Last night Terri and I wanted to go out to dinner with her Dad and his wife. Dad is 89… Alice is 87.

We just joined Passport Unlimited… and I wanted to try out one of their new restaurants … and most of them are pretty pricey…. but… we were going to get one entree free :-)

Got to Dad and Alice’s… they had a coupon from the Black Angus… $34 for a four course steak or prime rib dinner… for TWO ! Well the Black Angus has always been dependable… they were close… and no question they would be less expensive… and all in all easier.

Because of the “Special” offered… there was a 40 minute wait prior to dinner. We waited in the bar… had a drink and wondered if they had enough people working… for the huge crowd… there did not seem to be much activity with waitresses or bus boys. The Bartenders were really busy and we had to approach the bar to order our drinks. (Drinks were very well priced) I even commented that if the Kitchen was understaffed as much as the bar… we’d be eating at midnight. Boy was I wrong :-) In less than the 40 minutes predicted… we were in a quiet booth deciding which options we were going to choose.

How can you go wrong with Appetizer… soup or salad… Steak or prime rib and choice of Desert for $17. You can’t… as long as the food is good and the service pleasant.

This was not a gourmet meal… but it was an excellent meal. Both couples split the jumbo shrimp cocktail appetizer (the special gave each couple one appetizer and one desert to split) and the shrimp were fresh… cleaned beautifully… and the cocktail sauce had some horseradish kick to it… was as good as any I’ve had… and some of the other’s have cost more than this meal.

The salad was a tossed green salad… choice of dressing. Greens were fresh.. crisp… and the blue cheese dressing was excellent… I hear… I still like old time vinegar and oil… and it was great.

I ordered the 10 oz Rib Eye… Terri ordered the 9 oz Top Sirloin… Dad and Alice ordered the 10 oz New York Center Cut. All of the steaks were cooked perfectly… and all were tasty. But… Alice’s steak was full of gristle… and she could really not eat it. That’s where this gets really interesting… but I’ll come back to that.

Desert… Terri and I had Sky -High Mud Pie… great! Alice and Dad had Big Mountain Chocolate Fudge cake… and they said it was excellent.

But before the deserts… we called the waitress to the table about Alice’s steak. She was not defensive at all… she was very pleasant… sincerely sorry for the problem… and offered to rush another steak… or take it off the bill entirely. Alice decided to just take it off the bill… as the rest of us were almost finished with the main entree… and we were full by the time they brought the steaks anyway. The young lady took away the gristly steak… and we started in on the yummy deserts.

Then Art Schwark… the General Manager came to the table to apologize for our experience with Alice’s steak. He explained that they cut their own beef… and that the New York was a center cut.. not a strip… and the butcher must have just cut just one too many steaks from that area… getting into gristly material. He confirmed that they had taken the item off of the bill. They actually took off the entire $17 for the four course meal. Then he said they would have another prepared for Alice… to take home as a “Doggy Bag”. When they brought the “Doggy Bag”… it wasn’t just a steak… it was another Steak… another baked potato… and another serving of the mixed vegetables. A full meal… free.

The gesture was incredibly kind. His tone and message made clear that he cared about us as customers. What otherwise might have distracted from a fun evening… if fact added to the pleasant experience. Black Angus is lucky to have managers like Art Schwark… and no doubt the way his waitress handled it… is due to his employees following his excellent example. My impression in the bar that they were understaffed was wrong. There was enough staff that if they were working hard… and hustling… they could provide excellence in dining… while keeping their payroll down. They were doing exactly that… with smiles on their faces.

We will go back. We will tell others about this experience… this is the first step :-)

For less than the price of one steak at Flemings… a la carte… we had a four course meal for two. I love Flemings… will continue to go there for birthdays… special events… but day in and day out… the Black Angus in Oceanside is an incredible value. In an economy like we have today… Black Angus is making it possible for people to still get out and have a wonderful evening… at a very low price. Thanks… and while the service and value is what made this review five stars…. The food really was good.