Every year New Year’s Eve creeps around the corner and before you know, it is here. The last couple of years I decided to stay in and enjoy it in the comfort of my own house and bed. Prior, I had traveled to different cities to bring in the New Year with close friends. When deciding what to do for New Year’s Eve, I said, “Let’s go out to eat at a really nice restaurant.” I could not think of a better way to ring in 2018 than eating a big old piece of juicy steak at Tornado Steakhouse.

This wasn’t my first time, but it was for my siblings, Jeremiah and Francesca, and our friend, Roy. I had hyped it up so it needed to deliver. My sister asked if she needed to dress up and I told her no because it was a supper club. Hidden downtown Madison is this adorable supper club with some of the best steaks I have ever had. This night did not disappoint. We showed up without reservations but were able to spend an hour and half learning more about each other over drinks in the dimly lit bar area.

We were seated downstairs when our table became available. I was hoping that there would be a pianist that night but the hostess told me that the person was booked for another event. Our waiter was very attentive and apologized several times for cutting me off while I was talking. I talk a lot so it no matter what he would have to cut me off if he wanted to get a word in.

Our table was served bread and vegetable garnishing when we sat down. We started with the Coquille Saint Jacques since I knew Roy loves scallops. It was delightful. The scallops were tender and the mashed potatoes were creamy goodness so I scraped as much as it off the plate to eat. It was a great way to start the meal and just enough scallops for each of us.

I ordered the 8 oz. Filet medium with asparagus because I knew I couldn’t eat any more than that. You get a choice between salad or soup. Normally, I would go with the Caesar Salad because it’s honestly the best I’ve ever had, but opted to try the soup, King Crab Bisque. The soup tasted a slightly bitter to me and I felt that it was lacking something that could have made it better. I later realized that it might be the pairing between crab and bisque that is usually made with lobster.

What the rest of the party ordered were the 20 oz. Bone in Tenderloin, 16 oz. New York Strip, and the special, Prime Rib. We all shared our meals and of all of them, I found the Bone in Tenderloin to be the most flavorful, but that did not surprise me since some people argue that bone in steaks are additionally flavored by the bone. In all, I enjoyed all the samples of the other steaks.

We, more like I, ordered the Pineapple Upside Down Cake for dessert. Luckily, our waiter brought four spoons to share. I haven’t had Pineapple Upside Down Cake in a long time and the fact that it was served a la mode made it my number one choice. The cake was good but wished there was more brown sugar to make the upside down part sweeter. I knew I should have ordered another scoop of ice cream (yes, I am that person) as cake was left behind on the plate once the ice cream was gone.

We all went home stomach happy and ready for the countdown to 2018. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to midnight. The food and drinks put me into a food coma on my couch. I fell asleep to Harry Potter with my taste buds fully satisfied, and was ready to meet 2018.