My Birthday Meals: May 2018

So yesterday was my birthday. We had some pretty cool plans in mind, but for a number of reasons, none of them came to fruition. For the first time in years, instead of taking a birthday trip, we stayed home. However, we did go out to eat a lot, and most of it was pretty good. So I thought I would share it with you.

Two of my “birthday” meals actually took place the day before, because I didn’t want to deal with Saturday traffic in the restaurants or on the roads. For lunch, we went to my favorite hot dog place: Windy City Beefs n Dogs. (I also like Buldogi’s, who have a more varied hot dog menu, but for a traditional Chicago style hot dog, I prefer Windy City.)

I ordered my usual favorite: two Chicago dogs with fries. However, since I had just registered myself on their app, one of those hot dogs was free for my birthday, so that was a nice present. I did have to explain to the guy at the register that even though it wasn’t my actual birthday, the coupon said it was good the week of my birthday, so he should redeem it. Once that was out of the way, though, lunch was great.

As I said, I like Buldogi’s hot dogs, but their Chicago dog isn’t exactly a traditional one. Nothing beats Windy City for that. The hot dog itself has a nice flavor, and a good snap to the casing when you bite into it. They use a whole pickle spear and slices of tomatoes, their sport peppers are nice, and they use the bright green Chicago relish. Regular relish just looks wrong on a Chicago dog. 

For dinner the night before my birthday, we went to Lawry’s: The Prime Rib. (I didn’t want to drive to the Strip on a Saturday night.) Regular readers of this blog will remember that we came here last year as well. Lawry’s is one of my favorite restaurants in town for prime rib, and I wanted something I knew I would enjoy for my birthday. I was not disappointed.

I had let them know that we were celebrating my birthday, so there was a ribbon across the table indicating that. This time around, I remembered to take some photos of the restaurant as well as my food.

To start, I ordered my normal cocktail, Lawry’s signature meat & potatoes martini. I’m not the world’s biggest martini fan, but I enjoy this one. I’ll admit, it’s mostly because it comes with olives stuffed with horseradish and prime rib. Honestly, if I could just get served a small bowl of those olives (still soaked in alcohol, I guess) I would probably forgo the drink.

My wife ordered a blackberry old fashioned. She said it was okay, but wasn’t overwhelmed by it.

Lawry’s has added some new appetizers to their menu, including fried artichoke hearts. I love fried artichoke hearts, and was severely tempted. However, I wanted to make sure I had room for dessert, so I reluctantly said no. I suppose I could have gotten a smaller cut of the prime rib for dinner, but it’s called Lawry’s: The Prime Rib, not Lawry’s: The Artichoke Heart. So that’s that.

I continue to be the complete sucker for the spinning bowl salad. When I make a salad at home, I try to make my wife smile by spinning the bowl as I put the dressing on.

As expected, the prime rib was as fantastic as usual. It lacks the smoky flavor of the prime rib they serve at the Ranch House, but it’s more tender. That night, the premium mashed potato option was mashed Yukon Gold potatoes with caramelized onions and bacon, so of course I upgraded to those. I also got creamed corn, and ordered a side of sizzling mushrooms. (They were indeed sizzling in their little pan when served.) It was all wonderful.

Don't forget the Yorkshire pudding!

My wife decided to be a rebel and order the beef Wellington. The photo I took doesn’t do it justice; it was a perfect medium rare. Lawry’s served it with tomatoes and potatoes au gratin. I didn’t try any of the Wellington, but my wife said it was better than the one served at Gordon Ramsey Steak. I bet it wasn’t better than the one she makes, though. I did try her potatoes, and they were delicious; much lighter and creamier than other potatoes au gratin I’ve had.

We ordered a bottle of Rodney Strong merlot with dinner. I have to admit, we didn’t split it evenly, because I was driving home. It paired very well with our meals, and we plan on purchasing a bottle if we can find one at Total Wine.

For dessert, my wife ordered the coconut banana cream pie. I had planned on ordering a hot fudge sundae, but our server said that they had a special birthday dessert for me. I wanted to be polite, so I ordered that. It turned out to be a blueberry bundt cake, which I really enjoyed. 

The next day, we had lunch at Capriotti’s (I had earned a free birthday sandwich, which was just okay). For dinner, I wanted to go to Nacho Daddy. It’s not as special a place as Lawry’s, but we don’t go there very often, and I always like it when we do. So I decided that should be my on-my-birthday treat.

We have never ordered margaritas there, so we decided to take the plunge. We knew what we were getting into, having seen these giant punch-bowl-sized glasses being ferried around the restaurant by servers. 

I chose the spicy cucumber margarita, which was really good. You could taste both the cucumber and the spiciness from the jalapeno, but neither was overwhelming.

Spicy cucumber on the left; pineapple mint on the right

My wife ordered the pineapple mint margarita, which was a bit disappointing. We couldn’t really taste either the pineapple or the mint, and it was just kind of like a regular margarita.

For our second round, my wife chose the peach margarita, which she enjoyed more than the pineapple mint one. She said she preferred the spicy cucumber, though.

For my second margarita, I tried to order a spicy cucumber, but they were out. So I went for the Mexican Candy margarita. It was okay, maybe a little too sweet, and not spicy enough.

We ordered our usual appetizer of grilled Mexican corn, which we always enjoy.

For our nachos, my wife chose the Golden Knights nachos, a recent addition to their menu. These included filet mignon, sautéed mushrooms, pickled jalapeños, onions, and apparently two kinds of cheeses. (I tried to look up the ingredients online, and ended up having a web site try to download a bunch of stuff to my computer, so whatever.) They were delicious.

I went in with every intention of ordering the filet mignon nachos, but then, I saw this listing for their flavor of the month.

I love Ruben sandwiches, so I felt like I had to try this flavor. If I didn’t, I would keep wondering if it would have been any good.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t particularly good. The Swiss cheese isn’t a particularly soft, melty cheese, so it kind of cemented everything together. There wasn’t really enough acidity from the sauerkraut or the pickles to counter the sweet greasiness of the cheese. The flour tortilla chips were kind of bland, and not really crunchy. Worst of all, they forgot to put the thousand island dressing on the nachos, and I didn’t realize it was supposed to have that until I looked at my photo of the menu today.

I tried to eat them all, but it was just too much

So, I felt kind of disappointed by my actual birthday dinner. I thought it was because I had chosen the wrong nachos, but now I’m even more disappointed that it’s because they made it wrong. 

Overall, however, it was a good weekend for birthday eating, and even if Nacho Daddy was a letdown, it just means I have to go back to have something better! (Also, just after I finished this entry, I got an email from them offering a free appetizer as an apology, so that’s all good.)

That’s it for this week. Since I blogged about Gizmo last week, I feel like I need to give my other cats equal time, so I may be blogging about Rumplestilskin or Morticia next week. See you then!