French Fry Diary 06: The Steakhouse, Harrah's Atlantic City

For my birthday this year, the Bride used up her comps at Harrah's Atlantic City and took me to The Steakhouse there, a place I had always wanted to go. Well, that’s not exactly true. I like steakhouses, so going to any steakhouse is someplace I always want to go, but perhaps not that one in particular, but still.

The Steakhouse, as it is simply called, is a well-to-do place, one that if it were not in the middle of a casino would definitely have a dress code. On our visit we saw evening wear and jean shorts and sandals. The steaks were to die for, so juicy and tender, a knife was hardly needed to cut it. There was also a interesting variety of breads available before the main course.

And now we get to the, pardon the pun, meat of the meal – the fries. I was a bit tempted by the onion rings, having seen them brought out to another customer. They were thick, crunchy and served vertically on a stick a la Red Robin, but our waiter, when asked what he preferred, suggested the fries. "When else will you have a chance to have real Belgian fries?" True, true, and so I was sold.

I cannot deny that I was impressed by the presentation. The fries came in a wax paper cone, just like Belgian fries are supposed to, and this deep cone came in a specially made metal container. The cone was stuffed with natural cut fries, not exactly Belgian fries, but close. The problem was that the ones on top, the ones I could see at first that were bursting from the cone, were barely warm and kinda crunchy. And not good crunchy, mind you, crunchy as in rock hard and unbreakable by fork or teeth.

The good news was that the fries underneath, kept from the air by the 'bad ones,' were quite tasty and everything promised. And the cone and metal container were deep enough that there were quite a few of these. I then did what I should have done at first, just dumped the whole cone onto a plate and ate from there. I’ll know for next time.

So, Harrah's Steakhouse fries – A+ for presentation, B for taste and D for continuity. Worth a try. But I’m still getting the onion rings next time too.


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