Opa! Let's celebrate flaming cheese at Kari'is Surf & Sirloin

After a quick drive up to the St. Louis area, I found myself among friends and hungry. My friend used Google Maps to scan for restaurants around us (a wonderful tool), and we picked a place called Kar'is Surf & Sirloin. The mention of steak was enough for my husband, so two minutes later, we were piling out of the car at 13090 Manchester Road in Des Peres and walking into the most charming, classical Greek steakhouse that I've ever frequented.

At first, I wondered if we'd made a mistake. The staff were dressed in impeccably crisp black and white uniforms, and the dining room was set with crisp white tablecloths and wine glasses. We were dressed in T-shirts and shorts, rumpled from our car trip. A woman asked us if we had reservations. I might have cringed a little, because she quickly followed that up with a "It's OK! You don't have to." Phew! We were seated. It was a quiet time of day to eat, just like I like it, and there was only one other couple seated close to us. That changed by the time we left, but right then, it was quiet and peaceful.

Time to peruse the menu, and it was divided up into appetizers, salads, sides, surf, sirloin and eclectic (which was a catch-all for anything else, such as chicken). Prices weren't too bad for a nice place in St. Louis, on the higher side for those of us used to Cape eating. Also, I didn't know what some of the dishes were, and there was no description of them on the menu. I pulled out my phone and let Google educate me.

I immediately wanted to order the escargot for an appetizer. Thanks to "Pretty Woman," I already knew these were snails and had always wanted to try them. My husband wrinkled his nose a little though, so maybe another day. Instead, we ordered the Saganaki, which was labeled "Tableside Flamed Cheese." Color me sold on that idea.

I did some research on Saganaki after the fact, and it seems that this dish was invented in Greece or Turkey, although now it is commonly known as a Greek dish. Also in Greece, the cheese is not often served flambe, but this addition started with the Chicago Greek population and has been a staple in America ever since. There are several different cheeses that Saganaki can be made out of, but they all follow a similar preparation. A block of cheese, in this case breaded, is fried in a small cast iron skillet until bubbly. Then, it is set on fire, and everyone is supposed to cry out, "Opa!," which we screwed up but our server did it for us. Then the server sliced it up into little bite-sized pieces and squeezed lemon juice over it. This cheese was amazing. Like the highest-quality mozzarella cheese stick you could imagine, this cheese was creamy, rich, warm, buttery and full of flavor without becoming a "stinky" cheese. The breading on the outside was ever so subtle, and we each savored our couple of bites. Saganaki was a hit.

Next came my Chicken Oscar. Yes, I know, I went to a steak and seafood place and ordered chicken, but hang with me. Chicken Oscar was one that I had to look up before ordering, because I had never heard of it before. I am so glad that I've heard of it now, though. Surf & Sirloin's Chicken Oscar starts with a lightly breaded chicken breast, pan fried with, I think, olive oil and butter. Then it was topped with some long lovely asparagus spears. Atop that was a crab cake (so I did get some seafood), and then Hollandaise sauce was drizzled over the whole affair. The presentation was impressive, and we eat with our eyes first. The chicken was mild and tender, not over-seasoned and served as the base for all the other flavors. I opened up the crab cake. I feel like I'm a bit of a snob about crab cakes. I've had some bad ones, ones that have been frozen and are all breading with no discernable lumps of crab inside. This was not a bad one. The crab chunks were huge, fresh, the breading was not soupy, the texture was lovely, and the Hollandaise sauce tied everything together. It was worth every penny, this dish. When you find yourself in the neighborhood, give Surf & Sirloin a visit.