CHOP Richmond

[BlackZRoadster]

Originally Posted by vafanculo

Doesn't it take more than 5 hours to be affected by the last thing you ate?
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try drinking liquid laxative, i'm sure you will shit before 5 hours is up..

but anyways if the food was contaminated with sumthing nasty like fecal matter, chemicals etc... you'd be shitting ur guts out in less than 5 hours

[Sentinel]

Is andrew still the chef there?
Posted via RS Mobile

[TOPEC]

Originally Posted by vafanculo

Doesn't it take more than 5 hours to be affected by the last thing you ate?
Posted via RS Mobile

yes it took a few hours

dinner was around 6:30, so finished around 8?
then the aunts went to riverrock till around 1ish and rushed home to the toilet.

[scottsman]

Been there a couple times, always had a good experience. Its a nice place to chill at.

I've been there about 3 times now. one time my steak was overdone, i asked for medium rare, and it came out medium. Told the waitress and she didnt argue with me, but came back and said "The chef said this is medium rare, but if you like we can remake it" I was kinda ticked but i told her im not pissed at you but at your kitchen. If the kitchen remade it without adding the "you are wrong" comment, i would have been alot happier.

One of my biggest pet peeves as a cook is when a customer thinks they know what temperature a steak is. If you were wrong then I think the server was completely justified in letting you know that the steak was the right temp and she was even polite enough to offer to re cook it for you if you so desired. At least next time you would know what a medium rare steak is supposed to look like.

The customer isn't always right and a restaurant is justified in letting you know if your wrong about a steak.

If the steak was cooked wrong and the chef thought he was right then that is probably the reason why they have a new chef.

[BlackZRoadster]

Originally Posted by scottsman

If the steak was cooked wrong and the chef thought he was right then that is probably the reason why they have a new chef.

Yes i think that was maybe one of the reasons. I probably dont know much about cooking compared to a chef, but i have ate at so many steaks in my life that i can easily tell blue rare, medium rare to medium. Its honestly not hard. Gotham's , Hy's never made my steak wrong once, however Hy's screwed up my onion soup and had to redo it 3 times in one night, 1st time way too salty, 2nd time wattery with cheese not browned, 3rd time the cheese was sitting in the soup, so i just gave up.

[reFR3SH]

Sorry to hear of your bad experiences haha.. but like i said the kitchen is ran differently now under a new chef. Give it another try! I'm sure you'll enjoy it this time around

[MrGoodbar]

went there, thought it was ok. i had the prime rib and lobster tail. came with all the regular fixin's. we got the table with the big screen tv. it was during hockey season, took them 15 minutes to get it to cbc. not that this is a bar or anything but TV was there, and hockey game was on, it should be no more than a minute to find the channel.

atmosphere was excellent though. the hall leading to the main foyer was epic.

[Culverin]

Originally Posted by scottsman

One of my biggest pet peeves as a cook is when a customer thinks they know what temperature a steak is. If you were wrong then I think the server was completely

justified in letting you know that the steak was the right temp and she was even polite enough to offer to re cook it for you if you so desired. At least next time you would know what a

medium rare steak is supposed to look like.

I kind of agree with you, but...

I'd call myself a fairly picky foodie.
I don't think I'm particularly arrogant, but I can handle myself in a home kitchen, and I know how steak should be cooked.
Let's be honest, if I know the "palm doneness test", I think we can agree I know what I'm talking about?


Anyways,

I do my best not to order steak when I'm out, but sometimes I end up caving and ordering steak despite my better judgement.
Almost always, it arrives messed up.

To me, a $30+ entree counts as a big ticket item.
For this to arrive wrong, I'm already not too thrilled.

I'm not the average joe-schmo diner, when I'm told "I'm wrong", I find it quite insulting.
It makes me think a couple things,
- The restaurant's got a sliding scale for quality
- The chef is ignorant of his food, or kitchen
- The server just plain doesn't care enough to fix a kitchen screw up.


In my various circle of friends, there are those that don't care about food.
These guys suggest chains.
It's up to foodies like myself to drag them elsewhere.
We are also their go-to people when they want suggestions of going somewhere "nice".


Just doesn't seem to be a good marketing to piss these people off, especially if you are focusing on a niche market.

[J32A2-S]

i was just at CHOP last week for a bday dinner and wasn't impressed

First...the restaurant itself is very nice but stupidly designed??

We were in a room which was very dark with no candles. When we arrived it was ok, they somehow dimmed it when we were ordering dinner...so we asked to have the lights turn back up because you literally couldn't see anything. The manager told us that the whole restaurant is on 1 circuit and if they turn it up, all the lights in the restaurant will turn up too. WTF? my bedroom has a auto dimming light switch! It sounded BS to me but he did give us these fake (LED) candles which was pretty much useless

The Food:

I ordered a medium rear sirloin but it came out more medium...it was very chewy
The waitress was nice and offered to have it remade for me and the 2nd time they got it right but the meat was still pretty tough.
My buddies prime rib was a bit on the fat side as well. This is my 4th time there and every time, the food was just so so. The quality is below average and not worth the price in my opinion

Also, another minor complaint is the plates the prime rib comes in. They have deep ridges so when you're cutting the meat, its hard not to make a loud grinding sound. Not the brightest idea in my opinion.

[reFR3SH]

Originally Posted by J32A2-S

i was just at CHOP last week for a bday dinner and wasn't impressed

First...the restaurant itself is very nice but stupidly designed??

We were in a room which was very dark with no candles. When we arrived it was ok, they somehow dimmed it when we were ordering dinner...so we asked to have the lights turn back up because you literally couldn't see anything. The manager told us that the whole restaurant is on 1 circuit and if they turn it up, all the lights in the restaurant will turn up too. WTF? my bedroom has a auto dimming light switch! It sounded BS to me but he did give us these fake (LED) candles which was pretty much useless

The Food:

I ordered a medium rear sirloin but it came out more medium...it was very chewy
The waitress was nice and offered to have it remade for me and the 2nd time they got it right but the meat was still pretty tough.
My buddies prime rib was a bit on the fat side as well. This is my 4th time there and every time, the food was just so so. The quality is below average and not worth the price in my opinion

Also, another minor complaint is the plates the prime rib comes in. They have deep ridges so when you're cutting the meat, its hard not to make a loud grinding sound. Not the brightest idea in my opinion.

When you say your order was remade the second time "they got it right but the meat was still pretty tough" that means it wasn't done right; I feel it is our the kitchens duty to please every customer, so feel free to re-send it back again until it is done to your liking. As for your friends fatty piece of prime rib, you could ask to redo it with a leaner piece. Sorry if you feel the quality is below average, but I believe this restaurant has held its reputation as being pretty high-end, otherwise it would not be the restaurant for Sandman Signature Hotels.

Anyways, like i said before, the restaurant is under new management and things are done differently, feel free to come back and enjoy a meal that's nothing short of excellence.

P.S. Those plates -are- kind of funky, but i cant do anything about that lol

[scottsman]

reFR3SH, does rob still work there?

Let's be honest, if I know the "palm doneness test", I think we can agree I know what I'm talking about?

I hope you are being sarcastic. If I went to a restaurant and saw one of the cooks doing that to check their steaks I would definitely not order a steak. I am not defending the cook if they made a mistake however there are many factors when determining the doneness of a steak. A lot of times what one person things is Medium rare another person might think is medium or rare.

While it is quite simple to cook a steak, doing it 100 times a night takes a great deal of skill when you take into account all the factors. A new york steak feels a lot different when medium than a sirloin or tenderloin. Wagyu tenderloin is going to feel different than an argentinian beef tenderloin.

Time, Temperature, color, carry over cooking, etc. all play a factor in making sure you get what you want.

[J32A2-S]

Originally Posted by reFR3SH

When you say your order was remade the second time "they got it right but the meat was still pretty tough" that means it wasn't done right; I feel it is our the kitchens duty to please every customer, so feel free to re-send it back again until it is done to your liking. As for your friends fatty piece of prime rib, you could ask to redo it with a leaner piece. Sorry if you feel the quality is below average, but I believe this restaurant has held its reputation as being pretty high-end, otherwise it would not be the restaurant for Sandman Signature Hotels.

Anyways, like i said before, the restaurant is under new management and things are done differently, feel free to come back and enjoy a meal that's nothing short of excellence.

P.S. Those plates -are- kind of funky, but i cant do anything about that lol

Thanks for letting me know. I knew i I could have but its ok...i ate it anyway. what i meant was the steak came out more medium rare (to my standards at least) than the previous one...but the meat was still tough....at first thought the meat was tough because it was too well-done. Oh wellz...believe me im not the kinda guy who complains about every little detail in my food. I almost never send stuff back because I am always afraid something 'additional' will come with it lol. I am sure you guys are professional and don't do that....thats why when the waitress offered, I told her nicely yes I'd like my steak re-done

[sonick]

apparently Ronnie from Jersey Shore ate there last night.
Posted via RS Mobile

[reFR3SH]

@ scottsman
robert the manager? yes he does lol

@sonick
thats cool! haha. even though i dont watch jersey shore its cool to know celebrities eat here!

[SpuGen]

Originally Posted by reFR3SH

@ bbbj no it wasnt the fat brown guy haha, he was white

White Head Chef?

I guess Chef Ken got fired?

I used to be the Butcher there after my Trainer up and left for no reason.

Is Chef Real still there? or Samantha? (Baker) Rohit?

I was there wayy back before it opened, and helped get it all cleaned up before opening day. I quit back in April of last year since I was under such shitty management. I was hired as a Dishwasher. Moved up to Butcher on the first day of training, got moved back to dish 4 months later, because they wanted one of those Brown guys under Contract to do my job. Still kept my $10.35 starting wage, and I'm somehow more expensive than the guy who makes $15? Wtf.

Chef Kayter is an asshole too. On Christmas day he made me make 12 Prime Ribs, and only sold 3. Then bitched that I was behind, even though I was on par, but he bumped all the numbers up. One person, re-doing the entire prep list for Butcher. Bunch of bullshit. 2 hours of overtime was enough to bitch about it I guess.
I didn't have to do anything for the next 2 days because I had so much stock left, and got bitched at for over-prepping.

Did I mention that I never once took a Lunch break there?
6 Days a week, 10 hours a day, NO lunch break, and ran on fumes and 3 smokes. WHILE being responsible for taking out the trash, and babysitting the Delivery guys when they brought in stock. And of course, the Sous Chefs stand at Expo.. in the Morning.. when there's no orders going out. No help in sight. Never had the time to go for one, let alone being allowed to.

It was the shittiest work environment I've ever worked in, and I've worked in a warehouse.


Food's good sometimes though. Is Ken/Monica still at the Bar?

Also, Note:
Buy the Steak bites. Portioned to 10 oz. It's mostly Sirloin, and sometimes Striploin if the butcher fucks up the cut. So you get a 10oz Sirloin for $9 vs like what? $17 for a 7oz Sirloin?

I could go on and on for days about this place., but I'm gonna stop myself.

[Nicotine]

its alright
place is nice but food is not at par in my opinion

[beanzzz]

Originally Posted by SpuGen

White Head Chef?

I guess Chef Ken got fired?

I used to be the Butcher there after my Trainer up and left for no reason.

Is Chef Real still there? or Samantha? (Baker) Rohit?

I was there wayy back before it opened, and helped get it all cleaned up before opening day. I quit back in April of last year since I was under such shitty management. I was hired as a Dishwasher. Moved up to Butcher on the first day of training, got moved back to dish 4 months later, because they wanted one of those Brown guys under Contract to do my job. Still kept my $10.35 starting wage, and I'm somehow more expensive than the guy who makes $15? Wtf.

Chef Kayter is an asshole too. On Christmas day he made me make 12 Prime Ribs, and only sold 3. Then bitched that I was behind, even though I was on par, but he bumped all the numbers up. One person, re-doing the entire prep list for Butcher. Bunch of bullshit. 2 hours of overtime was enough to bitch about it I guess.
I didn't have to do anything for the next 2 days because I had so much stock left, and got bitched at for over-prepping.

Did I mention that I never once took a Lunch break there?
6 Days a week, 10 hours a day, NO lunch break, and ran on fumes and 3 smokes. WHILE being responsible for taking out the trash, and babysitting the Delivery guys when they brought in stock. And of course, the Sous Chefs stand at Expo.. in the Morning.. when there's no orders going out. No help in sight. Never had the time to go for one, let alone being allowed to.

It was the shittiest work environment I've ever worked in, and I've worked in a warehouse.


Food's good sometimes though. Is Ken/Monica still at the Bar?

Also, Note:
Buy the Steak bites. Portioned to 10 oz. It's mostly Sirloin, and sometimes Striploin if the butcher fucks up the cut. So you get a 10oz Sirloin for $9 vs like what? $17 for a 7oz Sirloin?

I could go on and on for days about this place., but I'm gonna stop myself.

I really hope things have changed, I'm going in for an interview with Chef Mike on Friday.

[PUPPY]

just went to CHOP for dinner today.
the decor was unbelievable! especially the washroom
the food was awesome, though i got to say the appetizers were better than the entrees..
the service was not bad too
great overall

[6793026]

i went back to chop yesterday, their Chop platter is still good. the lobster bites were still a bit over fried, but their Tuna towers were SO SO much better, they have a better grade tuna (*tuna sushi grade versus richmond sushi tuna ) so when you eat it, it is much more workable than having to pull and being stuck in between your teeth.

[Sentinel]

Originally Posted by SpuGen

White Head Chef?

I guess Chef Ken got fired?

I used to be the Butcher there after my Trainer up and left for no reason.

Is Chef Real still there? or Samantha? (Baker) Rohit?

I was there wayy back before it opened, and helped get it all cleaned up before opening day. I quit back in April of last year since I was under such shitty management. I was hired as a Dishwasher. Moved up to Butcher on the first day of training, got moved back to dish 4 months later, because they wanted one of those Brown guys under Contract to do my job. Still kept my $10.35 starting wage, and I'm somehow more expensive than the guy who makes $15? Wtf.

Chef Kayter is an asshole too. On Christmas day he made me make 12 Prime Ribs, and only sold 3. Then bitched that I was behind, even though I was on par, but he bumped all the numbers up. One person, re-doing the entire prep list for Butcher. Bunch of bullshit. 2 hours of overtime was enough to bitch about it I guess.
I didn't have to do anything for the next 2 days because I had so much stock left, and got bitched at for over-prepping.

Did I mention that I never once took a Lunch break there?
6 Days a week, 10 hours a day, NO lunch break, and ran on fumes and 3 smokes. WHILE being responsible for taking out the trash, and babysitting the Delivery guys when they brought in stock. And of course, the Sous Chefs stand at Expo.. in the Morning.. when there's no orders going out. No help in sight. Never had the time to go for one, let alone being allowed to.

It was the shittiest work environment I've ever worked in, and I've worked in a warehouse.


Food's good sometimes though. Is Ken/Monica still at the Bar?

Also, Note:
Buy the Steak bites. Portioned to 10 oz. It's mostly Sirloin, and sometimes Striploin if the butcher fucks up the cut. So you get a 10oz Sirloin for $9 vs like what? $17 for a 7oz Sirloin?

I could go on and on for days about this place., but I'm gonna stop myself.

I worked there for a month this past April and I hated it.

Hired to do saucier. Hated the fact that the sinks in that place was totally retarded. Couldn't get cold water at all, only access to cold water was the busted tap in the dish pit or the bathroom...

Walked into work everyday with a gongshow preplist.

Chef Real left shortly after I started, he got transfered to Kelowna or something. The new sous, Ramesh was a total dick. Got into a huge argument with him, the Chef(Andrew) had to pull him away.

Everything about that place was a gongshow.

[SpuGen]

^
LOL
Ramesh made Sous?

That guy kept fucking pestering me and the other guys to hook him up with one of the waitresses.
What was funny, was I got really pissed and told him to go get laid.
His answer : "David! That's what I'm trying to tell you!. I need your help to get the ladies! So I can get the pussy and be happy. I'm very lonely here!"

Fucking hell. Hahaha
He still messages me on FB to this day.

[Sentinel]

Originally Posted by SpuGen

^
LOL
Ramesh made Sous?

That guy kept fucking pestering me and the other guys to hook him up with one of the waitresses.
What was funny, was I got really pissed and told him to go get laid.
His answer : "David! That's what I'm trying to tell you!. I need your help to get the ladies! So I can get the pussy and be happy. I'm very lonely here!"

Fucking hell. Hahaha
He still messages me on FB to this day.

Hahaha what a guy.

Yeah the only good thing I see about this place is that they make everything from scratch. Not like other chain restaurants (ie., cactus club). But some of the things should be changed, because to me it was really stupid/inefficient.

[!SG]

by no fault of your own, i've had the bone in ribeye chicago from mortons. the bar has been set very very VERY high.

[xmisstrinh]

since everyone is making the french onion soup and appies sound so good...... i think i'm going to go try it!!

[Gh0stRider]

gonna check it out this weekend..woo