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- A friend and I dined at a Los Angeles location of the chain restaurant STK Steakhouse.
- We ordered lots of appetizers, entrées, and desserts to share.
- Some of my favorite dishes included the scallops, lobster mac and cheese, and chocolate cake.
I recently visited an STK Steakhouse location inside the W Los Angeles Hotel in West Beverly Hills while catching up with a childhood friend.
The upscale steakhouse chain has 30 locations around the world and is known for having live DJs who play upbeat music.
I had previously visited locations in Toronto and Denver, and the ambiance in the former made me feel like I was in a nightclub instead of a restaurant.
However, I had a good experience at the Denver location and decided to give the chain another chance in LA.
Here’s what the experience was like.
The restaurant’s design was sleek but felt a bit dated.
When we walked into the restaurant, I felt like I was walking into a time capsule. The white plaster walls, blue lighting, and curved white banquettes all seemed reminiscent of the early 2000s.
We enjoyed several drinks throughout the night.
Bubbles seemed like an appropriate way to kick off our reunion meal, so I ordered a glass of Veuve ($36) to start.
My friend chose a cocktail called Fade to Blueberry ($23), which contained Jack Daniel’s No.7 Whiskey, mint, blackberries, and fresh lime juice. She said it was refreshing and tasted like summer in a glass.
We also ordered a bottle of Saratoga water ($9) and a glass of Caymus cabernet sauvignon ($57) to share during our meal.
We started with a few appetizers to share.
We ordered several appetizers to share, the first of which was an iceberg salad ($32).
The pungent Point Reyes blue cheese and cubes of applewood-smoked bacon were balanced by the refreshing cherry tomatoes.
We also ordered the grilled octopus, which was an appetizer special.
We enjoyed the grilled octopus ($34), which was on special the night we dined at STK.
In addition to the octopus, this dish included fingerling potatoes, salsa verde, olives, and smoked paprika aioli.
Honestly, the seafood was so perfectly charred, tender in texture, and delicately sweet that I didn’t think it needed the sides or sauce.
Our final appetizer was the burger sliders.
The Lil’ Brgs sliders ($36) seemed like an homage to a McDonald’s burger with a high-end twist.
These were made with premium wagyu beef, STK’s house sauce, and homemade sesame seed buns. The meat was ultra juicy, and the sauce provided a nice tanginess.
We ordered a few entrées to share.
The first entrée we ordered was the the Hokkaido scallops ($67). This dish was a special and came with celeriac purée, brown butter, capers, and a pomegranate reduction.
The scallops were naturally sweet, rich, buttery, and tender. It was my favorite dish of the evening.
The duck confit gnocchi was loaded with vegetables.
The duck confit gnocchi with Parmesan crema ($59) was rich and heavy — but I think that was the point. Thankfully, the butternut squash, oyster mushrooms, and brussel sprouts balanced the dish nicely.
Since we were at a steakhouse, we also had to try the filet mignon.
The 6-ounce filet mignon ($64) is something I’d never traditionally order because I don’t like leaner cuts of meat. However, our server assured us we’d love it, so I decided to give it a try.
The filet was cooked medium-rare, fanned out, and topped with wagyu-umami butter ($13), which was torched tableside and drizzled over the meat.
“Wow” was the only word that came out of my mouth when I tried it. The meat was tender and complimented the salty notes from the butter nicely.
We ordered three sides to share.
We ordered three sides: lobster mac and cheese ($43), Brussels sprouts ($21), and truffle fries ($21).
The lobster mac and cheese seemed over-the-top, but even with all of the cream, butter, and cheese used, it didn’t overwhelm the delicate lobster meat.
I was excited to try the Brussels sprouts, which were deep fried, tossed with bacon pieces, and finished with a cider glaze. However, I wasn’t a fan of the glaze and thought it made the dish too saucy.
Finally, the Parmesan truffle fries were decadent and had a crispy exterior and fluffy interior.
The mac and cheese was my favorite of all the sides we tried. If I wasn’t ordering anything else, I’d happily enjoy it as an entrée.
For dessert, we decided on a few different sweets.
We ordered the chocolate cake ($22), which was decadent but balanced thanks to the airy layers of cake that offset the rich chocolate ganache.
The doughnuts ($22) reminded me of the ones you’d find at a fair. The fluffy fritters were tossed with cinnamon sugar and had the perfect amount of sweetness.
However, the real star was the cotton candy cloud.
The most unique dessert was “The Cloud” ($22), a mass of cotton candy set on fire tableside with Belvedere Vodka.
The sweet, sugary threads dissolved slightly, revealing a cake surrounded by berries and marinated in ginger syrup.
It was flashy and fun, but I thought the dish was far too boozy and sweet.
STK was the perfect setting for a girls’ night.
After tax and before tip, our meal came out to just over $636. We spent about three to four hours at STK chatting, feasting, and catching up, but we never felt rushed.
Most of all, I appreciated that the music wasn’t turned up throughout the evening so we could hear one another.
I was so pleased with how I felt when leaving this location that if I was back in Los Angeles, I’d definitely visit again.
