St. Elmo -- Revisit

It’s been like 7 years or something since we just went to St. Elmo for a regular dinner (we’ve been for some organized fundraisers etc., but not to just order off the menu). And the kids had never been. Oh, and I had a gift card from a silent auction (I have a little problem with silent auctions) so we finally got in there. I felt like it was our duty as parents to get the kids in there.

So, they took us through the maze of the restaurant and to a table downstairs that miraculously had a serious draft even though it was in the middle of the room. That was a chilly table. Our server was very nice though, if not a little overwhelmed. They were pretty busy—although I think they always are. 

Hubby ordered the obligatory shrimp cocktail ($15.95). I have said it before, and will say it again, I think the sauce is dumb. Too hot to enjoy. Hubby likes it though, and I know people have a weird obsession with it, so let’s just agree to disagree. They have nice big tender shrimp, and hubby made strange painful moaning noises when he ate it. So there’s that.

Hubby and I then shared the chopped BLT salad ($11). Even as a split, it was very generous. This was a very tasty salad. It had chopped romaine lettuce, Gorgonzola cheese, tomatoes, bacon and fried onions. They whole thing was tossed with a nice amount of their house vinaigrette. It was nice because everything was bite-sized and I loved getting the hunks of blue cheese. I would happily eat this one again. My son had the Caesar ($11) and really enjoyed it as well. It was also nicely dressed.

Moving along, the boys wanted steaks, and since I knew there would be more than enough to go around, us girls ordered a couple fish entrees. All the entrées  come with tomato juice or bean soup. I know it’s tradition, but do people really get the tomato juice? The kids got the bean soup and hubby upgraded to the lobster bisque (+7.95). The kids love beans and thought the soup was fine. Hubby was very disappointed with his bisque and I can’t blame him. It was really boring. Lots of rich, none of that depth that you want in a bisque. Maybe no sherry or something? There were chunks of lobster or crab in there, but it didn’t save it. He ate like two bites and left the rest. This was probably the biggest disappointment of the evening.

My son got the 8-ounce filet ($42) and hubby had the 14-ounce ribeye ($41). Both steaks were very good. I thought the ribeye was a bit better. When you get a great ribeye, it can easily beat a filet, but often they’re too fatty and chewy. This one was perfect. And this is not to say the filet was bad, because it wasn’t. Steaks are certainly strengths here, as they should be. I like that the price of the meal also includes a potato side (as well as the soup/juice). Hubby had fries and my son got a baked potato. They are both standard, but hit the spot with your steak.

I had the tuna steak ($35), which was a huge piece of tuna, along with sushi rice and a ball of wasabi and some seasoned soy. It was very good quality tuna, however, when they asked me if rare was okay, I didn’t expect it to be ice cold in the middle. I just pretended it was sashimi and it was fine, but I would have preferred it to be at least somewhat warmish at least all the way through. Obviously, I have no problem eating raw tuna, but when you expect a cooked piece of fish, you expect it to be a little warm. Even though I got rice with this dish, I also get a potato side so I had the baked potato as well. A perfectly normal baked potato. My daughter had a fish special that left a bit to be desired in my opinion—tasted a little fishy to me—but I appreciated her willingness to try something different.

We decided, hey why not, let’s have dessert. My kids have a strange obsession with giant pieces of chocolate cake. They can come from foodservice, and they’re just as happy. It’s weird to me. Cold cake is not my thing. But anyway, they ordered St. Elmo’s version, and they were happy. We also ordered the cookies and milk—this was actually a fundraiser dessert item so how could we say no? There were three warm gooey chocolate chip cookies and a glass of Trader’s Point whole milk. A very nice and comforting dessert. And it was all for charity. So the calories don’t even count. Right?

All in all, this was a better experience than I have had at St. Elmo, not that I have been that many times. It’s a solid steakhouse, and I’m glad since it’s one of the few local ones. I’d stick with steak overall, they were definitely the stars. Oh, and that salad.

St. Elmo’s Steakhouse

127 S. Illinois Street

Indy 46225

317-635-0636

www.stelmos.com 

Eat, Drink and Help LLS

You guys know that on occasion, I use my blog as way to raise interest (and money) about certain fundraising activities. Some good friends of mine have been raising money for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for many years and now my friend Matt is up for Man of the Year. He and his wife Jen are hosting various events in the next couple of months to raise money and this one just seemed too perfect for me not to share, since I know you guys all love food. Who wouldn't want to have a chance to have dinner at the iconic St. Elmo and raise money for such a good cause at the same time? Hubby and I will be there and would love the chance to meet some of you guys in person!

Matt and Jen have a personal connection to this charity because Matt lost his brother Joel to Lymphoma in 2000--Joel was a third year medical student at the time. I have my own personal connection because my Dad was diagnosed with Lymphoma in 2004. Our family was lucky and he is now happily cancer-free, but I realize it is because of fundraising efforts like this that allow new ideas and treatments to be constantly evolving that helped my Dad beat his Lymphoma.

So come party with us and feel good about it!

For $100 donation you will get:

-St. Elmo's famous shrimp cocktail
-N.Y. strip steak (vegetarian option available)
-family-style side dishes
-wine, beer and cocktails
-lots of fun and opportunities to bid on fun food and wine-related auction items

Come on out and support this great cause. A link to RSVP and where to send payment info is here:

https://www.smore.com/b2gm-eat-drink-and-hel
p-lls

If you would like to just make a donation to Matt's campaign, you can do that here:
http://www.mwoy.org/pages/in/indy14/matt

For more information about the LLS Boy and Girl of the year (and they are adorable), here's a great inspirational video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNRRK1msE78&feature=em-upload_owner

Matt's Brother Joel

Hope to see you there!

-Erin

P.S. Please tell me if you're coming so I can look for you!

St. Elmo's Steakhouse

Well, I figured since I grew up here, and have been back now for three years this month, and I have never been to St. Elmo’s, it was time. Now, I went in with a certain degree of skepticism since I have not heard a lot of positive things about St. Elmo’s. But determined to keep an open mind, we checked it out.

Well, one thing you can say about this place—it certainly doesn’t lack customers. We were there on a Wednesday night and the place was nearly full (at least the parts I could see). We were promptly seated and give the menu. One quick look around told us every table in our room was either tourists or businesspeople with maybe one or two exceptions. (You can tell they’re tourists when they are wearing shorts and baseball caps. Clearly St. Elmo’s isn’t turning anyone away.) (But seriously, on a side note it is depressing to me that people would choose to go to a nice restaurant and wear shorts and baseball caps).

Anyway, the menu is very basic and offers only one appetizer—the infamous shrimp cocktail (well, and salads which are at the bottom of the menu). Of course we had to order the shrimp cocktail. Now this may get me into trouble, as I know it is sort of an institution, but the one word which I think best describes the shrimp cocktail is “stupid.” Seriously, who is enjoying this thing? I can handle spicy food, but as I have said before, nothing turns me off more than something that is so spicy, you can no longer taste the food. This is such a dish. Basically, they take 4-5 shrimp, put them in a bowl, and pour a ton of their “cocktail” sauce on top so every inch is covered, which is far as I can tell is 12 parts horseradish to 1 part tomato juice (not even the slight sweetness of ketchup in there—and since one of the choices with your steak is tomato juice, and I can’t imagine a lot of people are ordering a side of tomato juice with their steak, I am assuming it is an ingredient used elsewhere—just my guess though). This “preparation” is particularly annoying when you look at their website menu and they show a nice shrimp cocktail with the shrimp hanging over the side of the bowl and the cocktail sauce in the middle (as the thing should be served). They basically give you no option of how much of the “sauce” to use because they just dump it on top. Anyway, it is not good in my opinion, and I would never order it again. I guess I should say just for the sake of saying it, the shrimp themselves are good and cooked properly, although it is really hard to tell because all you can really taste is the horseradish. So do yourself a favor, and order a salad.

One thing that is nice is that the entrees all come with a potato side and your choice of navy bean soup or the aforementioned tomato juice. I appreciate that while the food has the heft of a steakhouse price tag, at least you get something more than just the steak for your money. So I ordered a filet (10oz) with the baked potato on the side (you can get fries, baked potato, mashed, or green beans) and had a bit of the soup. The soup was nothing special, wasn’t bad, wasn’t great—hubby said it tasted like the same kind you could buy in a can. The steak, however, was perfect. I was pleasantly surprised with how good the steak was, and how perfectly cooked it was. When I saw it, with the nice dark grill marks, I have to say, I was worried it would be overcooked, but no, it was delicious. And cooked medium rare all the way through, not the kind you get sometimes that are raw in the center and overcooked on the edges. I really liked this steak. The baked potato was fine, nothing spectacular, but I ordered it “loaded” on the side after being asked by the waiter if I wanted it. This includes butter, sour cream, chives, bacon and cheese. I was slightly annoyed that there was an up charge for this that was not mentioned by the waiter, but the bacon pieces were tasty.

Hubby had the ribeye, his favorite, and agreed with my assessment of the steak. He really liked his also (of course we couldn’t agree on whom had the better steak, but we have different taste this way). He wasn’t impressed with his fries though (he said they weren’t very crispy) and wouldn’t order them again.

We also ordered additional sides of creamed spinach (can you tell this is hubby’s favorite side?) which wasn’t very good at all we thought, and king crab mac and cheese which was pretty good, but honestly, I don’t think the crab added much to it (except for raising the price). The mac and cheese would be a nice thing to order on its own, but unfortunately, it isn’t offered that way.

We also had a dessert which was described as chocolate cherry bread pudding with vanilla ice cream. It didn’t really come across as such, but it was good nonetheless. It was like two dense pieces of cake that were chocolaty in color, but had a flavor, strangely, more like sticky toffee pudding. It was really tasty though, and a nice surprise. I think it was a special though, so may not always be on the menu.

All in all, I actually enjoyed St. Elmo’s more than I thought I would. But I would never, ever, order that shrimp cocktail again. I don’t care if it is an institution.

St. Elmo’s Steakhouse
127 S. Illinois Street
Indy 46225
317-635-0636
http://www.stelmos.com/