Restaurant review: Steakhouse transports Upstate New York cuisine to Treasure Coast
When people hear I am from New York, they think of New York City rather than the immense land mass of The Empire State that lies north of my hometown, generally considered to be “Upstate,” such as the fine city of Buffalo.
Buffalo is in Western Upstate New York. And it is just far enough away from the influences of Manhattan to have its own regional cuisine. Buffalo Chophouse in Port St. Lucie came all the way south to bring the famous gastronomy of Buffalo to Florida. (Plus, I wouldn’t be surprised if the owners preferred the winters here.)
The logo for Buffalo Chophouse is the profile of the venerated buffalo bedecked with the silhouette of the city skyline. The menu starts out with chicken wings and claims the only way to do them is the way they do them in Buffalo; fried fresh to order. A variety of sauce options are available.
The menu includes sandwiches and burgers, plus a dizzying collection of beef dishes including prime rib, bacon-wrapped filet, ribeye, sirloin and porterhouse as well as grass-fed bison.
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The restaurant was very busy, but we were able to sit at a high top in the bar. As we looked over the menu, we noticed a plate of onion rings the size of floating inner tubes pass by and get placed in front of a lucky patron. We will have a plate of onion rings!
But first, we ordered the onion fondue ($10.95), which was like a thick French onion soup filled with dark, sweet, caramelized onions, topped with melted Gruyere cheese, and served with toasted bread. This was very satisfying.
One of us ordered a cup of creamy lobster bisque ($6.95) and a chophouse salad ($10.95). The salad was filled with tender lettuces, arugula, spinach, mango, dried cherries and feta cheese then drizzled with raspberry zinfandel vinaigrette.
Another of us chose the grilled meatloaf ($19.95). This gem was a large slice of hearty ground meat blended with spices and other goodies, wrapped in bacon, grilled with a nice char, topped with beefy mushroom gravy and served with the aforementioned wheel-size crispy onion rings.
What the heck is Beef on Weck ($15.95)? It is the famous Buffalo sandwich that originated with a German baker in the 1800s. Very tasty, slow-roasted beef is thinly sliced, smeared with horseradish sauce and stacked on a crusty kimmelweck roll topped with caraway seeds.
I enjoyed the pastrami sandwich ($17.95) served on griddled marble rye bread and stuffed with a heap of pastrami, Swiss cheese, and tender grilled onions. I too ordered the onion rings and we all vowed to visit Buffalo to find out for sure whether they grew onions the size of pumpkins or whether this was an anomaly.
Buffalo Chophouse transports Upstate New York to the Treasure Coast with regional cuisine and onion rings large enough to use as a float on Lake Erie.
Buffalo Chophouse
Cuisine: American
Address: 918 S.W. Gatlin Blvd., Port St. Lucie
Phone: 772-621-7900
Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; until 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday; noon to 8 p.m. Sunday; closed Monday
Alcohol: Full bar
Online: buffalo-chophouse.com
Lucie Regensdorf dines anonymously at the expense of TCPalm for #WhatToDoIn772. Contact her at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Restaurant review: Buffalo Chophouse steakhouse in Port St. Lucie
