Chop House

Amazing service and delicious menu. Best steak I've ever had. Pure quality and excellence.

Terrific steaks, but not much more to bring me back.

We had a nice dinner with good service. The place was pretty busy on a weeknight; I was glad we made a reservation.

The bf ordered a vesper but got something different. The menu says that it should a twist of lemon; his martini had two olives. He drank it anyway and it was a fine drink. I got the alcohol-free pear cooler (ginger beer, pear puree, cinnamon syrup) and was quite happy with it.

Salads were made with good mixed greens, diced tomatoes, dried cranberries, and gorgonzola. It was a nice house salad, lightly dressed as I prefer. The shrimp cocktail was great: big shrimp with a delicious celery root remoulade.

My 6 oz filet was great. The meat was high quality and cooked medium exactly as I requested. I didn't bother with the sauce (Hollandaise?) on the side. This meat was great as-is. The tomato half topped with crumbs was a strange garnish; each of us got one and tried to eat it thinking it was roasted or something. Just a cold tomato with cold crumbs.

The bf got the porterhouse, and again his steak was great. They get really great meat and know how to prepare it well. But the sides were disappointing. The fries (we decided to go the 'steak frites' route) were like those you'd get anywhere else. After tasting the steak, we'd expected something a bit more, perhaps handcut or fresh (especially for $7).

Overall, the steaks were as good as claimed. But the rest just didn't impress.

I ate here Saturday night with the company I work for. It was our annual company trip. We had a huge party of like 50-60 people, and of course, we made reservations well in advance. One would think that they would have scheduled more servers that night. It took an hour for the salad to arrive, then another 45 minutes until we got our food.

When I finally got my food, it was good.

We all started out with a basket of bread and "The Wedge" salad with their citrus bleu cheese dressing. Edible, but a lot of people said that because of the citrus, the dressing tasted sour. I ate it because I had already had 3 glasses of wine. I was just happy to get something in my stomach.

I had the Filet Mignon with the Bernaise sauce, green beans and mashed potatoes. The steak was good, not done as well as I had liked it. I ordered it medium-rare, and I definately think I heard it "moo" a little bit. Maybe it was the wine. I still don't know. I was only able to eat like half of it because the wine took over and I was drunker than I was hungry.

They then brought out dessert. I had the cheesecake. It was not very good. It tasted weird.

I probably wouldn't go back for anything but the Bernaise sauce. It was really good.

I was very unhappy after dining here.

-The waiter was never around which meant that we had to ask for our drinks to be refilled constantly.
-The steak we ordered was asked to be pink, not red and it didn't come out that way.(the waiter was never around to send it back before we got so hungry we ate it)
-The pricey steak had a few grissly pieces of fat in it. Not something you want when you are paying for a great steak.
-Scalloped potatoes tasted mostly like salt.

The best part about this place was the bread. Unfortunately that is not enough to get me to return.

I like other Kaiser family restaurants. I always go to HOGS or Jackalope Ranch. Bout of them are in my favorite list.
Recently I decided to try Chop house. I did not like anything about it. Food was very plain hotel food like. Will not go back again.

The local family-owned Kaiser restaurant group, even in tough economic times, skillfully manages a slowly growing set of restaurants that achieve staff and customer loyalties like I've rarely seen. The six current Coachella Valley venues are variations on mainstream Americana concepts, with sometimes creative menu twists. The Kaiser group has even kept its restaurants open in this desert valley's hot-weather months (when tourists vanish and the population drops), with simplified menus, and deep-discounted specials to attract business -- while many other restaurants closed for the summer (or for good). This surely promotes that customer loyalty.

Palm Desert's Chop House is the Kaiser place I know best, and that I most often send people to when asked for restaurant recommendations. Core menu: upscale US steakhouse, with high-quality meat sources and seafoods. Seasonal happy-hour bar-dining deals and prix-fixe menus supplement that.

This part of the Coachella Valley has a history of competitive, above-average steakhouses, both independents and big chains; I've tried many of them. I haven't found Chop House's kitchen quite as perfectionistic and consistent as one or two others, example below -- but please understand that as a hair-splitting comparison in a competitive market, and I return to Chop House more than the others. In this part of California, it approaches the old ideal of a friendly, steady neighborhood bar-grill. (I still encounter employees and regular customers first met five years ago.)

Depending when you go and what you're after, a fine Chop House dinner can run $15 per person or $150. Budget diners should, as usual, check prix-fixe menu specials and the great-value "happy-hour" (HH) plates for early bar-area dining -- I've found these excellent at CH. Because it's a restaurant that still butchers its own meat, CH's kitchen generates scraps of US Prime beef, which become tenderloin kebabs or hamburgers on the HH menu. Recently I tried one of those HH hamburgers: cooked to order (blue cheese, caramelized-onion, vegetable garnishes included, on a good custom bun) -- for all of $7. Almost a fast-food price. But this was NO fast-food hamburger -- not to mention far classier ambiance and service. Here's the perfectionistic quibble: I've noticed diners finding those hamburgers undercooked in my recent visits -- it can happen if, say, kitchen rituals are careless about the meat's starting temperature -- so if you like it medium-rare, order medium and you should be fine; or mention that this has been an issue, and maybe they'll address it.

I've tried much of CH's regular menu, always been satisfied. It's strange to read a few Yelp gripes with dismissive conclusions but NO details -- but that's part of Yelp. (Suggestion to owners: ignore those. "Owner comments" can address factual misinformation, but can't do much about negative comments lacking details or evidence -- some people are like that, online, despite Yelp's review guidelines. Yelp-wide, some of those comments are even phony "reviews" by competitors, or by "problem" customers who created the situation they gripe about. Yelp doesn't yet have the needed capability for businesses to rate Yelpers -- a future growth opportunity maybe. :-)

Food trivia: What first kindled my interest in this restaurant is a dignified menu footnote disclaiming responsibility for steaks ordered well-done or "medium-well." Yelper Twin E.'s original review spoke truth: these are way-above-average meats, wasted if cooked in ways yielding results indistinguishable from cheap cuts (also true for braising and boiling). And I can still hear the tirade, 15 years ago, from a high-end chef friend about customers requesting steaks cooked "medium-well." "NO such definition traditionally exists in this business," he raged. " 'Medium-well' is a euphemism from people who want well-done meat, AND don't want to admit it!"

Crappy steaks: no flavor, tough, dry. Incompetent service. And don't get me started on that stupid menu! Hopefully they changed it with all of our complaining.

Don't eat here. It's not worth it. You can find better steaks at Sizzler.

Confusing menus.

Bad mixed drinks.

Inattentive wait staff.

Bad steaks. (this is a steak house!)

Good Food, Almost Always, They just can't seem to cook my filet the way I like it! If I say Medium, it comes, medium RARE, EVERY time! I HATE blood on my plate. !Medium is Medium, Not bloody on the plate, RIGHT? I hate to send food back to be cooked, while the rest of my party eats, and I sit at the table, eating whatever came with my meal, so it doesn't get cold, while I wait for my meat. A big pet peeve of mine. If I order a complete meal, I like to eat a "HOT complete meal "TOGETHER." GREAT Service,is a saving grace, Thank You Miss LeighAnn, Something or rather Someone is missing? I Miss My # 1 Server! Just Not the same. Still love the great Bartender, Steve!

I really wanted to like you better Chop House, but our mediocre dining experience left much to be desired.
We wanted to try a new restaurant on our last night in Palm Springs.
Upon arrival the wait staff was very friendly & the service was great.
The first thing I noticed was that the restaurant was fairly empty compared to the others next nearby which were booming on a Saturday Night. First bad sign.

They sat us at a nice romantic table in the back corner.
The warm sourdough bread was delicious & just how I like it, nice & crusty on the outside & soft & airy on the inside.
The menu looked great. We decided to order the 18oz Ribeye, a Baked Potato with the works and a side of Shaved Brussels Sprouts with Mushrooms, truffles and Caramelized shallots.

Everything looked amazing on paper, but when the food came it was only O.K.
The Ribeye was tough & didn't really taste like a Ribeye.

The Brussels Sprouts with Mushrooms were very yummy! Strong truffle flavor, I really like truffles so I loved them, but if you aren't a truffle fan stay away.

Baked potato was good, nothing too exciting here, but tasty.

We decided to order Creme Brulee & and Cappuccino for dessert. They brought us the Creme Brulee which was a bit runny, but tasted ok. they didn't bring us the Cappuccino until we were finished with the dessert. Aren't Coffee & dessert supposed to go together? this was quite annoying. I would have rather they waited to bring the dessert WITH the coffee.

I give this place a solid 2.5 but since I have to pick I'll bump it up to a 3.

Probably wont be back with so many other great restaurants in the area. http://thesuiteworld.com/dining/chop-house-chophouse-palm-springs-restaurant-steakhouse-dining-steak/