Review of "Shula's" Steak House

In celebration of our second wedding anniversary, my wife and I decided to dine at "Shula's". It's located inside the Sheridan hotel at 301 East North Waters in Chicago. Parking is valet or you can try to find a meter but it is downtown, so good luck. Reservations are recommended but it wasn't so crowded that it's mandatory.

Once inside you are greeted by dim lights and football. Since Don Shula was the coach of the Miami Dolphins there are framed pictures of Dolphins players and coaches all around the restaurant. But this is no sports bar. Dim lighting and white table clothes complete the look and you have a double server approach. One tells you all about the food and the other takes your order. Both assist in anything else you might need.

We start off with their signature appetizer, which is bbq bacon wrapped shrimp stuffed with rosemary. My wife gets the Caesar salad and I get the beef steak tomato and gorgonzola salad. For our entrees, which are a la carte, my wife orders the fillet with hash browns and I order the Cowboy (bone in rib eye) and a baked potato. One neat feature that creaped my wife out was when the server was presenting us the selection of steaks and seafood, they actually had a live lobster on the tray. I thought it was cool, but my wife just wanted the lobster to stop staring at her!

The shrimp arrive and they are darn good. Big juicy shrimp covered in a tasty bbq sauce, stuffed with rosemary and wrapped in bacon. Honestly you could wrap a truck tire in bacon and bbq sauce and it would taste good. Salads were next and my wife's Caesar was good and had homemade croutons on them. My salad was very tasty and a nice change from the usual selections that restaurants offer. Big slices of tomato rest on top of field greens and covered in balsamic vinegar and gorgonzola cheese. Definitely worth a try.

Dinner arrives and it doesn't disappoint. My wife's fillet was so tender you could have practically cut it with a fork. Nice mellow flavor and cooked to perfection. The hash browns were nice and flaky, but still just hash browns to me. My 22 oz Cowboy steak was made perfectly. Nice crust on the outside and very juicy on the inside. Texture is a big deal when it comes to food and they understand this and execute it perfectly. If you enjoy big beefy flavor then this is the one for you. My baked potato was assembled right in front of me and was hot and fresh. Definitely not sitting in the oven all day long.

Dessert is next and we decide to go for the molten lava cake. Warm chocolate cake filled with a river of warm chocolate ganash. It's accompanied with vanilla ice cream and homemade whipped cream. Now this is decadent. As good as it was, it was so rich that we had to stop eating it after the ice cream ran out! One nice thing to point out was that the staff treated us to complimentary champagne and dessert since it was our anniversary. Not needed but a very appreciated touch.

Final bill with tip came out to $200. Pricey? Yes. Worth it? Absolutely.Overall "Shula's" proved to have excellent food and service. You pay a lot, but get a lot in return. Definitely worth a trip for a special occasion. Rating *** and 1/2 out of ****.