Asian Steak and Potatoes

The ChopHouse

4 Lakeview Drive

Gibbsboro, NJ 08026

This past Sunday night, my family and I had dinner plans to go to one of my favorite steak houses in the area, the ChopHouse in Gibbsboro, NJ. We usually all get together at my house for Sunday home cooked dinner, but this week was my cousin and cousin in law’s birthdays, so we decided to go out to dinner as a group instead.

For those of you that do not know, the ChopHouse is a traditional steak house with a large bar, and tables in the bar area as well an adjoining dining room. They also have a room downstairs that can be rented out for private parties. The main dining room is very cool. If you sit near the windows you can look out onto the river, which during the winter when it is frozen with snow on top, is a very pretty sight. The steak house has a very traditional feel and décor, but something that is very unique is the way that the kitchen looked. From the dining room you could see into the kitchen a bit, and I always think that is cool because it gives people that are interested in food like myself more to think about.

Once we were seated, I took a look at the menu, which I have seen a few times before, and I was lost as per usual. They offer a prix fixe menu available on Sundays, which had some great options, but I wound up ordering a la carte. They had lobster bisque on special, which I ordered as I almost always do when it is available. We also ordered a spicy buffalo calamari salad for the table to split. For my main course I decided on Kobe beef short ribs over wasabi mashed potatoes.

The meal started in a phenomenal manner. The lobster bisque was creamy and flavorful, exactly what I was looking for. I personally like big chunks of seafood in my bisque, which I normally only get when I make it, but it was still very good the way the ChopHouse served it. The lobster was diced up small, but the stock was full of lobster flavor, and the cream was a perfect pairing for the lobster in the soup. I cannot think of too many things that go better than lobster and cream. They finished the soup off with fresh chives that were a nice bit of crunch added to the few bites that I ate them in. I wound up sopping the soup up with bread, and my family asked me intently, “did you like that?” as they laughed.

The spicy buffalo calamari salad that we ordered for the table was a very interesting and different salad than I am used to. The calamari was in large rings, fried to perfection, and then tossed with spicy buffalo sauce. It was spread over the top of the salad with housemade blue cheese dressing. I am not a big blue cheese fan because I think it is very overpowering in most instances, but this dressing was fantastic. It was creamy, with just enough blue cheese to give it a nice bit of zing. The creaminess of the dressing balanced out the spiciness perfectly.

When the main courses arrived, I knew that I had made the right decision about my meal. I had never had Kobe beef of any kind before, and I figured that it would be even better in this dish since short ribs are slow cooked. Kobe beef is already a tender meat, so slow cooking it makes it even more tender. The short ribs were covered in a hoisin sauce, which is like an Asian barbeque sauce. 

The short ribs were so tender that when I tried to move them from the top of the potatoes, they fell apart. The hoisin sauce was the perfect sauce for the short ribs. It was sweet, but not too sweet, salty, and had a nice bite to it. The ribs melted in my mouth and paired well together with the wasabi mashed potatoes. The potatoes were in a world of their own. I have had wasabi mashed before, but never like this. They were still the color that mashed potatoes are, which was weird because they are usually the bright green color of wasabi. They may not have looked like wasabi mashed, but they definitely tasted like it. Each bite was full of fresh wasabi flavor, so that every time I took a bite, it was an explosion of flavor to every inch of my palate. The idea behind this dish of applying Asian flavors to American classics is exactly the kind of thing that makes me a foodie. Mixing cultures to create something new is one of the coolest things about food and its endless possibilities.

I happened to try my aunt’s crabcake as well, and it was very well done. Full of fresh crab and breading, neither was too far in the forefront, but rather they melded perfectly together to leave every bite buttery, rich, and luscious. I was not a fan of the blue cheese mashed potatoes that they served with one of the steak entrees that I tried. The mashed potatoes were completely masked by the flavor of the blue cheese, and I really did not enjoy it. It tasted like I was chewing on mold.

When you order a la carte from the ChopHouse you are served complimentary creamed spinach and mashed potatoes. Both were very good. The creamed spinach was creamy, salty, and delicious. The mashed potatoes were chunky yet smooth; so yummy! When you go don’t worry about ordering sides, since these will come no matter what and they are very good.

When it came time to order dessert I was torn yet again. I really wanted the Ghiradelli brownie sundae, but my cousin and his wife ordered it, so I ordered the key lime pie so that I could try two different things. The key lime pie was magnificent. I am a huge key lime pie fan, and was surprised to see it on the menu in the dead of winter, but was very happy that it was. They serve it with a graham cracker crust, and top it with crushed pistachios. I thought that the pistachios were really unnecessary; they did not really add anything to the dish. They lacked flavor and the crust already added enough of a crunch. I also was not a fan of the home made whipped cream. Maybe it is just because I had the homemade Schlag at Peter Luger in New York and nothing will ever be that good, but the whipped cream had no sweetness or thickness. The pie itself was awesome. It had the ideal sweetness to tartness ratio. The best key lime pies, to me anyway, are always very tart.

The Ghirardelli brownie sundae was also very good. It was very rich as a brownie sundae should be, and full of flavor. The vanilla ice cream cut through the richness very nicely.

It is hard to believe that this restaurant is of the same group as PJ Welihans. There is nothing wrong with PJ’s, but the food there is nowhere near the caliber that comes out of the kitchen at the ChopHouse. I know that one is upscale and one is pub food, but the pub food at PJ’s isn’t very well done for pub food, and the steak house fare at the ChopHouse is near perfection. Well that is all I got for this time. When you want a nice meal, maybe a romantic night for two, or a special occasion, make a reservation at the ChopHouse and let me know what you think!