Chicago Chophouse

A recent trip to the Midwest to visit some friends took my wife and I to Chicago. We spent the weekend in downtown Chicago, and did the typical touristy type activities, as neither my wife, nor I had ever been there. By Friday night, we all had worked up quite an appetite, so I resorted to google searching “Chicago Steakhouses” on my phone. Fortunately for us the options were plentiful, and we decided on The Chicago Chop House. We made reservations for 9:15pm, and went back to our respective hotel rooms to freshen up before dinner.

Paola and I arrived at the restaurant at about 8:50pm or so, as we had no idea how long it would take to get a cab from our hotel to the restaurant. Obviously, not as long as we had allowed for, but this was no issue, as we just grabbed a seat at the bar and had a drink before dinner. The restaurant ambiance and overall feel was quite nice, and very unique. The entire restaurant was decorated with Al Capone artwork and news clippings, which added to the unique feel of the establishment. There was also a pianist who played throughout the night, not loud enough to be a nuisance, but just loud enough to tell what was being played. At one point, the pianist went from “Faithfully” to “Come Sail Away” to “Don’t Stop Believing.” If you know anything about me, this was one of the highlights of my night.

There were two levels to the restaurant, but we did not go up to the second level, so I couldn’t tell you anything about it. The downstairs area was fairly small but inexplicably, we never felt cramped in the slightest. There was a good sized bar in the middle of the downstairs, with a very personable bartender, who got extra points from me for her ability to tolerate the guy sitting next to me at the bar, who was the kind of person who had just enough to drink to try and talk to everyone at the bar within non shouting range of him. This would include the bar tender, who just smiled and laughed off his terrible remarks.

After a simple glass of red wine and a dirty martini, we made our way to our table and were greeted by Benjamin, our waiter for the evening. You could tell he was from the Chicago area, based solely on his accent. He was extremely knowledgeable about the various cuts of meat that were offered (I didn’t realize the difference between wet aging, dry aging, etc., even though the name suggests exactly what it is), as well as the wine in their extensive wine list. We looked through the wine list, and quickly came to the realization that we were well out of our league when it came to drinks. The cheapest bottle of wine I remember seeing was $70, with most of the bottles settling in the $200-$400 range. Oddly enough, the wine by the glass prices were fair, so most of us chose to go that route.

Benjamin returned to discuss appetizers, all of which sounds extremely tasty. We settled on an order of sashimi grade yellow fin tuna with a ground cacao, pepper and espresso rub. This was easily the best tuna I have ever had, and was cooked to perfection. After the four of us mowed through the tuna, our steaks were delivered. I ordered a dry-aged bone-in filet, which was butterflied to allow even cooking all the way through, as I like my steaks cooked a little past medium. Paola ordered the wet-aged filet cooked medium-well. Both steaks were phenomenal and cooked to perfection.

Benjamin continued to come by and check on the table to make sure our glasses were never empty, and that everything was cooked the way we liked, but did not come by so often that it was annoying. As nothing annoys me more about a waiter, then when they come to ask how everything is before you’ve even taken the first bite of your meal. Everyone at the table finished their dinner, with Paola being the only one to take part of their meal in a doggy bag. This worked out great for me, as I ate the remainder of her steak, cold, for breakfast the next morning. It was still extremely tasty.

Having a later dinner reservation, we finished with drinks and dinner at close to 11:30pm, and were pretty much the last people in the restaurant, but we never felt like we were being rushed out of the place, or anything of the sort. Overall, the food, service and ambiance of The Chicago Chop House was amazing...but, it came at a price. It definitely isn’t the cheapest of options, but I think it's worth experiencing at least once if you are in the city. I can’t imagine there are too many places where you can hear Journey and the Styx, while eating phenomenal food with phenomenal service.

Written by guest blogger Andy Thore.