Medium Well

Ian has a Legendary™ beef with Stoney River.

Comments (0) By Ian Froeb Wednesday, Dec 6 2006

...continued from page 1

Since Stoney River is a steak house, I have to mention the potatoes: They were excellent, most of all the peppery potato gratin that accompanied the "Coffee-Cured Filet." Best of all — and where Stoney River sides with the big chains to its advantage — both a potato dish and a vegetable are included with your steak.

Stoney River offers several non-steak entrées. I doubt many of these are interesting enough to entice the committed steak fan — especially the horseradish-encrusted catch of the day; I can't imagine many catches of the day, let alone every, best served by a horseradish crust — but the rack of lamb was excellent. This came in a simple, slightly tangy reduction that highlighted, rather than masked, the lamb's gamey qualities.

Jennifer Silverberg

Good steaks come to those who wait: The lodge-inspired bar area at Stoney River.

Location Info

Map

Stoney River Legendary Steaks

377 Chesterfield Center E.
Chesterfield, MO 63017

Category: Restaurant > American

Region: Chesterfield

0 user reviews	Write A Review

Details

Stoney River Legendary Steaks
377 Chesterfield Center East, Chesterfield;
636-536-1301. Hours: 5-10 p.m. Mon.-Thu., 5-11 p.m.
Fri., 4-11 p.m. Sat., 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sun.

Lobster bisque $7.99
Ten-ounce "Lodge Filet" $26.99
Herb-encrusted rack of lamb $26.99
"Coffee-Cured Filet" $28.99

More About

Also excellent was a special of two crab cakes. As a native Marylander, I cringe when I see crab cakes on the menu. They're usually a crabomination: too much breading, too little meat, small, drowned in some ungodly remoulade, etc. — but these weren't presented as real crab cakes. Instead, they were two loosely packed piles of jumbo lump Indonesian blue crab meat. Indonesian blue crab isn't as sweet as Chesapeake blue crab, but it's good — so good that I thought the lemon sauce accompanying the dish, though fine, was irrelevant.

The crab cakes were also available as an appetizer. Other appetizers include steak house standards like shrimp cocktail and lobster tail (these are tempura-battered and fried; you can also order one to accompany your steak). I was especially impressed by the lobster bisque, which had enough lobster flavor that the dash of something like Old Bay across its surface was superfluous. I was also (guiltily) impressed by the dinner rolls, which, when slathered with cinnamon-honey butter, tasted like freshly fried doughnuts.

The wine list was notable for its wide range of by-the-glass selections and a few bottles in the low-to-mid-$30 range (i.e., affordable by steak-house standards). One waiter brought my fiancée a taste of a white wine he thought would pair well with her crab cakes. It did, and a glass of his selection was only $6.50.

At that moment I could almost believe I was in a truly excellent restaurant. As it is, Stoney River is a decent restaurant, but one that seems driven less by putting a "premium" product on the table than by building a brand. Its steaks are "Legendary" (that's Legendary™, by the way), its entrées "Gourmet," and since it has priority seating, you know even before you arrive that it's popular.

Then again, Stoney River is merely following what seems to be the axiom of all these higher-end chain restaurants: If you make them wait, they will come.