So your parents are in town. You've got to take them to dinner. Dad likes steak, but you overslept last week and now the Angus Barn is booked. No openings. Not a chance. Well, as long as Dad's still paying, there are plenty of other Triangle steakhouses that will earn accolades from the fam.
As part of our mission to serve the public here a t the Weekend section, the paper sent me and my boyfriend on a quest to find the best steaks outside the Barn. It was a rough assignment, but someone had to do it.
Jimmy V's Steakhouse
This Cary steakhouse was founded by owners Joanne and Terry Pegram in remembrance of their longtime friend, the late Jim Valvano, who coached the North Carolina State men's basketball team on their 1983 Cinderella run to win the NCAA championship. After Valvano died of cancer in 1993, the Pegrams named their restaurant in honor of the foundation he had created to support cancer research.
Jimmy V's decor is similar to that of other steakhouses-lots of forest green paint and dark wood accents-but the walls are peppered with photos of the Valvano and Pegram families taking part in charity events and golf tournaments.
We marveled at the photos as we munched on a succulent order of mushrooms sauteed in a wine and butter sauce and sipped our drinks-the house cabernet was delicate and added flavor to the meal. The salads were good, though the house salad was drowned in a little too much dressing.
When the entrees arrived, I was truly amazed. The waitress waited to see if my steak was cooked to my perfection, and it was-the New York strip was juicy and tasty enough to be eaten without a sip of wine to wash it down. My boyfriend's chicken parmesan was the best we'd ever tasted. The breast was marinated and cooked to a tender finish, and there was just the right amount of tomato sauce to balance the pasta and chicken.
The baked potato was served steakhouse-style with salt, butter and sour cream and was, quite frankly, really yummy; the cauliflower side dish, healthy until you dip it in the oh-so-rich hollandaise sauce, is a perfect compliment to the meat. After dinner, we sampled the coffee-which was served in really cool goblet-like ceramic mugs-and met the Pegrams and Pam Valvano, who had just come in for a drink.
The trio came over and shook our hands, made small talk and inquired as to our satisfaction. Awestruck at meeting the widow of the great Jimmy V, my boyfriend and I made our way out of the restaurant, reveling in our brush with fame.
Vinnie's Tap Room and Grille
At Vinnie's, we were seated right away in a partitioned section near the kitchen. The atmosphere was secluded and mysterious-the perfect setting for a mafia film. And when you come here, you'll eat like one of the big boys. It's as if every dish is tailor-made for a large man named Guido.
The service is excellent, from the waitress' careful attention to the manager's habit of visiting every table to ensure the quality of the meal. Our waitress took our drink orders right away, and quickly returned with the house merlot wine, which was a little strong for my preference, leaving a bitter aftertaste and overpowering the main dish. But we had miles to go before the steak arrived.
The oysters Rockefeller were delicious-the flavor of the spinach and cheese wasn't overpowering, and it allowed the oyster taste to shine through. The summer salad was not at all what I expected. Instead, it consisted of two large slices of tomato and a hunk of white onion that lay on a bed of a few leaves of bib lettuce. The whole thing was drowned in too much Roquefort dressing, which was a little on the strong side to begin with.
We didn't realize it, but all entrees come with a complimentary mug of the richest, chunkiest clam chowder I've ever had. All that, and we still hadn't gotten to the meat.
When the entrees came out, my New York strip was served truly rare, with the pinkest and tastiest center I've seen in a long time. My boyfriend's grouper-a white fish filet marinated in a light lemon sauce-was the evening's special. The fish was cooked to perfection-it separated easily with a fork and was full of flavor. My baked potato was slathered in salt and served with plenty of butter and sour cream.
The after-dinner coffee was rich and full-bodied, a perfect complement to the hearty meal. Bonus: Not only does Vinnie's food taste great in the restaurant, it makes great leftovers-I ate the stuff for three days and it was still delicious!
Ruth's Chris Steakhouse
Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Cary is the least local of the three restaurants. Ruth Fertel bought the original New Orleans' Chris Steakhouse in 1965 and later added he name and more than 50 restaurants across the nation to build the "home of serious steak."
Once again, I visited the franchise in Cary with my significant other, who by this time wasn't complaining about my newest assignment. Despite a line outside the door, we were seated right away for our 7:30 p.m. reservation. All the banquet rooms were filled with corporate groups-some making slide presentations, others just enjoying the end of a long conference. The place was packed, but the hostess found us a table-right next to a banquet room.
Ruth's Chris decor was remarkably similar to that of the previous two restaurants-the whole green with wood thing-but the most interesting accents were the stained glass ceilings, which featured bright red cardinals flitting through dogwoods in bloom.
For an appetizer, we ordered the mushrooms stuffed with crab meat, which sounded great until it was presented. For $8.95, we got four-yes, four-mushrooms. Of regular size, too. While they tasted fine, I'm pretty damn sure they weren't worth $2 a pop.
The house and Caesar salads were good, however, and Ruth's Chris gets a thumbs-up for not drowning the salads in dressing, as the other places did.
We waited a rather long time for our entrees and the service wasn't as personable as that of the other restaurants, but that was possibly due to all the banquet traffic in the kitchen.
The New York strip, served with sizzling butter was hot and juicy, though I would ask for it without the butter next time. My boyfriend's ribeye was even better, as it was marinated and served in a bed of steak juice that I can only describe as delicious. I actually kept taking my steak and dipping it into his sauce.
The house cabernet wine complemented the appetizers and steaks rather nicely, without overcoming the flavor of the main dish. However, it cost $8 per glass-as compared to the normal price of $4 to 5 per glass in other restaurants.
Side dishes at Ruth's Chris are served à la carte in portions "big enough to be shared," but they left "a little something to be desired." I had by this time grown to love the heavily salted and buttered baked potato common to steakhouses. Ruth's Chris' baked potato, however, was big and dry and the sour cream and chives were served on the side, so they didn't have time to soak into the potato. As a result, my potato lacked flavor, much like my second side dish, fresh steamed spinach.
The coffee was kind of like the restaurant: nice to look at, but not full of much character. If I had to all over again, I'd have just gone back to Jimmy V's.
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