Black Angus Steakhouse

The last time I had dinner here, it was 1994.  SA's Black Angus has been in Sunnyvale a long time, and for it's age it's holding up very well.  The decor hasn't changed much since Vanilla Ice was popular, but it's been maintained well and in great shape.  Because of the layout of the place with the high-backed booth seating, it was QUIET!  I never heard a word of the conversations at the other table.  (Are you listening, San Francisco restauranteurs?  Catch a clue here on how to do it quietly.)

I was here with a party of 4 for my birthday.  My wife was wondering why I didn't want something fancier, but I'm not a fancy guy.  I don't need a napkin waiter, a water waiter, a wine waiter, a salad waiter and a food waiter.  I just want my server to be good and the food to be better.

So, a few observations.  If you go too early, there's no handicapped parking because the older folks LOVE this place.  But the seniors clear out after 6:30pm, and the regular folks with families move in.    In the space of an hour I went from being one of the youngest customers to one of the oldest.

As to the service, it was fair, but it was more like a football team where each play has a specialist.  We were seated by one person, another one took our orders and brought our drinks, and yet another took the dessert order and brought the check.  It was kind of confusing, but overall we usually got what we needed.

The food: Appetizer was the Crispy Fried Garlic-Pepper Zucchini, however someone forgot to tell the chef that.  No garlic or pepper ever came near it.  It was flavor-neutral fried zucchini like at Carl's Jr's, except that the portions were a lot larger, and the cucumber/yogurt dipping sauce was very tasty!  (Note: The first flaw in the service was that we ran out of the sauce and asked for more, but never received it.)

Salad: I had the garden salad with honey-mustard vinegar.  The greens, tomato wedge and carrot were nice and fresh.

Drinks: The margaritas are good, according to my companions.  Me, i went for the Cowboy Sangria, and it was really GOOD!  If I wasn't the designated driver, I would have knocked back a couple or three.  Nice and fruity and refreshing...

Main course: First rule of a steakhouse: ORDER THE STEAK.  Do NOT order fish,  It's not fresh (waiter said so!) so being Californians used to fresh fish, you would be sorely disappointed.  We all went with the filet mignon. Good sized portions (not too big - steakhouses seem to thrive on hyperbolic servings these days)  and cooked like we requested.  These folks KNOW steaks - wouldn't surprise me if the chefs had to go to Steak University or something.  Note:  Remember what i said about the fish?  I had the steak and fried shrimp.  I had to laugh - the shrimp looked like a fishstick with a tail stuck in it.  Shrimp are usually curved little guys - these looked like crispy machine gun shells.  However, aside from the ramrod-straight shape they tasted OK.

Desserts: Since it was my birthday, I was given a complimentary Cowboy Chocolate Chip Cookie with Ice Cream.  It was just as advertised, fresh from the oven, and tasted like a hot cookie with ice cream should.  However, if they had bothered to ask, what I REALLY wanted the seasonal peach cobbler.  This was the second flaw.  

Price-wise, it was reasonably priced - my steak and shrimp was about $25, including 2 sides.

Closing observations: I will grant you that restaurants with pictures of the food on the menu are usually kind of low-end, but not here. Overall, they do a pretty good job.  The one thing that really sucked is that next to every menu item was the CALORIE COUNT!  Doggone it, NOTHING is a food buzz-kill like looking at a calorie number.  I wasn't there to watch my manly figure, I was there to ENJOY MY MEAL.  So, Stuart Anderson, take a hint from MickeyDs and put the calorie numbers in some obscure corner of the restaurant where I have to hunt for them if I have no interest in enjoying my meal.  JEEEZ!

Went there last night with some out of town friends. Excellent meal. I had to just ignore the calories, because the wedge salad alone was evil, given that it was loaded with bleu cheese dressing and bacon. Then I had the filet mignon with fried shrimp, onion rings and green beans. The green beans had bacon bits on them. Wow. The steak was excellent. One of our buddies said that it was one of the best steaks that he's had, and he's from the midwest.

Service was spot-on.

If you're looking for something meat and potatoes, go here.

Unless you have a reservation, don't bother going here. I was told the wait would be 20-25 minutes. After 30 minutes, I ask again and they tell me it'll be another 5-7 minutes. 20 minutes passed after that and my name still wasn't called. My dad started to complain and they told us it'd be another 15 minutes. Ended up leaving because my dad's sugar was going down. The food may be good but the service is what matters.