Chop Steakhouse and Bar

From March 15-24th, the downtown business associations held their annual dining week in Edmonton. Many restaurants located in downtown Edmonton participated in this event where they served up multiple multi-course meals for special prices of $15, $25 and $50. When I heard of this, I was super excited to try many different restaurants! Unfortunately, this was a busy school week for me and I was only able to hit up 2 different restaurants: The common and Chop. :( Quite disappointed...but nonetheless it is better than none! Chop steakhouse is located inside Sutton Place Hotel, right in the heart of downtown. Parking is difficult to find around the area so be on the look out! For dinner they have two options for you to choose from: the $25 - 3 course menu or the executive $50 - 4 course menu. We settled for the cheaper menu since it was our first time at the restaurant and we did not know what to expect. I decided on the prime rib (9.oz) and Raymond settled for the lobster stuffed haddock.

For our appetizer - butternut squash soup. Nothing much to say about this one! It was delicious and the lemon sour cream made a tantalizing addition. It was a smooth and creamy soup with the nice nutty butternut squash flavor. The complimentary bread was also great! A nice hot, fresh multi-grain/whole wheat bun (don't mind the nails..).

Mains: 9.oz prime rib - came with a mash potato side. The mash was delicious, smooth, creamy flavorful a tad on the salty side.
The prime rib I asked to prepare medium -pink center. It was cooked to what I asked for and the prime rib for the most part was soft and tender. There were parts where the meat was not as tender as the other parts, and near the thicker side of the meat it was nearly made well done.

Lobster stuffed haddock (as written by Raymond) - came with a side of rice and cooked beans and red peppers. The rice was not very good and is comparable to Uncle Ben's minute rice. The beans were cooked well and still had a crunchy texture, but the red peppers were a bit overcooked, making them soft and not crunchy. The lobster stuffed haddock itself was quite tasty. The haddock was soft and seasoned well, however, the lobster was pureed and blended with cream, making the taste seem artificial. Too bad it wasn't an actual chunk of lobster tail haha! But for $25 what do you expect.

Ended off with the mini raspberry creme brulee, lightly caramelized on top with half a shortbread cookie and a strawberry to complete it. The creme brulee was average. It was more of a yogurt consistency than a custard  The taste was a bit off, sour.....the raspberry was present but did not make a difference in taste. The heavy yogurt type blend overpowered all. Smooth and creamy texture but lacking in the wow factor or taste. I enjoyed the shortbread cookie, it was decadent, soft and made a nice accompaniment.

Overall, the experience was average. The food itself was not spectacular by any means, but it wasn't bad. I have had better steak at other restaurants (such as the Mark), and would think twice about heading back downtown for Chop.