Ruth's Chris Steak House is a nation wide chain restaurant that specializes in steak. It's signature steak dish is ribeye and its menu offers a wide variety of ribeye steak dishes, even with the bone in ribeye. Ruth's Chris Steak House price range is on the high end side and each step is not cheap. However, since we were given this special opportunity to have dinner at Ruth's Chris Steak House, we decided to try it out.
We went to Ruth's Chris Steak House at Portland downtown. Its location is right beside Pioneer Square, and across from Banana Republic on Broadway Street. As we walk in, we were welcomed by the staff and it also offered valet parking. The entrance of the restaurant is quite grande and seemed like a event hall. We waited just for about a minutes to get taken to our table. All the dining tables were on the second floor. The first floor was for happy hour menus.
We got a 2 people table by the balcony with great view on the first floor. The waitress greeted us with the party's name and waited for both of us to sit down before handing us the menu. She also asked about whether there was any special occasion for the dinner, so we were guessing that the restaurant could arrange a free dessert or something.
The menu here was a bit different from other steak house. The steak entree really just comes with a steak on the plate. There was no side or anything else other than the steak. The sides needed to be ordered separately. We first ordered spicy shrimp as the appetizer, then ordered harvest salad and lobster bisque soup as started. Ruth's Chris offered soup of the day as well, which is vegetable soup with pasta. For entree, we ordered a New York strip steak and a ribeye steak. The restaurant could also divided the steak for 2 if we wanted to since each steak was quite large. As for side, we ordered shoe string fries and a coke.
The bread was delivered to us with cream butter. The cream butter was scooped like a vanilla ice cream and it was really good.
About 5 minutes later, the spicy shrimp was delivered to the table. It smelled amazing. There were about 8 pieces of shrimp on the plate, which was more than what we expected. In the middle, there was a lemon wrapped in a sack. That was quite interesting and it prevented lemon seeds from falling out. The shrimps had butterfly cut and was fried perfectly with crispy texture.
Then our starters go here. We asked the salad dressing to be placed on the side, but it was already mixed in the salad. We did not ask the waitress about it, but the waitress was quick to realize this issue and apologized to us. We didn't really mind it but was satisfied with the service. The salad came with pecan, fried onion, bacon, and cheese. We really like it and the fried onion was really good. The lobster bisque was a creamy orange soup with few small pieces of lobster. The soup really had fresh lobster taste, but it was just ok.
After 10 minutes, our big entree was finally here. The plates were sizzling hot and we were told that it was 500 degree Fahrenheit and we were advised not to touch it. The streak smelled so good. We ordered both of them to be medium. As we cut it open, we could see the beautiful pink in the middle, just the way we wanted. The New York strip streak had more firm texture and more chewy. The ribeye was much softer. We liked the ribeye a lot more. The shoe string fries was very good too. It was warm and fresh cut. The only problem was that the fries was so thin and became hard to pick it up as we dig into it.
Through out the entire dinner, the waitress was on top of filling our water and coke. We did not even have to ask for and we were very satisfied with the overall service.
It was a good dining experience but the food was expensive. The entree itself was already about $50. We do recommend this place for special occasions as it did provide amazing atmosphere suited for any occasions for celebrations.
Las Vegas is also known to be the city with the most casino in the world. It is known to have world's largest casinos along with high end fancy hotels. Most of the casinos are along the Las Vegas strip. Along the strip, every hotel has its own unique charm such as its architectural design, shows, night clubs, bars and restaurants. The night life at Las Vegas just never ends.
During the President's Day long weekend, we went to Las Vegas to have a fun weekend. We took the Alaska flight from Portland to Las Vegas on Friday night and we were amazed by the plane that was giving us the ride to Las Vegas. It was a brand new plane with large seat and large leg room. Each seat on the plane had its own universal remote for playing games. We could also send text through the screen in front of us to another person. We were very satisfied with the flight.
When we got to Las Vegas, the night was quite chill. We took the taxi ride to Bellagio and the ride costed us around $30 due to the traffic. When we went for hotel check in, there were so many people lined up for check in. It took about 30 minutes to get us checked in to the hotel room.
Since it was very late already, we walked around the casino and went to Noodles for a late dinner. It was a Chinese restaurant serving all kinds of Chinese food but it was extremely expensive.
The room that we stayed at has a view at the Bellagio fountain. The fountain starts every 30 minutes before 3PM and every 15 minutes after 3PM. The music and the fountain dance were different each time.
On the next day morning, the first thing we did was going to Planet Hollywood to try Gordon Ramsay Burgers. Since it was a restaurant owned by Hell's Kitchen chef Gordon Ramsay, this was a must try for us.
Afterwards, we walked towards South on the strip to check out other stores and hotels. The Coca Cola store was quite interesting. It had a large variety different Coca Cola bottles wrapped in different colors. There were also many other Coca Cola swags such as under wears, pajamas, and backpacks. We really liked the polar bear stuff animal and thus we bought one. Beside the Coca Cola store, there was the M&M World. There was also a variety of M&M flavors for people to pick and choose, and the cost was simply based on the weight.
We then walked to the next major intersection along MGM and looped around to Exlibur and New York New York on the other side. We did not go to Luxor and Mandalay Bay because it was further down. At New York New York, there was also the Hershey's store. The Hershey's store was not as interesting but it did have a Statue of Liberty that was made out of chocolate and Twizzlers.
We continued to walk back and checked out Aria and Cosmopolitan hotels along the way. At night, we were originally going to go clubbing at Banks at Bellagio, but decided to just stay at hotel room since we weren't feeling well.
On the second day, we went to Bellagio's buffet for brunch. The buffet was extremely expensive and almost $50 per person. It was totally not worth it since we could spend $50 on something that is much better. We were quite disappointed. We then went to Caeser Palace and this was one of the most fancy hotel we have been to so far. In front of the hotel, there was an imitation of Trevi Fountain of Italy. There were also many stone sculptures within the hotel. The shop at the Forum were also very fancy with stone sculptures every where.
We played some Blackjack games at Mirage because it only has minimum bet of $10. In addition, it was an automatic win if we get 21 pints on first 2 cards. We made small profit there but later lost all to slot machines.
We walked towards North and looped back to Encore and Venetian. Venetian hotel had similar style. has Caeser Palace, but not as fancy in our opinions. It had a indoor canal with boat that allow tourists to ride on, but it was kind of awkward when everyone was watching you. We also saw few wedding photos being taken there.
In the evening, we went to watch the "O" show by Cirque du Soleil and it was spectacular. We highly recommend watching this show while you are at Las Vegas.
Overall, Las Vegas was a very fun place to be to enjoy the long weekend and relieves all the stress. We think that the slot machines are essentially a rip off and we will avoid it next time. Since smoking is allowed at the casino, we don't recommend people to bring their kids to Las Vegas due to the amount of second hand smoke there.
Gordon Ramsay Burger, as the name suggests, is a burger restaurant owned by the famous Hell's Kichen chef Gordon Ramsay. The restaurant is located within Planet Hollywood hotel, right across from Bellagio and at the heart of the Las Vegas strip. This restaurant is a very popular restaurant and due to the popularity of Gordon Ramsay himself, almost every tourist that came to Las Vegas would want to visit Gordon Ramsay Burger restaurant.
The restaurant opens at 11AM in the morning. We thought about walking around within Planet Hollywood for a bit before heading to the restaurant, but we saw a line has already formed in front of the restaurant and thus decided to line up for 15 minutes. Right before the restaurant opens, the line was quite long.
We sat down at our table as the restaurant opened and ordered a signature Hell's Kitchen Burger, a Farm Burger, a Just Fries, and an Oreo Milkshake.
The milkshake at the restaurant is very popular and we were recommended to get Oreo Milkshake by the server. The milkshake has Oreo cookie cream within the glass. At the top, there was some custard cream. The Oreo Milkshake was very creamy and tasty. We really liked it. The issue was that the custard cream was at the top and it was very difficult to push it down and mix it with the Oreo cream. At the end, the custard was so thick that we could not really suck it through the straw. So we had to scoop the remaining cream and custard with the straw.
The Hell's Kitchen Burger was not as unique as we thought. We did not really see anything special in terms of toppings. It has avocado, cheese, jalapeño, and tomato. The burger was stacked quite tall due to the toppings however. The Farm Burger came with a fried egg. As we picked up the Farm Burger, the yolk broke and dripped every where. Both burgers came with butter baked buns and had sesame seeds on the top. One thing we did not like was that we found the burger to be quite salty, and make us want to drink water all the time.
Just Fries was a big serving of fries. Other than fries, there were also sweet potato fries and onion rings. Just Fries came with big wedge fries and 2 dipping sauce. The dipping sauces were not ketchup. The first dipping sauce was like spicy version of ketchup. The second dipping sauce was a curry flavored ketchup. It was quite interesting.
Overall, we think the restaurant is not bad and we like the milkshake the most. The price of burger range between $15 to $25, but it was not bad. We recommend to check it out if you have not been there and make sure you go early to get a table.
Noodles is a Chinese Asian restaurant located inside Bellagio Hotel at Las Vegas. Although the restaurant name is called Noodles, it serves all kinds of Chinese dishes including rice, noodles, and stir fries. We landed at Las Vegas on a late Friday night and we were quite hungry. Thus we looked around and found that this place opens till 2AM in the morning and decided to go there for a late dinner.
Noodles is located at the corner of the hotel, right behind all the gambling slot machines. There are signs that indicates where the restaurant is. When we got to the front of the restaurant, the server told us no tables were available and we had to wait for about 10 minutes. We stood at the front of the restaurant and the servers in the restaurant seem to be just wondering around and not really clearing up the tables fast enough. There were actually few more couples lined up behind us.
After 10 minutes passed by, we finally got our table. We sat down and the server did not show up until 5 minutes later. We ordered a Hainanese Chicken Rice, and a Stir Fry Beef Noodle. These are 2 very common dishes at any Chinese restaurant.
After about 10 more minutes, our dishes were served. The Hainanese Chicken Rice came with a bow of rice, the chicken, and a bowl of soup. The soup seem to be just a broth soup with green onion. The rice is not any ordinary white rice. It was drizzled with chicken flavor and it was actually very tasty. The dish came with a good large portion of chicken and it was quite good. The only thing is some people may find the chicken having too much bones, but that is how this dish is.
The Stir Fry Beef Noodle is quite ordinary, just like the one that a food court Chinese vendor would serve. So it is really nothing special here.
The food at Noodles was good, but it was extremely expensive. Each dish costs at least $15, which is insane. For similar dish at any Chinese food court with same standard, it would only cost $7. We understand that everything at Las Vegas tend to be more expensive, but this is really over charging the food that was being served. The service is not great either at the restaurant.
We do not recommend people to come here for Chinese food. There are many options outside of the Las Vegas strip with cheaper price and probably with better quality too.
Walla Walla is located at Southeastern Washington state. It is very well known for its wineries and very very famous for its Walla Walla onions. Walla Walla onions are huge! From Portland, Walla Walla is about 4 hours of drive time, which is quite far and difficult to do a day trip. However, Walla Walla valley is just a beautiful place to visit during spring where everywhere is lush green.
We paid a visit to Walla Walla during the long weekend. Drive to Walla Walla is very straight forward by simply driving East on I-84 along Columbia river. On the way to Walla Walla, we decided to visit Boardman Tree Farm but it was very very sad that the trees have already been cut down by the new owner who bought the tree farm. We were devastated by this news!
On the first day, we spend most of our time on the road and stopped at multiple places. We first stopped at Hood River historic railroad station and wanted to get the Hood River Railroad magical poster, but it was closed! Then we stopped by Boardman SAGE center to get the Wallowa Oregon magical poster and now we have one more in our posted collection. We then also visited the Wild Horse Casino just to check it out. After we checked in at Best Western Hotel at Walla Walla, we decided to head to Walla Walla Steak Company for dinner since it is just beside the hotel. The steak was simply amazing.
On the second day, the weather was rainy and it was raining very hard. We went to Maple Counter Cafe for brunch and we got so full from it. Then we looked around and found that it's not raining at Wallowa Lake. So we decided to visit Wallowa Lake again since it's only 2 hours away. However, as we drive over the mountain to get to the lake, it started to snow very hard due to the gain on elevation. We were not prepared for this and thus we decided to head back to Walla Walla for safety reason. After the sun set, the snow got even heavier and the snowy scene was quite pretty at night.
On the third day before we head back to Portland, we went to Palouse Falls that is an hour away from Walla Walla. We really love the waterfall, it is quite different from the ones we have seen before. After visiting the waterfall, we drove to Whitman National Historic Marker and we could see the Walla Walla valley from the top. Then we drove 5 hours straight all the way back to Portland. Luckily, there was no traffic on the highway and everything went smoothly.
Overall, we loved Walla Walla. We are thinking of visiting the place again during spring time when everything is green again and we can look down the valley from the view point at the top.
Maple Counter Cafe is a famous brunch place located at Downtown Walla Walla. The restaurant serves all day breakfast from 7AM to 3PM, and it also sells a lot of its own swags.
It is a very popular restaurant and always have people lining up at the front door.
We visited Maple Counter Cafe on this rainy day at Walla Walla. It was difficult for us to find a parking spot since there was only street parking and seems like everyone is here for brunch. When we walked in to the restaurant, the lobby was full of people sitting and standing there waiting for a table. We put down our name and waited for just about 20 minutes to get a table.
As we sat down, we actually waited for like 10 minutes before the server actually came to us. Not quite sure where he was. We ordered a Western Omelet and an Apple Pancake. There was a lit of drink selection, but we did not get any drinks.
Our food was soon delivered to us. The Western Omelet has green piper, onion, ham and cheese in it. Unlike IHOP, the omelet is not rolled up. It looks like the omelet is being cooked on the pan as it is, without being rolled up. The other part of the omelet is a bit harder and crunchy, the inner part of omelet is very soft. We really liked to texture and the flavor. Western Omelet also came with harsh brown potato on a separate plate. The potato looked quite messy to be honest, but it was very good!
The Apple Pancake is huge. It is like German Pancake with apple sauce on it. It was not a fluffy as we thought and it was very firm. It feels more like a real cake or pudding, then a fluffy soft pancake. It was very different. We think that this pancake is really like a cake that can be splitter among the table for everyone to have a piece. At the end, we could not finish the pancake and had to get a box. We only finished half of the pancake. It was just too much.
Overall, we liked the place, but will probably not order the pancake again. The pancake is just very different than what we were used to. For people who like pudding cake, the Apple Pancake may be a good choice. The restaurant does also offer other regular pancakes for people to order.
Walla Walla Steak Company is a newly opened steak house in Walla Walla, Washington. It is a high end steak house with a large selection of steaks. The restaurant is located on the 2nd street at Walla Walla, just beside Best Western Hotel. The restaurant offers a rather large parking lot for customers and easy to access since it is located just off the highway.
We were visiting Walla Walla during the long weekend and were staying at Best Western Hotel Walla Walla, thus we happened to see this steak house and decided to go there for dinner. As we walk in, the front desk attendant asked us whether we wanted the steak side of sandwich side. We were confused since we did not know there is a different. The restaurant servers both steak and sandwich dishes. Customers who wish to have steak sit on one side, and customers who wish to have sandwich sit on the other side. We wanted to have steak of course, thus we went to the right side.
As we sit down, the waiter were kind enough to take our jacket and place them gently on the coat hanger. The waiter gave us the menu and told us about today's special on prime rib. As we looked through the menu, the waiter also offered us regular water or sparkling water. The sparkling water is at no additional charge, which is nice.
After a short while, we decided to get Hearth Oven Baked Oyster appetizer, today's prime rib special, and Fire Roasted King Salmon. The waiter happily took our order and brought us a well baked sour dough bread with butter.
Soon after, the oyster appetizer is here. The oyster is a bit smaller than what we were expecting and the oyster seems smashed, but maybe that's how it is. There are also some Walla Walla onions sprinkled on the oyster and we could taste the onion, which is nice. At the bottom of the place, it also looked like some amount of sea salts were placed there.
Our entrees were finally here. The prime rib that we ordered was 10oz, but it looked like it was a 14oz to us. It was huge. We also ordered the prime rib to be medium, which was amazingly cooked the way we want it. The prime rib meat was so tender and juice. It simply melted in our mouth. We did not even need to place radish cream on the steak since it was tasty enough. The prime rib entree also came with baked potato. The way how the baked potato was served is also quite interesting. The potato is uncut. The waiter gave us butter, sour cream, and green onions to let us decorate the potato however we want. The broccoli on the dish however, was quite salty in our opinion.
The salmon entree was out of this world. It was so soft and flavorful. We have never tasted a salmon that has so much flavors before. We loved the salmon a lot. However, after several bite, we also found the salmon to be a bit salty for our taste.
As we worked through our entree, the owner was so kind to come by and speak to us. We learnt that the restaurant only opened few months ago and it was getting so many customers revisiting the place.
The table sitting behind us actually got the signature dish of the restaurant, which is a 34oz bone in prime ribeye. It was insane. It was gigantic. The owner pushed the cart with ribeye to the table and cut it in front of them. This is something that we might try next time, but 34oz of meat is really a lot!
Overall, we really like the place other than the salty part. One thing to note is that 20% tips is added on the bill, which is a bummer. We understand that it is a high end restaurant, but most customers (if not all) would be willing to give a lot of tips when dining here.
Palouse Falls is located at Southeaster Washington. It is not as well known as other waterfalls due to its location, but it is definitely a beautiful waterfall. From Portland to Palouse Falls, it will take around hours to drive to there. Thus it is very difficult to make a day trip to the waterfall. We were visiting Walla Walla during the long weekend, thus we took this opportunity to visit Palouse Falls.
Going from Walla Walla to Palouse Falls is very easy, but it still took is an hour or so to get there. We really enjoyed our way driving to Palouse Falls since we were driving through Walla Walla valley and it was just beautiful. Once we got off the high way and entering Palouse Falls State Park, the road became a gravel road and poorly maintained. It seems like the road is meant to slow people down.
After 2 miles of driving on poor road condition, we finally go to Palouse Falls. We parked the car and found out that we could not use Northwest Pass here. It was very unfortunate. Also, the day use fee at the park is $10, this is crazy. Anyway, we paid and head to the fall.
Palouse Falls flows through the rocks and canyons, it was beautiful. The hiking trail took us to walk around the fall and get to the top of the canyon. We could see Palouse Falls very clearly from the top of the cliff. One thing to mention is that there isn't any rails at the top of the cliff, so people need to be very careful not to walk too close to the cliff side. People have fallen off the cliff before.
From the cliff, we also saw people who got down to the waterfall. We weren't quite sure how they got down there because we did not see any trails leading down there.
On the other side of the waterfall, we could see the water carving and flowing through the beautiful canyon. We could imagine that maybe thousands of years ago, there wasn't a canyon before until the power of water carved through and created a canyon.
In general, we really loved this place. There are also camp sites here as well and we would definitely try to come here again and camp here. The difficult part is that Palouse Falls is quite far, but if you ever visit Eastern Washington, this is a place not to miss.
