Monday, February 11, 2013

Power Lunch at Chops Chicago Steakhouse

On days like these, I wish I lived closer to Greenbelt.

Chops Chicago Steakhouse - the brainchild of Raymond Magdaluyo - was created to fill the void of hungry steak lovers looking for quality yet affordable steaks. Located on the fourth floor of Greenbelt 5, dining at Chops feels exclusive and a lot more intimate when you're on a date.

Created with the busy businessman and woman in mind, Chops is fully equipped with a fast wi-fi connection, a fax machine, photocopier, scanner, as well as pens and notebooks for conferences or presentations. And to compliment all of that food-wise, Chops is offering a power lunch so you can actually enjoy what you're putting into your gob if you're making it a working lunch.


Schmuzter co-hosted a blogger event for Chops, highlighting the Chops Executive Lunch (P888), a four-course meal that consists of the soup for the day, a Caesar salad, Wisconsin Tenderloin Steak with your choice of side dish, and a Dark Chocolate Cigar for dessert.


Lunch started with the bread basket board: whole grain rolls and a ciabatta loaf. The bread was pretty good, I especially liked the whole grain roll, which had a lot of texture and went nicely with the herb butter and the soup for the day.


The soup for the day was Cream of Asparagus, and although the chef gave only half the normal serving, I didn't really mind - soup is soup. It was creamy but not heavy, and after the addition of cracked pepper, had a bit more flavor. Munching on the asparagus spear, I found it was a nice opener for the rest of the courses.


The Caesar Salad was a generous helping of Romaine lettuce, sprinkled with croutons, bacon and Parmesan  A Caesar's salad is the same at any restaurant in any country, so there was nothing really special here aside from the portion size. They really make sure you get your daily recommended allowance of veggies. Thanks, Chops!


The star of the show is the Wisconsin Beef Tenderloin. Don't let its size fool you, I had to struggle to finish this, I was stuffed to bursting by the end. The meat was grilled a medium rare, with the juices oozing out of the meat onto the custom Chops' cutting board. The natural flavor is exceptional, incredibly juicy, and so good I barely touched the house gravy that came with it.



You can choose from an array of Chops' sidings to go with your steak. The Beer Battered Onion Rings may come off as to thick, but once you bit into it you'll find it a nice balance between breading and onion; The House Fries are thick, golden and crisp every time; I personally love the Potato Overload - baked potato that's had the meat taken out, fluffed, put back in again and covered with cheese, sour cream, and bit of bacon; the Double Smoked Bacon with Garlic Broccoli makes you want to pick out all the bacon bits before devouring the veg; Creamed Spinach with Organic Eggs and Parmesan Cheese is another favorite of mine - the cream eggs and cheese give the spinach so much flavor; and for the purists, there's always the Skillet Buttered Corn.


I was so stuffed I couldn't make room for dessert. Haha! Are you kidding me? That's like foodie treason in my book. Chops ends your Executive Lunch with a Dark Chocolate Cigar - a traditional Italian cannoli piped with bourbon Mascarpone cream filling and dusted with white chocolate.


Celina Le-Neindre, Chops' Marketing Head, was also nice enough to have us sample one of their new dishes, the Charbroiled Slab of Bacon (P320). The bacon is basically cured at Chops and served with a scrumptious Pomengranate Honey Mustard with Black Pepper Dip. This shiz was so good, it was the main reason I wasn't using the house gravy. I was using my steak to mop up the dip instead.

When mucking around Makati with a hankerin' for steak done right, head on over to Chops Chicago Steakhouse and ask for their Executive Lunch!

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Chops Chicago Steakhouse
+632 945-8088
4th Level, Greenbelt 5,
Greenbelt Paseo de Roxas cor. Legaspi St.,
Ayala Center, Makati
Open Daily: 11am - 11pm