Slabs o’ Flesh

Outposts usually move farther and farther away from civilization,
but The Steak Out Restaurant and Saloon has established a satellite
location that’s actually closer to Tucson than the original. A
little.

The Steak Out has been a fixture in Sonoita for about a
half-century. Its second location is more convenient for Tucsonans, but
it’s not exactly embedded in the metropolis. It’s out by Dove Mountain,
smartly located for the denizens of Marana and Oro Valley, as well as
Dove Mountain golfers. The décor is as rustic as you’d expect
from a Western steakhouse, but the prices are certainly not primitive;
the steaks aren’t as expensive as what you find at, for example,
McMahon’s, but you’re not going to get a decent cut for less than
$20.

So the question is: Is it worth it? According to a group of
discerning friends who accompanied me to the Steak Out last week, it
mostly is.

Maybe the décor doesn’t suggest a $24 rib eye, but it’s good
enough: Wood-plank walls are adorned with rodeo photos and sky-dominant
landscapes, while wagon-wheel chandeliers hang from the spacious dining
room’s high ceiling. It’s not the sort of place you need to dress up to
visit.

The service is informal, even folksy, but efficient, aside from the
fairly long wait for drinks to be delivered. On the subject of alcohol:
The wine list is not upscale, but it offers some very effective
midrange wines. Beware of the strawberry margarita, though; there’s
sugar instead of salt along the rim, which is fine for a sweet drink,
but the beverage itself is so salty that you can’t taste the
strawberries.

One thing that put off my friend John, a food writer from Florida,
was the “family-style” delivery of the salad. It all came in a single
bowl, a generous bed of hand-torn (rather than cut) green leaf lettuce
supporting little piles of tomato, red onion and croutons. From this,
you serve yourself, and add the buttermilk-ranch dressing or
vinaigrette provided on the side. It’s good that you can mix your own
portions of oil and vinegar, but John was a little miffed that, at
these prices, we were handed a do-it-yourself salad.

He and my other companions were well satisfied, though, when the
slabs of flesh arrived. Each cut was cooked to order, and most of it
was as tender and naturally flavorful as it should be. I was a little
less enchanted with my T-bone ($25.95), part of which was very slightly
underdone. The strip-loin side was a little tough, but the tenderloin
side was nice and, well, tender.

There were no complaints about the melt-in-your-mouth filet mignon
($25.95), requested and delivered without the lining of bacon. Its
tenderness was a real achievement in a cut that thick. The rib eye
($23.95) was well seared on the outside, tender inside. The Kansas City
strip ($22.95) was equally admirable.

Each cut of beef was so good that we didn’t need to adulterate its
natural flavor with steak sauce.

All these items came with a choice of sides. The vegetables were
perfectly grilled: crisp, flavorful and smoky. The ranch fries were
crisp outside, moist inside, rather like a properly baked
potato—which is another option, an item that is hard to do wrong.
The ranch beans were good and creamy, yet not mushy.

There are no appetizers to speak of; a basket of dinner rolls will
be delivered on request, but not automatically, to reduce waste.
Apparently, a lot of carnivores resist eating bread or vegetables, and
the latter are in rather short supply, aside from what may come as an
included side dish. We did order a bowl of sautéed mushrooms
($6.95), just barely enough to split four ways; prepared in a port-wine
sauce, they were an excellent, sturdy complement to the meat.

The desserts ($5.95 each) were variable. The Key lime pie was quite
good (and I say this having eaten it in front of Floridians, who know
firsthand what Key limes are supposed to taste like). The filling was
tangy and devoid of green food coloring, plumped between a
graham-cracker bottom crust and a tasty whipped-cream topping. The mud
pie, standard fare at steakhouses, managed not to be icky sweet despite
its ingredients, although its coffee flavor was too subdued. The
brownie and ice cream combo didn’t satisfy my Florida friends; they
found it to be too gooey on the inside, which they discovered only
after applying a chainsaw to the tough exterior. At least the cinnamon
provided a nice flavor detail, and the vanilla ice cream was good.

So, is the experience worth the (mid)price? Perhaps the service is a
bit casual for this price range; the desserts aren’t
attention-grabbing; and the list of side dishes is pretty limited. But
the beef is good-quality and, for the most part, properly prepared. The
Steak Out may not be a bargain, but it’s a decent value, and is a
worthy destination if you’re heading into the wilds of Marana.

This article appears in Jun 25 – Jul 1, 2009.