David Burke's Primehouse

We went to another dinner with Nick's parents at David Burke's Primehouse in River North. This had been a place that Nick's father wanted to try from seeing it on Steak Paradise on the Travel Channel. They are known for their dry aged steaks.

Parmesan Popover

Now normally you wouldn't mention the bread that was served with dinner but what they served was really worthy of writing about.  They served us each a Parmesan popover - perfectly crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.  It was warm and satisfying and served in an individual measuring cup container.

Lamb Stone

Stone after we were done

Ahi Tuna Stone

As appetizers we ordered "Stones" - small pieces of meat cooked tableside on a hot Himalayan salt stone.  We chose 2 of them: Ahi tuna with spicy chili bean sauce and Lamb loin with chorizo mayo.  It was neat to try both of these.  There were 5 small pieces of both the tuna and lamb that were cooked right on top of the stone.  We may have kept the ahi on the stone too long - only because we were watching both in front of us and got distracted.  Nick really liked the chorizo mayo that went with the lamb. They both tasted good and were a small appetizer to start with.

Caesar salad preparation

Classic tableside Caesar salad - dressing prepared at our table, the whole nine yards with with the coddled eggs and everything. Nick's dad was sold on eating at this restaurant just by the mention of a tableside Caesar salad.  It was prepared right at our table, with the dressing made right before our eyes - including the hardly cooked coddled egg - and then being tossed with the romaine lettuce.  We both enjoyed this and Nick's dad liked this version just as much as his favorite Caesar salad in Maui.

Caesar Salad

David Burke's Primehouse is known for its salt dry aged reserve steaks. The steaks are aged in a Himalayan salt room for specific periods of time.  You can get a Ribeye that has been aged 28, 40, 55 or 75 days (with increases in price for each increase in time period) or a Kansas City Strip that has been aged for 35 days. There are only a limited number of 75 day aged Ribeyes, but we chose to go with a 40 day Ribeye and the 35 day Kansas City Strip.
  

35 day aged Kansas City Strip

40 Day Ribeye - full of bold flavor did not need anything extra in order to taste great.  It was full of marbling which holds in the aged flavor. We were worried that being aged the steak might be tough or chewy, but that was not the case, it was tender and tasted great.

35 Day Kansas City Strip, bone in sirloin - despite being aged for a similar number of days as the Ribeye there was a definite difference in flavor between the 2 steaks. Both of us enjoyed the Kansas City strip a little bit better.  Hard to believe, but it had an even bolder flavor to it and was a less fatty cut of meat.  We definitely like this dry age formula better than wet aged steaks.

Sides:

40 day aged Ribeye

Green Beans - tempura fried - light and crispy, not heavily breaded
Snap peas - with mint and pearl onions - nothing out of the ordinary
Hand cut Truffle Asiago fries - we read a lot of reviews about these fries but really they didn't live up to all of the overwhelmingly positive reviews.

Asiago Truffle Fries

Overall the sides were okay but just not nearly as good as the steaks themselves.  It may have felt a bit sparse not having any sides but we would have been fine, they mainly served to break up eating all the bites of the meat.

Snap Peas

Taste of Prime Dessert - chocolate mousse dessert with marshmallow topping, and smore's ice cream. We weren't going to order any dessert but the waiter brought out this dessert to help celebrate Natalie's birthday (which although it wasn't quite her birthday yet we were sort of celebrating this with Nick's parents). This particular dessert isn't available on the regular menu, but maybe it should be because it sounded better than some of the items on that menu. We all got to taste a little of this and it was a nice sweet ending to the big meal.

Tempura Green Beans

Final thoughts on David Burke's Primehouse:
Food - great steak, salad, appetizer and popover.  Don't even need the sides - maybe we should have tried to get another popover instead
Service - Nick calls it stellar; full service with describing all of the items on the menu especially the dry aged steak process. We enjoyed the Caesar salad preparation and the thoughtful dessert.
Atmosphere - There is a bit of a casual atmosphere to this restaurant with the waiters in nice jeans and a ranch decore theme, with even "leather" tablecloths.

Taste of Prime Dessert