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Sullivan’s Steakhouse makes every night special with family and friends
Restaurant review: Sullivan’s Steakhouse features a Holiday Menu with quality care in preparing their expansive menu of fresh meats, seafood, and appetizers. The restaurant in Naperville is part of a national chain in 14 cities. The combination of food quality, presentation, freshness, and preparation, and the way the food is served, makes this restaurant a top destination for family enjoyment and business atmosphere
By Ray Hanania
Naperville, IL – A favorite holiday tradition for families and friends is coming together at a restaurant to share a meal and celebrate the season.
Eating at Sullivan’s Steakhouse in Naperville turns every day into a holiday and every bite into a delight, offering a wide variety of menu options for everyone’s pleasure.
Sullivan’s, part of a national chain of top-tier steakhouses, offers a spectacular menu with top-tier steak cuts, along with an extensive menu of the most popular seafoods, and great options for vegetarians, too.
Not only is the menu delicious and enjoyable, but the staff is friendly and attentive. Even more appealing is the presentation of the food by the chef, and the professional effort staff adds when they bring the food to the table. It really makes the food even more appealing and turns on your taste buds.
This week, I went to Sullivan’s Steakhouse to enjoy a mix of steak and seafood from their extensive menu. I felt so comfortable there, as each serving arrived with the knowledgeable help of our server, Jairo.
Jairo’s descriptions of each food serving, from the appetizers to the main dishes, and to the desserts, made each one that much more palatable. Sullivan’s definitely brings a taste that goes beyond great food.
The restaurant has a large dining room, and the seating was very comfortable, not crowded. Service was paced and not rushed, allowing me to thoroughly enjoy each course.
Sullivan’s Steakhouse General Manager Sarah Stees emphasizes that the goal is not only to prepare and present the best quality food menu to customers, but to do so in a way that they can enjoy themselves during the meal.
“We are a steakhouse. My personal favorite is the short rib and the beef bordelaise. Everything in our kitchen is made from scratch, all of the sauces, all of the sides. Everything is just made with love. All of our steaks are butchered in-house. Our chefs take meticulous care to trim all of our filets, to trim our short ribs, and to just make sure everything is as perfect as possible for our guests,” Stees explained.
“Along with steaks, seafood is a very popular choice for the holidays. We want to be able to give people who may not be looking for a heavy steak a strong choice as well, and that’s where our lobster comes in, where our shrimp comes in. It complements perfectly. If someone gets the bordelaise, you can enjoy the shrimp. If someone gets the short rib, you can enjoy the lobster. It really is just meant to be kind of a community event, a community dinner.”
In addition to great food, you can’t say enough about the informative and friendly staff. Our waiter, Jiaro, was there when he needed to be and provided intimate menu details to help diners truly enjoy their meal.
Assistant General Manager Michael Kosobucki said that Sullivan’s puts its staff through a rigorous training process, which explained how Jairo knew every detail of every item on Sullivan’s extensive menu as we ordered.
“That’s what makes a difference for our servers. The servers care a lot about your experience as a diner, and they are prepared to give you as much information about each menu item as you want,” Kosobucki said.
“You are not just a table to us. We want to ensure that you get the best experience and that you enjoy your meal. It is really important to all of us here.”
Kosobucki said all the food in the restaurant is fresh, not frozen. “We have a very small freezer that is used for ice cream and our freshly made whipped cream,” he said. “Everything is fresh.”
He is correct. The freshness of the food served came through and made the meal that much more enjoyable.
Jairo and Stees both offered details about menu selections we enjoyed at Sullivan’s Steakhouse, a national premier chain with restaurants in 14 locations around the country including in Naperville, Anchorage, Baton Rouge, Charlotte, Detroit (Lunch), Indianapolis, King of Prussia Pennsylvania, Leawood Kansas, Little Rock, Omaha, Palm Desert California, Raleigh, Tucson, and Wilmington Delaware.
Sullivan’s Steakhouse strives to live up to its motto, “Prime Flavor with a Local Flair,” Stees said.
“I think steakhouses get a bad rap for only being there for diners who are steak and potatoes kind of people, somebody who is going for a huge steak. The truth is, we are just as much a seafood restaurant as we are a steak restaurant. We have a ton of seafood options. We have plenty of options,” Stees said, noting that Sullivan’s will also do everything to meet the needs of vegetarians, too.
“The one thing I will say is that even if it’s not on the menu, we do everything we possibly can to accommodate any dietary restrictions. Because everything is made in-house, we have the flexibility to do that. Nothing is pre-made. Everything that we do is cooked and prepared in-house, so we know our food inside and out. All that we want to do is to make people happy, so we’ll do everything that we possibly can to make that happen.”
A priority, Stees said, is to ensure that customers don’t experience long wait times.
You know the meal is going to be great when the bread is hot, crispy, and fresh, and that’s exactly what we enjoyed during our dinner there this week.
We started out with the “Crispy Shanghai Calamari,” which features a phenomenal tasting sweet chili sauce.
“The sweet and spicy chili sauce adds a little bit of an Asian zing to it. You have the sweet chilis in there, but it also has that really nice texture, so it elevates the calamari to something that you wouldn’t normally get somewhere else,” Stees described.
“There’s a spin on it. It’s not just fried calamari that you may get in an Italian restaurant. It really does have this beautiful, tangy elevation to it. The cherry peppers are perfect for people who enjoy a little kick.”
The menu also included a tasty, specially prepared salad.
“We cook everything in-house. So, we roasted beautiful golden and red beets, and we had a beautiful bed of spinach, and then we make a fresh vinaigrette that is served alongside. It’s really a nice, hearty starter. Beets, especially during the winter, just seem to be comforting for a lot of people. It just adds another depth of flavor to that salad,” Stees said.
Next among the appetizers was the Dual Fried Lobster Tempura, which I really enjoyed.
“The lobster is actually drenched in a tempura batter, so it creates this really gorgeous and great tasting crust,” Stees explained. “It’s not a really heavy breading over a lobster tail. You’re just getting a really beautiful, meaty lobster tail with a crispy exterior.”
Sullivan’s Steakhouse offers a wide range of steak selections including bone-in Ribeye Cowboy Cut, 14 oz Bone-In Filet Mignon, Bone-In Wagyu Strip from Snake River Farms Idaho, the rarest A5 Japanese Wagyu Strip served with Yakiniku Sauce, 24 oz Porterhouse, 35-day Dry-Aged Tomahawk Ribeye, Cajun Ribeye, and for those with a Mediterranean appeal, Roasted Rack of Lamb from Thomas Farms, Australia.
“Our steaks are all curated very heavily. We are very particular about the style and the quality of meat that we offer. That’s why we feel comfortable bringing out the steak tray. We’re not afraid to bring our steaks out and show you them raw, because they are gorgeous steaks,” Stees said.
“We also like to feature our really beautiful, gorgeously marbled A5 Wagyu, the rarest of all beef. We have our Wagyu certification. It is very uncommon in a lot of steakhouses these days. We offer a four-ounce portion, and you can add specific ounces. Wagyu is an experience in itself. It’s not just about volume. You’re not getting a 24-ounce Porterhouse. You’re getting this absolutely gorgeous, thin-sliced Japanese Wagyu that’s been seared on the outside. It’s served with a really beautiful and tasty sauce.”
For the main serving, we enjoyed the North Atlantic whole 8-ounce Lobster, with claws and crispy spinach, and a Beef Bordelaise, Australian Filet Mignon with crispy Pommes Darphin.
“We make our Bordelaise sauce fresh in-house; it’s this really beautiful red wine reduction. We caramelize all of the vegetables, the shallots, and the mixed mushrooms. The Beef Bordelaise is served on a potato pancake base,” Stees said.
Additionally, the dinner experience included a Lobster Risotto on the side that was very tasty, too.
“The Lobster Risotto is very popular. It is slow-cooked Arborio rice, served in a really beautiful cheese mixture, a Parmigiano-Reggiano, and some Pecorino, heavy cream,” Stees said.
Additionally, Sullivan’s Steakhouse has a large, attractive dining room area with separate private dining areas for special events and a large wine wall.
The meal was delicious and elevated by attentive staff and excellent service.
We enjoyed a specialty dessert that Sullivan’s Steakhouse makes, Carrot Cake.
It’s not too late to enjoy a meal for Hanukkah, Christmas, or the New Year. Sullivan’s “Holiday Menu” is extraordinary when it comes to taste and enjoyment.
They offer a wide range of desserts, too.
You can make every day a holiday at a Sullivan’s Steakhouse dining table with their spectacular menu.
Sullivan’s Steakhouse,
244 S Main Street, Naperville, IL 60540
There is parking nearby, but Sullivan’s Steakhouse provides exclusive Valet service at the front entrance.
For more information on Sullivan’s Steakhouse and its dinner, lunch, or specialty menus, visit their website online at:
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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
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