Council Oak

Critic's Review

I'd never been to Council Oak before, which is perhaps the most expensive restaurant in the Fort Lauderdale area. They've only been open for Dinner and Sunday Brunch, and their Brunch is a preposterous $65 per person, so I've never been motivated to try it. They recently started serving "Saturday Lunch" until 3pm, so it was a lot easier for me to try.

I checked out the menu on their web site, and it's really just a dumbed down version of their dinner menu. Prices are the same for items that are on the dinner menu, but they had a Prix Fix menu that offered some better choices. The fixed price menu offered a Filet with "wilted Spinach, horseradish and caramelized onion", while the regular menu offered everything ala carte.

As you walk in, there's a window in the bar area where you can view a chef carving up big cuts of beef. I had to wait for a hostess to show me to a table so I had a chance to snap a picture.

Council Oak Beef Display

The dining room leans elegant; similar to Morton's but not as woody. Tables are adorned with amethyst-like candle-less candleholders and table spices with spoons in glass jars. I got an Iced tea right away.

Council Oak Setup

One nice thing is that they gave me a booth to myself; plenty of room and privacy.

Council Oak Booth

The entire visit was laced with confusion. The first thing I noticed is that they didn't give me a fixed price menu; since this is what I planned to have, I asked my server about it. He said that they're not doing it "anymore". Considering that they only started serving lunch a few weeks ago, this was highly annoying. Take down the menu on your web site when you discontinue a service.

I then looked at the menu and it was the Dinner menu. My first thought was that they also trashed their lunch menu. Again, I asked the server and he gave me a feigned surprised look. "Oh, we do have a lunch menu; they gave you the wrong one". More likely, they simply give everyone the dinner menu and hope you don't know about the lunch menu.

I had to ask about the soup of the day; my server recommended the Surf and Turf without telling me how much the "Market Price was", so I asked. $77, so it was $37 for a lobster tail. No thanks. He should have explained what the red stuff was with the salt and pepper; was it Cayenne? Paprika? Cajun Spice? When restaurants have unique stuff they should explain to diners what it is.

I was determined to have Beef, since this is one of the few places left that claim to serve USDA Prime Beef. So I ordered a 6oz Filet ($30) along with the Lobster Bisque ($12), a signature item. I hesitated to order a side, but I had to have something with the steak. So I ordered a $9 "side" of spinach, figuring that it would be a massive portion.

The soup was delivered 5 minutes later.

Council Oak Lobster Bisque

The bisque was superb, although it didn't have much lobster meat in it. It was rich and creamy with a hint of sherry; as good as I've had in quite a while. It was a decent portion; pricey but worth it.

My server grabbed the empty soup dish; he was handling all of the tables in my section. While I was waiting for my entree, I started thinking to myself that it was odd that such a high-end restaurant had no bread. I started to look around, and I noticed that everyone else had bread.

Council oak bread

This kind of thing really irks me; do they not give bread to single diners, even when I'm spending $50 on lunch? I decided not to ask about it, because knowing my server, I'm sure he'd come up with some cockamamie excuse. I figured I'd just take a couple bucks off the tip. He saw me sitting at an empty table and promised the food would be out shortly, so it wasn't like he didn't realize that I didn't have bread.

The food came out; a sad bounty for $39.

Council Oak 6 oz Filet and Side of Spinach

The size of the Spinach portion struck me as impossible; this couldn't possibly be a $9 side of spinach. Morton's gives twice that much. It was so wrong that I questioned it, thinking that maybe they were just taking advantage of me. My server went into some ridiculous explanation of how spinach shrinks when you cook it, as if this was my first time ever in a restaurant. I almost said something like "I've eaten out a few 100 times before; I know what a side of spinach should look like", but I didn't say anything.

Council Oak Spinach Saute

The filet was properly medium rare; it was served rare but still cooking. By the time I dug into it, it was near perfect.

Council Oak 6oz Filet Mignon

I didn't like the condiments. Salting beef with a spoon is impossible, and it's difficult to pinch course salt. Course salt needs to be ground; or they need to put out kosher salt. The pepper was little mini peppercorns that didn't taste right in the same way that biting into a peppercorn doesn't taste the same as when it's ground. The whole thing is just gimmicky; I didn't try the red stuff as it didn't seem to fit in anywhere.

The filet was by no means excellent; in fact it was rather ordinary. In fact, if you told me it was a sirloin I wouldn't have argued. If this was USDA Prime then it was the worst prime filet I've ever had. If I had to bet I'd say that it wasn't and that the Indians are cheating.

When you pay $5 per ounce for a piece of meat it better be amazing, and this wasn't. The spinach was soggy with too much garlic from a jar (you can tell because all of the pieces are tiny and it doesn't taste fresh).

I passed on dessert and got the check. Another oddity was that they charged me $7 for the spinach.

Council oak receipt

The menu clearly says $9. So did they give me a 1/2 order for $7 without asking me (I would have rather paid $2 more for twice as much), or did they give me a discount because I complained? I'd think that the server would mention that. Who knows, but $7 is still too much for what I got.

No bread, wrong menus, beef that wasn't very tender. Too many question marks here to recommend this restaurant for anything.