This is a tough one. I can give you what the meal was, and a few options on where it was, but I can’t recall how much it cost.
It was definitely a steak dinner. We went through a phase where we liked going to really fancy steak restaurants and blowing the monthly dinning out budget in one shot. They were always steak places. Near home it was usually The Capital Grille in Burlington, MA though it could also have been Ruth’s Chris Steak House in the old state house building in Boston. There was also our first Ruth’s Chris visit which was in San Diego on our honeymoon. We had been at the beach and were sweaty and gross and just stopped at a restaurant for dinner, not realizing it was a super high end place. We felt massively under-dressed in our shorts and t-shirts, but oh my goodness was the meal spectacular. One other possibility was a place in Kissimmee, FL called Charley’s Steak House. We went there a few times and it was always excellent. The exception being an appetizer we had on our first visit. It was a year before we were married and we went with our friends Larry and Nawal. Larry and I were feeling adventurous and ordered an appetizer called Alligator Bites. I mean, it was Florida… why not eat some alligator, right? I had one bite and managed to get it down. It was absolutely vile. Larry tried one bite but had to spit it out. That was the end of our alligator culinary experience. The steak was incredible though.
For the question of how much we spent… I really don’t know. It was a lot. Like, a ridiculous amount. Like maybe $30 a steak, or possibly $40 a steak. Something like that. It was the kind of thing you do once a year at most, and we haven’t spent that much on a meal since pre-pandemic. We’ve probably come close at a couple of higher end Disney World resort restaurants, but I don’t think we’ve ever matched one of those Steak Houses. Jen has a better memory and she might correct me if she gets a chance to read this masterpiece of a post. I’ll add an addendum if she does.
Was it worth it? Oh, hells yes. It was absolutely worth it for the quality of the food, but also for the overall experience. You’re bill includes paying for the level of service you get at a place like that. The staff treat you like royalty. It’s really amazing. It’s fun to be a middle class, white collar flunky and pretend you’re upper class, upper crust types for one evening. It’s practically pampering. The whole experience is just as impressive as the ultra-impressive meal.
I definitely recommend giving a place like these a try if you can, just be prepared to blow a huge chunk of your monthly meals budget in one stop. Save up for a while if you need to. Good luck.
