Colleen’s good friend Meryl organized a dinner for us at Onyx. Since I still haven’t met her fiance Scott, it gave me another reason good reason to return to white rock. But let’s face it, I’ve eaten here before and I wasn’t disappointed then and I wasn’t about to be disappointed tonight as well. LOL However, SOMEONE canceled on us last minute….won’t name any names here…..but you know who you are =p
Onyx Steakhouse and Louge
1225 Johnston Rd, White Rock BC
Tel#: (604) 542-0334
To start off this post I’d like to mention that once we got seated, there was an elderly couple (very old) who sat in the table across from me, and well, they had my attention partially through out the night. You see, I found the couple to be very dearing. They must be celebrating an anniversary or something but it was very cute. They had wine, appies their mains and I believe 1 dessert for the missis. And at the end the meal, the husband paid. Which to me is a must! So I’ve been going around telling all my friends about this elderly couple and now I get to share it with you guys. =)
The restaurant is very cozy. Hip and modern. Though I did find it to be very over staffed for such a small joint (there was even a guy in a suit, fancy eh?) but the weird thing was there was still only 1 server for our table, which she disappeared for some reason but later I saw her coming out of the storage room with towels for the washroom…can’t the manager have the other 5waitresses who were clearly standing around doing nothing take care of the towels? Or were they going for that whole ‘next top model’ theme……
Naturally we arrived early and got seated promptly. Meryl and Scott appeared about 5minutes after. We chatted about work and such while looking thru the menu. They served us warm bread for starters and it was fresh and very warm. Good for the butter.
After much debate and having a couple of beers arrive we ordered.
Meryl decided to try out their Effingham Oyster….. I would have figured you to at least order up a dozen! hahaha According to Meryl, this was a nice start to the meal, it had a nice and subtle red wine mignonette.
Meryl’s entree was the Prime Rib and Scott went with the Filet Mignon 10 oz. Meryl – “The prime rib was succulent and cooked to perfection – My only problem with prime rib(not just here but anywhere) is that it gets cold very easily. That just means you have to eat faster! =)”
So I told myself I wasn’t quite that hungry but who are we kidding? I ordered up my favorite kind of beef. The 24 ounce aged porterhouse. I requested it to be cooked chicago style (seared outside to a degree of blackened) and medium rare on the inside, which is the best way to eat a steak in my opinion. Getting your beef cooked ‘well done’ should be a capital offense, to the point of not letting you order it as such. LMAO But you see I have a dilemma, once you’ve had aged beef, you simply cannot, and I mean cannot go back to eating regular beef’ no more. They age their beef for a minimum of 40 days and man it is spectacular! Melt in your mouth GOODNESS!!!! I’m still looking for a butcher who ages their own meat here in vancouver. So far all I’ve found was a 12 day aging process of some sort. Anyone??? I need 40 days or more … lol I don’t care how much it cost…recommendations please =)
Colleen ordered a burger, yes a burger. But not just any burger, it is a bacon stuffed filet mignon burger. I took a bite and it was very plump and juicy. She enjoyed the crisp onion straws that accompanied this burger. Good choice!
For our sides we ordered a variety of stuff to go and share amongst us. But really I ate most of them. 24 ounce just doesn’t cut it no more. lol Meryl went with the poutine. Tons of cheese and massive pieces of fries. a filler for sure. Scott ordered the mashed potatoes and it had a good amount of butter to it.
And I simply wanted my steak frites combination so I ordered house cut fries as usual. Colleen went with their mac and cheese again. Super cheesy and very rich to the palette.
My ketchup came in this cute container. Colleen and Meryl saved enough room for dessert, they order their creme brulee trio.
Once again I was not disappointed by Onyx. I hate going to the same place twice simply because I don’t want to ruin the previous experience but this place is consistent. I truly appreciate the kitchen staff for maintaining such a high caliber of cooking and freshness. I’d like to personally recommend the porterhouse to any steak lover out there as it is worth the drive.
Post by Marv
The concept of cooking steak medium rare at most is a North America/Northern Europe concept. I have lived in Latin America and, believe me, they won’t even bother to ask how you like the steak: by default it will be the equivalent here of done (borderline well done). If a place ask for you how you would like it, chances are it is a tourist trap or a place catering tourists. Are the steaks dry? By no means! It is juicy and tender, at par with – if not better than – most steaks you will have here. I asked some people and it seems it has to do with how the cattle is raised and fed. So, sorry, if you believe pass medium rare is a sacrilege, you might want to travel south (Argentina will be my suggestion) and give it a try there! 😉
Marv: Hi Billy, welcome to the site!
Thanks for providing some great information on how a different country can prepare steaks. I must admit, I’m quite uninformed and am now quite curious to see how the southern hemisphere prepares their meat 🙂
most people who order med rare do so because they like it that way, not because they have not yet been EDUCATED by someone so much more sofisticated. get real!
Wow, might be a good idea to breathe a little ed. In no way was our intention to offend anyone with our ‘joking’ ways(hence the LMAO), nor did we say anyone was un’educated’ for ordering it any other way. We did also state it was ‘in my opinion’ and hold nothing against anyone ordering their steaks any other way. In fact, I order med rare, however the other 1/2 of 604 munchies orders it med well. It makes no difference to me how anyone chooses to have their meat done.