So I’m torn. And a little (okay, a lot) frustrated.
I want to share this review with you all, but a big part of me doesn’t want to.
Can I tell you a secret? I’m a huge perfectionist. When I go to restaurants, I easily take hundreds of pictures. In many cases, I’ll take dozens of pictures of the same dish from different angles. I’m not a professional photographer, but I try my best, and I’m always working to get the best photo.
Sometimes the photography gods are looking down on me and I get the perfect shot.
Chicken and Waffles from Goody Goody Diner
Vegan chili from Local Harvest
Like I said, I’m not a professional, but I try really hard to get good shots of food. After all, we eat with our eyes first, right? And what’s a good food blog without good pictures?
But sometimes I have bad luck.
Really bad luck.
99% of the time, it has to do with lighting. A lot of restaurants nowadays have really dim lighting, which makes it hard to get a good shot. And I refuse to use my flash when it comes to food photography. It washes out the food and makes it look awful. Don’t do it.
Dim lighting is challenging to work with, but I’ve managed to do it with pretty good results.
However, 1904 Steakhouse? Not only do they have dim lighting, they have dim red lighting.
My work was definitely cut out for me. And while I’m not proud of the results, I do feel that the steakhouse was blogworthy. So I’m going for it.
Don’t judge me. 
Anyway, I visited 1904 Steakhouse a few weeks ago with my mom and sister for our monthly girls dinner. I was excited to finally try this restaurant; it replaced Jeff Ruby’s after it closed, so I was interested to see how it would compare.
The interior was amazing.
After we were seated, our waiter brought out some of the tastiest bread I’ve had in quite some time.
It was served with regular butter, as well as an herbed garlic butter.
Delicious!
For my entrée, I went with one of the specials for the evening: three small filets, topped with béarnaise sauce. One filet was topped with lobster, one with a scallop, and one with shrimp.
All three rested on a bed of asparagus.
I ordered my steak cooked medium rare, and while it wasn’t cooked properly (can anyone cook a steak to order nowadays? Anyone?!), the flavors were decent. I would have preferred a lighter hand on the béarnaise sauce; it was so rich I could barely finish half my dish! But the bites that I did have were very good.
My sister ordered the steak and lobster:
And my mom insisted that I take a picture of her lonely steak:
Happy, mom?
We ordered a few sides to go with our meal. Up first? Lobster Macaroni & Cheese:
This was creamy and delicious, but super rich. I could only have a few bites!
Next up? Roasted brussels sprouts.
They were crispy and cooked with bacon. I enjoyed these, but my sister and mom weren’t huge fans.
Finally, it was time for dessert. Sticky toffee pudding was on the menu, and it came highly recommended by our waiter, so we tried it.
It was topped with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. I really liked it! It doesn’t compare to my beloved bread pudding, but it certainly held its own.
Service was fantastic. When my mom’s steak came back ridiculously overcooked (she ordered medium and it was definitely well done), the head chef came out to our table with a new steak and apologized in person. It was a nice touch (and the reason why our dessert was on the house!).
Would I come back to 1904 Steakhouse? I’m not sure. My food was decent, but it was not mindblowing. The fact that my steak was overcooked was a bit of a turnoff as well.
And maybe, just maybe, I still can’t get over how awful the lighting was here. Even after running these through photoshop and attempting to white balance them, they were still really red. Bah.
See you next week with a great review (and better pictures, I promise!) 
{ 6 comments }
Uh. May. Zing.
