Spencer's for Steaks and Chops

Address:


255 South West Temple
Salt Lake City, UT 84101

Price Range:


$45-$65 an Entree

Website

As you can tell you're going to have to save up considerably to go to this place. It holds a special place in my heart because one of the Chefs I worked with while in culinary school helped develop this restaurant. He even shared the recipe for the balsamic vinaigrette that is used on their signature Spencer's Salad. I was a dummy and forgot to take pictures of everything. Luckily, everything wasn't plated up in a particularly fancy way so you're not really missing much.

Menu:


Spencer's Salad: This was a delicious salad. It contained spring greens, carrots, bleu cheese, dried cherries, topped with fried leeks and served with their balsamic vinaigrette. On paper, it sounds like a weird combo. Can I tell you how wrong you are? It was such a fantastic combo of flavors with the sweetness of the cherries, the sharpness of the bleu cheese and the tangy vinaigrette. The warm crunch on the top was what really pulled it all together. I would highly suggest getting the salad with your entree.

Spencer's Steak: I got their Spencer's Steak which is an aged and seasoned rib eye. I ordered it medium-rare (is there any other way?) which made it so soft and juicy it fell apart in my mouth. My only gripe would be that there was an enormous vein of fat at the edge of it that ran into a portion of the meat and made some of the meat inedible, other than that, though, it was fantastic.

Green Beans Almondine: These were the best green beans I've ever had. Topped with sauteed onions, rendered bacon, and toasted almonds, these green beans were the crispest I've ever had them. I'm super glad I got them. If you're going to spend the extra $9 to get a side, I would highly suggest these.

Surf and Turf: Craig got the surf and turf, if a restaurant is offering it as a special, he usually goes for it. This included half of a grilled lobster tail and an 8oz. center cut rib eye. This was all served along with a side of fingerling potatoes. Craig swears the part of the lobster he ate was tender, buttery, and rich. The part I got was fatty, rubbery, and tough. I would take Craig's opinion on this one since he had more of it than I did. I guess I'm just sad that any part of a grilled lobster would be fatty, rubbery, and tough. Such is life, I'm sure it was divine. The center cut rib eye was tender and savory. The salt was not too much but just enough to enhance the flavor of the meat (which is why you should ALWAYS SALT/SEASON YOUR MEAT). The fingerling potatoes were tender and buttery. Fingerling potatoes (for those that don't know) are smaller versions of a waxy potato such as a red potato or golden potato. They're delicious little rich things that should be cooked and served with care.

Strawberry Shortcake: We weren't planning on getting a dessert but our server highly suggested it and we weren't sorry. We split it between the two of us and were glad we did. It was delicious. The shortcake was a little harder than I would have enjoyed, but the ice cream really balanced it out. I found a picture of it online because it was just so pretty I had to share!

The service wasn't $150 worth (yeah...that's what I said...), which is unfortunate because when you're spending money like that you really hope for the service to be above and beyond. I asked the server what he would suggest and he gave me some sort of "Oh the menu is too vast for me to really suggest one thing, nobody asks that sort of thing anyways". When working at a restaurant like that, you should know the menu like the back of your hand and giving me some song and dance about how you can't even make up a "favorite entree" and then telling me i'm unusual for asking. Not impressive. I gave  him the benefit of the doubt and figured, maybe he's new. But I was super sad that we were paying so much for the service to be no different than if we were to go to The Olive Garden. I've been there on a separate occasion and received remarkable service.

The ambiance was nice and they even gave us a booth. It was a very nice restaurant, we had some really rowdy construction workers that were there for drinks sitting close to us, but they left about halfway through our meal so we could enjoy the rest in relative peace.

In the end, go if you're willing to pay a lot of money for some delicious steaks.