5 of 5 DeliciScore™ (From Heaven) Awarded to Ruth's Chris Steak House for their Prime Rib Dip Sandwich in Bellevue, WA on this 22nd day of May, 2012 - What a fun and delicious treat on my 35th birthday!

The menu at Ruth's Chris Stakehouse in downtown Bellevue, WA on May 17, 2012.  My birthday!  I was there with my friend Chris Wirkkala on business matters: eating a French dip (one of my favorite things) for my birthday.  I had been looking forward to enjoying this expensive French dip for some time.

There it is: the Prime French Dip: Toasted French bread with au jus and creamy horseradish sauce.  $15.  This was for lunch.  They also gave me REAL horseradish, which made the experience even more enjoyable.

I told them that it was my birthday, so the very kind waitress, NY, brought cute little table-confetti for me.  Awwwwwwww.  How nice of them....

This is what I look like as a blurry version of myself on my 35th birthday.  Wow.  35.  I don't look too old and wrinkly, I don't believe.  : )

Here is the dip served, au jus and a side Caesar salad.  As you can see from the picture, the portion is quite nice.  The beef is thinly sliced; I was able to select medium-rare, which is my preference.  The salad was pretty good.  I had a Heineken with it.  The bun is nicely toasted and they do nearly give you a bowl of au jus (see Adam's recommendation) with it, which is nice.

A close-up of the jus.  It was steaming and has its very own doily.  Chris and I joked about how we should mark points off for it being made of paper rather than hand-knit or something absurd like that...

Here's the horseradish a plenty...On the left is the real-deal, which I (toward the end of my meal) added to my au jus, based on the recommendation of our very kind waiter, Erich.  Erich and I got to talk about our names being similar and he said that he was getting "the last laugh" having a more unique name than mine although growing up with that strange spelling was hard, he said.  The creamy horseradish was good and very light tasting.  I like the *punch* of the real thing although it is nice to have both as options.

The salad close-up.  Grape tomatoes, okay croutons, light Caesar dressing, pretty good lettuce, totally fair portion, nicely thin-sliced Parmesan cheese.  I don't recall being offered pepper.

A close-up of the meat and bread.  You can see that it's pretty rare but don't let that scare you: it was good.  Nicely toasted, quality bread.

Thin-sliced yet plentiful meat.  It was a good, big portion, firing on all cylinders.

Awwwwwwwwwwww.  Thanks, people.  That was really nice of you....and delicious.

Overall
This was a great meal and dining experience.  We had great service.  The music and ambiance were nice.  It was a nice sunny day out.  The French dip was good and exactly what I wanted on my birthday.  After the dinner and dessert I enjoyed a good coffee with plentiful refills.

• Dip :  5 of 5
• Au jus :   4 of 5
• Meat :   4 of 5
• Bread :   5 of 5

This dip is not as good as the Jak's dip and is not as fancy as The Keg dip but the service was really great and the overall dining experience and quality of food is quite high.  The portion is very large as well.

Other

• Salad 4 of 5
• Not being offered pepper -1 
• Horseradish options +1
• Real horseradish +1
• Salad options +1
• *Bowl* of jus +1
• Big size +1
• Great birthday treatment and friendly staff +2

5 of 5 DeliciScore™ (From Heaven) Awarded to The Keg Steakhouse for their Prime Rib Dip Sandwich in Bellevue, WA on this 22nd day of October, 2011 - Prime Rib dip with Herbed Jus is Very Good (The first Perfect 5!)

Setting the scene

The Keg's sign in Factoria of Bellevue, WA.  It's in my old neighborhood.

It was lunchtime about two weeks ago and I needed to get my French dip in for the week (that's my current operating rule: one dip per week).  And I was out for lunch running errands by myself and had recently heard about The Keg's French dip.  It's in my neighborhood, so I stopped in and got the dip (for the purposes of both enjoyment and the proliferation of French dip and food review based content on the internetwebs).

My view from my table.  It was an early lunch but I like the vibe / ambiance in here!!

Menu and Ordering

The leather-bound menu makes you feel like a real stallion!

Prime Rib Sandwich: Slow roasted prime rib, sliced fresh off the roast (this is a  HUGE benefit over most places, and reminds me of JP's "Meat Age" tip about when it was made), on garlic bread.  $15.95.

The ambiance in The Keg is pretty nice.  It's a little dim but classy.  You feel semi cool and refined while here.  It's not a dive by any means and the wait staff is all quite professional and good.

Plate

Here it is.  Very pretty, au jus smelled great, nice-looking and tasting horseradish on the side, and a very well prepared Caesar Salad to boot!

Here you can see the very good bread and the medium-rare (and very excellent) Prime rib.  It was done perfectly and not very salty; just damn good!

Skewer method

Why bother?

Non-meat toppings

Horseradish on the side, which was a very nice option / touch and very spicy but MAN do I love that nasal hit you get when you go big enough!  What a rush!!!!!!!!!

Au jus

Herby.  OMG it's good.

Portion

Totally fine and not overly large portion.  The Prime Rib portion was generous and delicious.

Value

First time using this category.  For the $15.99 its an expensive one but well worth it in my opinion!!

Other (fun?) stuff while there

I had privacy to geek out and eat my really good dip.  I did have to order more jus but this is not a complaint for me anymore.  I expect at this point that they will be too skimpy on the jus but it's not worth complaining about a lack of jus, just ask for more!!

Summary

	Score (0-5)	Comments
Bread	5	Real good.  Toasted lightly.  Between soft and firm; good texture.  The 'garlic bread' nature was not entirely apparent but it was very good nonetheless.
Meat	5	Excellent Prime rib.  Tender, perfectly done, not salty, good cut size.
Au Jus	5	Excellent.  A little thick but not quite gravy.  Very herby and delicious.  Not overly salty; primary characteristic was its herbiness.
Overall	5	A most excellent dip as a standalone, but when you add in the very good horseradish and real good Caesar with lemon, this can't be beat (or can it?!).

Reason to go back:  This is a great dip and I think The Keg, overall is a pretty good place to get good grub and drinks.