On Tuesday night I met a group of colleagues at Onyx Steakhouse in Port Moody for a Christmas dinner celebration. Seeing as Onyx is a steak house, I felt compelled to try one of their steaks.
Although I debated on whether I should try their 10 ounce hanger steak “butcher’s choice”, I settled on the 16 ounce bone-in rib steak.
Each steak comes with a “signature” onion ring which I have to say was pretty weak. Sure it was a large onion ring but it was pretty limp. It certainly didn’t provide me with anything memorable.
For sides I ordered their bacon and almond brussel sprouts. The thin but very boozy sauce the sprouts were in tasted great. Lots of good sized chunks of bacon added a nice flavour contrast to the brussel sprouts.
The sprouts were all tender and full of flavour.
As well as the brussel sprouts I had a side dish of gnocchi. The server assured me that she was from an Italian family and she knows good gnocchi. I trusted her heritage.
I have to admit I was a little disappointed. While there were loads of them in the little side bowl, they were a bit gummier than I remember my bestie’s Noni making them. I did enjoy the very creamy Dijon cream sauce that they were in; it had a nice bite to it.
As for the steak, it was certainly good. They promote their steaks as being better than the regular triple “A” beef. They use certified black Angus signature beef that is aged for 40 days.
My steak was seasoned superbly and while some of it was more than a little chewy, overall I would say it was clearly a top quality steak.
I asked for my bone-in rib steak to be cooked on the rare side of medium-rare and the grill chef hit that note perfectly. I was very pleased with the way my steak was seasoned and how it was grilled.
One thing that I found to be disconcerting was how inexperienced the wait staff were. There was quite a bit of confusion from the serving staff about the wine specials that night. Tuesdays are Tannin Tuesdays where select wines from their Jaded Wines list are on sale for half price.
While I understand that my dinner companion is a self-described wine snob, it was cringe inducing to hear her repeatedly say the Desert Hills Cactus Red Blend has “gamey” grapes in it, even after my friend gently let her know that they are Ga-May grapes.
Of course the servers enthusiasm more than made up for their inexperience with the names of the grapes in the wines we drank.
For dessert I chose the coffee flavoured cheesecake. It was much more like a tiramisu than a cheesecake which was fine with me because I was already so full from dinner and I appreciated the lighter notes of the tiramisu-like dessert than I probably would have a heavy cheesecake.
Bottom line, I will return to Onyx Steakhouse to try more of their menu. Each night they have different drink specials (the half price bottles of wine on Tuesday nights is a bonus!). They also have specials from the food menu – Wednesday night is the buck-a-shuck oysters and I look forward to sampling those!
Onyx Steakhouse in Port Moody is located at #7 – 101 Morrissey Road. That is right in the heart of the Suter Brook neighbourhood.