Group Dining Experience...

Our most recent Dining Out experience with friends and neighbors from our village took us to Connor's Steak & Seafood in the Farragut/Knoxville Tennessee area. Fifty-five 'villagers' participated in this event. Connor's Steak & Seafood has 2 locations, one in Knoxville and another in Alabama. This restaurant is part of Connor's Concepts, Inc., a Knoxville based corporation that also operates The Chop House with 12 locations. In addition to Alabama as well as mid and east Tennessee, other locations are found in Ohio, Kentucky and Georgia. We were limited to a pre-set menu. This allowed Connor's to plan their ordering and meal coordination. One advantage of this arrangement was that we received special pricing for our meals and for the cocktail hour which preceded dinner. We had a choice of soup or a salad with our dinner. Laurie ordered one of her favorites...Lobster Crab Bisque! She reported that it was very good, laced throughout with nice bits of lobster and crab. I chose the House Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing. The ingredients were fresh and the dressing was just right. Dinner salads are available from the regular menu. These include an Ahi Tuna Salad and their house special Baby Spinach & Strawberry Salad. For her entree, Laurie ordered the 7 oz. Farm Raised Salmon grilled with herb butter. It was served over rice pilaf and broccoli and came with a side topping of sauteed vegetable medley . The salmon was delicious and the rice pilaf was very nice. The seafood menu at Connor's is fairly extensive. Among the items listed are Shrimp & Grits, Fish & Chips, Crab Encrusted Tilapia, Red Snapper, Chili-Spiced Chilean Sea Bass and Parmesan Encrusted Alaskan Halibut. The limited menu choices were the salmon, a tenderloin fillet and Chicken Parmesan. I'm not a salmon devotee and a 6 oz. beef fillet just doesn't do it for me. So I went with the chicken. It was a hand-breaded breast, fried golden brown, topped with marinara sauce plus provolone and Parmesan cheese. It was served over angel hair pasta with garlic bread and broccoli. It was supposed to come with sugar snap peas...but fortunately, I like broccoli. The flavors were nice and Tabasco was provided. (A critical condiment!) The only real issue was that the chicken breast was a bit dry/overcooked. I was sitting next to Gary and he had ordered the other dinner option, the 6 oz. Connor's Fillet. He asked for a baked potato as his side dish. Gary reported that his steak was cooked just right and it was very flavorful. (In my opinion, his meal could have benefited from more imaginative plating) Connor's steak & chops entree options from the menu, also include prime rib, a 12 oz. ribeye, a Boursin Fillet, (A House Specialty), pork chops, lamb chops and Braised Short Rib. (Another House Specialty)

We had a choice of 5 different desserts with our meals. These included Strawberry Shortcake, Caramel Fudge Cheesecake, Creme Brulee, Banana's Foster, and German Chocolate Upside Down Cake. I had the Creme Brulee and it was very nice.

Another positive was that Connors allowed us to switch out our original dessert choices.

Gary had the German Chocolate Upside Down Cake. It came with ice cream and it was drizzled with chocolate and caramel sauce. It looked great and Gary gave it an enthusiastic two thumbs up! From the regular menu, I noted that the ice cream is homemade...a nice touch.

Laurie opted for this very decadent offering of Bananas Foster. She actually let me have a taste...and she was right. This was an excellent flavor-filled dessert!

The full menu also includes 13 Appetizers & Small Plates, Pasta & 4 other chicken offerings plus a half dozen sandwiches.

This was a positive dining experience although we would have preferred to order off the full menu. We will be back in the near future to sample a wider range of entree and appetizer choices... This week we will be joining our friends Dennis and Edera for dinner at The Chop House location in Farragut Tennessee.

The Tennessee location for Connor's Steak & Seafood is at 10915 Turkey Drive in Knoxville. Phone: 865-966-0933. For further information regarding Connor's and The Chop House, go to http://www.connorsrestaurant.com/.