaurant’s logo and concept are strikingly similar to Sizzler.

Why American Grill? Simply because I love everything BBQ or steak. There was a steak place that we love to eat, called Pro Steak. We reckon that was the best steak place in Surabaya. Unfortunately, the place was closed down. This restaurant turned out to be one of the contenders to win our hearts in the meat department.

In American Grill, you get to eat as much as you can for its salad bar, ice cream, and other light meals on the bar for every main course you order. My choice of main course fell to the three racks of American BBQ Beef Ribs.Three gigantic beef ribs (according to Indonesian standards) were stacked on a hot plate on top of a bigger serving plate – yep, that’s a lot of plate on the table. It’s accompanied by your choice of fries and an odd complement of two slices of watermelon. I don’t understand why watermelon since it’s free to pick from the fruit bar anyway.The ribs themselves were fabulous. They were grilled up to the non-burnt limit. They could be cut off the bone really smoothly. The BBQ sauce was a little bit of a let down since they tasted like those supermarket brands.

They have quite a bit of variation with the ribs that include Steak and ribs or Boneless Ribs and Sirloin Steak. The steak was pretty bland and was not fresh. You would have to take the optional condiments for the steak to taste better.

On with the salad bar! Since I had a ‘green veggies only’ restriction, I could only show you the pic of green beans, broccoli and potato skins in white sauce. They had a full range of salad bar with four different sauces. They also served three kinds of soups.

On the fruit and desert department, they had sweet basil seed jelly, various fruits and puddings that I couldn’t take and/or finish. The night was ended with a cup of Lychee Yoghurt in Raspberry sauce. The yoghurt had a good balance of sweet and sour. Optionally, you could also have a chocolate ice cream with different kinds of lollies, peanuts and chocolates.

Did you know?

IMHO, Most of the tastiest food in Surabaya came from a small restaurant that provides a single menu. For example, Bebek (Duck) Palupi of Rungkut, Lamb Satay in Pucang or Soto (some kind of soup) Ambengan. Thus it creates a different atmosphere to a big chain restaurant. It is also pretty difficult to describe the singular food experience to be written in my blog.

My aim is to get the next two weeks of review on restaurants in Surabaya, or possibly one in Bali. We’ll see how it goes…

Location:

Tunjungan Plaza 3 Lower Ground Floor, Basuki Rahmat 8 – 12, Surabaya, Indonesia

Apr 19, 2010
Churrasco Brazilian Style BBQ

Rating:

7 / 10

9/10 for its Cheese Bread

Taste: 7/10

Price Range: $35

Place: 7.5/10

Review:

The first thing you need to know about Churrasco Brazilian style BBQ: All You Can Eat Steak. So, please empty your stomach before you heads out to Churrasco. Also, as with every other famous restaurant: book in advance to avoid disappointment.

They have a unique style of serving your meal. Waiters will walk up and down the restaurant offering you the meat they have on the plate or skewers. They give you a two-sided, coloured badge that is used to indicate whether you want to eat or rest. Normally, I just put mine on Green all the way. Sim, Por Favor ^_^

If I may categorise, their churrascaria is divided into two: the common lot and the uncommon dishes.Throughout the night, they will give out the common beef cuts like Sirloin, Rump, Eye Fillet, Scotch Fillet and BBQ Chicken. But, you must keep an eye on the uncommon ones that only passes once every 15 minutes or so. Sausages, lamb, ham, and pork are among the uncommon dishes.

There is one particular dish that I love the most: the Cheese Bread. It is the tastiest bread I’ve ever eaten! This dish rarely comes out, only once every half hour. It’s basically cheese that is baked and plumped like bread, but it still retains the rubbery and tasty feel of a cheese.

To accompany the meal, you will be given three sauces (chimichurri, farofa, vinagrete) and three side dishes (Rice, Red Beans, and Potatoes).I will give you an explanation of what the sauces are since most of you have never heard about it before. As you can see from the pic, Chimichurri is the orange sauce, farofa is the one that look like bread crumb, and vinagrete is the tomato vinegar. I suggest you to mix the chimichurri with farofa to start of with and add vinagrete towards the end of your meal.

For the drink, if you don’t drink Caipirinha or Palma Louca (Brazil’s most famous beer), I would suggest you to drink Guaraná Antarctica. This drink is fantastic and only available in Churrasco (couldn’t find anywhere else in Sydney).

Did you know?

For those of you who are vegetarians: Bad Luck, because this restaurant is not meant to be for you ^_^ The only green that you’ll see in the menu is Zucchini. They serve salad for an extra $10.50 a bowl, which I suggest not to try.

Location:

240 Coogee Bay Road, Coogee, NSW, Australia

http://www.churrasco.com.au/

02 9665 6535

Feb 18, 2010
Hurricanes Steakhouse

Rating:

8 / 10

Taste: 8/10

Price Range: $26 – $50

Place: 8.5/10

Hurricanes Steakhouse review

Before we talk about Hurricanes steakhouse, make sure you pick up your phone and call in advance before you head out to the restaurant. If you don’t do it, prepare to wait for 1 – 1.5 hours to get a table.

Now the million-dollar question is: why would people want to wait for 1.5 hours just to eat in a restaurant?

It is simply the ribs! Whether you choose to have pork or lamb, they’re equally exquisite. You can literally rip the ribs off the bone! I would recommend you to share a full rack of lamb (or pork) for two due to its massive size.

Optionally, you can choose to have a half rack and chicken. Their Portuguese-style chicken is better than Oporto’s and apparently their head chef was from Portugal.

To complement my ribs, I normally ordered Onion Rings and/or Garlic Mushrooms to share with others.They’re a nice addition to it because the ribs plate only has fries. They also give us complimentary brown bread.

For a complete dinner experience, I would suggest you to order Rocket & Parmigiano (in Balsamic Vinaigrette). If rocket is not your favourite, they also have a whole range of salad.

Did you know?

If full rack of lamb is not enough for you, Hurricane’s has the answer you need, a 1 kg Rump or T-bone steak. This ‘monster’ or its ‘Goliath’ cousin will surely test your tummy to its limit. Not surprisingly, it is also the Best value for money ^_^

Hurricane’s is located at the heart of Sydney’s most famous beach, Bondi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bondi_Beach,_New_South_Wales).In the summer time, it is always packed with people trying to get sunburnt ^_^ Just around corner, there’s the self-titled ‘world-famous’ deep-fried Mars Bar.

Details:

130 Roscoe Street, Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia

http://hurricanesgrill.com.au/

02 9130 7101

Jan 28, 2010