Our first dinner at Shula’s

Surprisingly, we’ve never eaten at Shula’s Steakhouse in the Dolphin. Well, maybe it isn’t so surprising since we aren’t steak eaters (and this visit to Shula’s has undone that). But, Joseph from bluezoo recently moved to Shula’s and since he was our favorite server there, we had to go see him in his new place. Joseph was teamed with Carol for our dinner service (a nice touch).

I ordered an Extra Point cocktail to start (Herradura Blanco Tequila, Navan Liquor, Sweet Pineapple Juice, Pressed Lemon, House Infused Vanilla Syrup)… This was a delightful pineapple Margarita. Nick said “that’s good dessert in a glass.”

Nick ordered the Blitz cocktail (did I mention that these cocktails are served table-side in stainless steel cocktail shakers, so cool) (Hudson New York Corn Whiskey, Cointreau, Pressed Limes, Cane Sugar, Aromatic Bitters). I think this may have been the better cocktail, as I could really taste the bitters and it wasn’t very sweet. Nick certainly enjoyed it too.

We visited Shula’s during the Christmas season and noticed that the music playing was a mix of old Christmas standards, the volume level was just right and the music helped set the mood. Shula’s felt much more grown up and adult than most other restaurants at Walt Disney World.

We were served sourdough bread while we enjoyed our cocktails. The sourdough bread was very light and very moist. This was really a good bread, the crumb was all you could want, the flavor was tangy as a good sourdough should, and the crust was excellent.

I ordered the lobster bisque (unusual for me, but hey! it was a night to splurge a bit). I could easily detect nutmeg and sherry, the bisque was very smooth and creamy. Nick thought that it had too much “shell flavor”, thus he wasn’t jumping up and down with delight. While this was quite good, it’s not something I’m likely to order again (I think it may have needed some white pepper or maybe a very tiny sprinkle of black pepper).

Nick ordered the French Onion Soup to start, it was very hot when served. This soup had just the right amount of umami, water, fat, and browning (Nick said that it equaled my homemade!). This soup was very cheesy, in a good way. The cheese itself was sweet and mellow, balancing the saltiness from the beef stock very nicely. All of the flavors in this were really good and we’d highly recommend it.

We decided to order a scotch between courses. The Glenmorangie 10 year, very smooth and tasty. The Highland Park 12 year, a bit smoky oaky – but still delightful.

So what did we order for our entree? We decided to split the Porterhouse and the asparagus. We had chosen to not do Prime Rib, everybody seems to do Prime Rib and since this is a chop house, we thought we should order something with a bone in it!

They split both the filet and the NY strip for us. Looks lovely, doesn’t it – it smelled even better. We asked Joseph to bring us two wines to split with the meat course: Nick preferred the Acrobat from Oregon and I preferred the Meomi Belle Glos from California. The California wine had more tannins, so it was more to my tastes than to Nick’s.

We started with the filet side. I commented that one of the reasons you get meat on the bone is because it tastes so much better than a filet itself. Nick commented that if we were going to eat steak, let’s get the really good stuff. This was so flavorful and had such a nice crust on it. OMG great.

The NY Strip was more flavorful than the filet (of course, more fat marbling). We don’t often eat steak (maybe once or twice a year) but we will definitely eat it here!

The grilled asparagus has slightly crispy bits (yum) and a bit of smokiness. This was a really good side for the two of us (although, there wasn’t as much asparagus in a serving as we thought after seeing the huge bunch on the display cart).

Dinner was lovely and we were quite impressed. At this point, we were both so full that dessert was simply out of the question (however, a cocktail at bluezoo sounded like the perfect ending to a very nice dinner).

Joseph told us that Shula’s has a philosophy…

Don Shula coached a perfect season. Your dinner should be perfect. The staff is immediately accountable for any imperfections and the managers will take care of any problems immediately.

We will definitely be coming back to Shula’s Steakhouse.

 

Thank you Joseph and Carol, and everyone else, for a lovely evening!

We’ve even talked about going to Shula Burger on Irlo Bronson Parkway sometime soon… If steaks are this good, wonder how good their burgers will be?