Dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse - Downtown St. Louis

Last week I was honored to attend a fancy-schmancy dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse (downtown St. Louis) with Alive Magazine and some other local bloggers to preview and sample their new Sizzle, Swizzle & Swirl and prix fixe menus.  Never being one to turn down free food and drinks (especially really GOOD free food and drinks), Ryan and I got a babysitter lined up and made a date night out of it!  The dinner was in honor of the restaurant's 5 year anniversary, which was pretty fitting because it was actually the night before our own 5 year anniversary!  Win-win for all involved.  Happy anniversary!

The night started out with us getting to sample a bunch of Ruth's Chris's appetizers and Sizzle, Swizzle & Swirl menu items (all of which are available for $7 - I am not kidding).  Some of our favorite items were the Spruce Point smoked salmon chips, spicy/crispy lobster bites, seared Ahi tuna, crab cake BLT with zucchini fries, filet Oscar style and steak sandwich and prime burger.  I couldn't have any of the tuna (pregnancy related restriction), but everything else was fantastic!  I've actually been craving red meat over the last few months with this pregnancy (iron?), so this was a dream come true.  There was also a lovely drink menu, which had me nearly in tears because I wanted a martini so badly.  Only one more week!

Yeah, I know.  Are you drooling yet?  And that was all BEFORE dinner.  So then, we moved into a beautiful private dining room overlooking the Arch for the main meal.  Our table ended up being so much fun.  I got to sit next to my friend Lindsey, from Itz Linz - a local teacher, fitness blogger and new mom that I've been following (and friends with) for a while. It was so nice to see a familiar face at dinner.  We got to talk about all things baby, while Mim happily kicked away in my belly. Also at our table was the absolutely drop-dead gorgeous Dede (and her husband) of Styled by Dede.  It's so much fun meeting new local bloggers.  

We dined off the special prix fixe menu, where you get a salad, mixed grill entrees, your choice of side and a duo of desserts for $39.95.  

The salad was outstanding.  It was a Bibb lettuce BLT salad with cucumber ranch dressing.  I used to eat at this restaurant in college that had the most amazing cucumber ranch dressing, but haven't found it anywhere since.  I was tickled to see this on the menu and would go back just to eat this salad...it was that good. 

Next up was the Mixed Grill entrees.  This was a trio of a small filet, topped with a crab cake and served with a roasted stuffed chicken breast and a grilled tomato.  This was served on Ruth's Chris's famous 500 degree sizzling plate.  They are not messing around there - those suckers are hot.  The choice of sides were creamed spinach and/or mashed potatoes.  Spoiler alert - you can't go wrong with either choice.  

But surprisingly, they saved the best for last.  The duo of desserts was a cheesecake and some kind of vanilla custard/pudding that was so good that I was tempted to lick the bowl clean.  Incredible!

A huge thank you to Ruth's Chris Downtown St. Louis location and Alive magazine for hosting us and making me one very happy pregnant lady.  Seriously, sometimes being a blogger is SO cool!  

If you'd like to win a family style dining experience for four, serving all the prix fixe items on the dinner menu at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse Downtown, head over to Alive magazine's website to sign up!  You won't regret it! 

* Dinner provided by Ruth's Chris Steakhouse Downtown St. Louis, but all opinions expressed were 100% my own.