Elizabeth's Chop House — Restaurant in Marquette

Big city prices -. Small town execution.

My wife and I came here with very high hopes. The menu looked respectable, the wine list looked decent, and the prices resembled that of your average upscale Detroit or Chicago steakhouse.

Unfortunately, the menu and prices were the only things to resemble an upscale steakhouse.

Parking - no dedicated parking or valet (valet is certainly forgivable, given the current market situations)

The host was prompt and professional. Checked our reservations, seated us on the patio, and gave us our menus.

Our waitress, Alexis, greeted us shortly thereafter. She was polite and courteous and returned with our wine in a very timely manner. Her wine presentation was decent, though we ordered a white and were not given a chiller. She took our order, made polite suggestions with regards to the menu, and left us to our wine.

Soup and salad arrived. My wife's salad looked and tasted great. My lobster bisque was good, but nothing special. Notably, there was very little actual lobster in it.

Main course: this was where Elizabeth's started losing stars. I had the dry-aged ribeye (my favorite cut, prepare my favorite way). What I received resembled your average $12.99 grocery store special prepared by anyone's grill-master uncle at a 4th of July barbeque. Overcooked, chewy, and lacking the nuance of an upscale dry-aged steak. On the plus side, the brussel sprouts were delicious.

My wife had the scallops. Here again, acceptable but not very impressive. They were properly prepared, mild in flavor, but nothing to get excited about. The biggest letdown was the saffron risotto. A side which has the potential to be a real showstopper, but was very poorly executed. There was no real saffron taste to it. It had a very overpowering earthy flavor (I suspect that real saffron was not used) combined with a very off-putting texture. It was more of an overcooked rice dish than a proper risotto.

At the completion of the main course, we waited a solid twenty minutes before seeing our waitress again. During this time, Tom (I suspect either the owner or chef... He didn't actually introduce himself. I only caught his name from his chef coat) stopped by our table. It was a nice gesture.

When our waitress did come back, we inquired about dessert and coffee. We ordered a coffee and the creme brule. The coffee arrived (HIGHLY recommend. It was fabulous). After another fifteen minutes, our waitress returned with the check and no creme brule. She was apologetic and did appear to be busy. I imagine this was an honest mistake or misunderstanding. That being said, it had been at least a half hour since we'd finished dinner and we were ready to go.

All in all, the dining experience was acceptable, but nothing more. It's all too easy to become complacent when you have no competition, and that appears to be the case here.

You should dine here to support your community (ALWAYS shop local!). You'll certainly be fed a decent meal prepared by Hard-working members of your community... But don't expect a high-end, luxury...

By far the star of this place is the food. It was difficult to just pick one entree because they all sounded completely fantastic.

We started with cocktails and a couple of appetizers. There was a great selection and fun variety of seasonal cocktails which made me want to try one of each. For appetizers we had cajun whitefish bites which were delish and pretty mild so great for everyone's palate. We also got the bacon wrapped scallops - they were good, but compared to everything else they weren't as flavorful as everything else. We had the wagyu tenderloin and it was the best steak of my life. We paired it with the au gratin potatoes and potatoes bravas. They did not disappoint and we're just so flavorful The duck and house salads were terrific. And our servers dessert recommendation was spot on (Chocolate ganache with pecan later, vanilla bean marscapone and Oreo cookie crust if I remember correctly) Loved the food and the service was friendly.

For being fine dining however, I was a little disappointed in the service presentation, which for the record I don't think was based on our server, but just the lack of knowledge of how fine dining service differs from a regular steakhouse. Generally, I've found that's more of a training issue. For instance, being greeted, specials announced and presentation and timing of dishes and etiquette in removal and arrival of dishes.

I feel like a numbering system of seating might have helped our server keep track of where dishes should be placed/who ordered what instead of auctioned off. Wine knowledge and pairings would have been nice as well, but to be fair we didn't ask for suggestions, but it is always nice to hear a couple of recommendations and it makes a great selling point to offer a bottle of wine.

The dessert was a fun experience because our server's description of each was equally as delightful as tasting it. I can't wait to try them all! I loved that we could get espresso after our meal. Also, the espresso martini was the best we've ever had made with good vodka and real shots of espresso. The presentation was beautiful with the espresso beans floating on top a foam layer.

Finally, the entryway could use a little more elegance and direction to the host/hostess stand. Because the restaurant is dark and dim it needs something to create a welcoming and clean feel, but love the traditional and historical architecture.

We will be back with our friends but to make this a five star review I would have loved a little more detail orientedness in front of house service and ambiance...

It’s a little by chance that we ended up dining at Elizabeth’s Chop House tonight. It’s wasn’t sure that we would spend two nights in Marquette and the first night, after 7+ hours drive, there was no way we were going to leave the hotel.

But on that Thursday night we felt like indulging with some nice food in a restaurant with a nice view. Those were the requirements. After cross-comparing Google, Yelp, Facebook and TripAdv, it became evident that he nicest place was that nice restaurant on Front Street with a heated terrace overlooking Lake Superior.

Still we were not expecting too much. After two and a half week of all-American food we were overstuffed with the fried things, the basic steaks, the Asian fusion and didn’t think anything on our trip would out-do the wonderful meal we had at David Chang’s NYC Momofuku-Nishi. And we didn’t expect a restaurant in Marquette, a somehow remote city on the far away shores of far away Lake Michigan, would be « that » good.

But we were wrong.

It’s been ten years that Tom Wahlstrom and his lovely wife Elizabeth started this elegant restaurant in «vthe » gourmet street of quaint downtown Marquette. The main room is all painted black, a long bar on the side, elegant dining tables, plus a lovely terrace overlooking the lake, covered and heated in the cold months. Tables are also elegantly dressed. Service is excellent and believe me, I don’t use this adjective lightly. Every single need was fitted and also our waiter exceeded our demands through some precognitive qualities due to observation and a keen ear.

The carte is very cosmopolitan (so was my cocktail) giving a large part to vegetables and seafood, but also a full page reserved for meat.

Everything we had ranged from very good to exquisite. They aim for quality and utter satisfaction of the guests. We got a chance to greet the owner and chef Tom Wahlstrom which was friendly and generous (oh many many thanks for the extra morels) and sure knows how to give his customers a great time.

The wine list is very complete and reasonably priced. So was our meal. Cocktails, appetisers, big meat dish, many sides, two bottles of wine, desserts and coffee, all that for three persons for less than $105 a head. Perfect !!!

Bravo. One of the best meals I have...