Chicago Chop House

After the demise of my favorite, Lawry’s The Prime Rib, I have been looking for a suitable replacement. This place came close. I can tell they do not use a cook-and-hold oven to roast the prime rib. While it is cooked properly to a nice rare done-ness, what they lacked was the appropriately needed holding time at temperature to break down the connective tissue. It simply was not tender enough. Don’t get me wrong, you would not notice the difference, but I did. I am trained, after all. It looked great, it was tasty, it was nicely rare. It just was not as tender as is should have been.
    
The raw oysters were delicious, the oysters Rockefeller were delicious, the potato was delicious.  Just the prime rim did not live up to its full potential. If you want to find out what I mean, eat at The Bull Shed in Kapa'a on Kauai, easily the best prime rib in the state. Or go to The Prime Rib House in San Francisco. There is a Lawry’s The Prime Rib in Las Vegas, but I will not go, the Chicago location holds a special place on my heart. If YOU go to any of these places, you will know what I mean, they have taken the steps necessary to dial in a proper prime rib.
    
But aside from the food at Lawry’s were all the other touches. Hour waitress comes to take your order, and its for prime rib by weight, and your side choices of potato’s (mashed, garlic, or baked), creamed corn or spinach, and Yorkshire pudding. Don’t be a rube when the Yorkshire shows up as a popover, and not a gelatin, and if you want the side order of lobster tails. SIDE ORDER OF LOBSTER! This is a prime rib house after all. Hopefully you are lucky enough to be seated at a booth against a wall, which looks like a tufted clamshell.
    
Then she brings your salad on a cart. The bowl of salad is sitting in a larger bowl of ice, which she spins while holding your dressing aloft as it pours down on your self mixing salad. She then portions your salad onto your plate and serves. This bowl of salad is yours for your table and performed and plated for YOU. Then the prime rib is wheeled out on an all stainless steel cart called a gueridon. It has a telescoping roll top, which when telescoped open, has an interior light, and the chef who rolled it to you, who is wearing full chef whites, carves your order off of a standing rib roast, per your ordered weight choice, and plates it. Quite the show.
    
When I find another location that does all of that, I will have found my new prime rib place. 

Prime Rib at Chicago Chop House

Raw Oysters at Chicago Chop House

Oysters Rockefeller at Chicago Chop House