Review: Ten Ways to Enjoy Tenderloin Steak @ Jack’s Place

The Jack’s Place Tenderloin Fest is back this September and October.

Signature steaks

Featuring the restaurant chain’s signature tenderloin steaks served on sizzling hot plates with special sauces and toppings along with specially priced premium appetisers, Jack’s Place Signature Tenderloin is a cut that most steakhouses do not sell, making it a unique offering.

What a tenderloin looks like, and how it is portioned.

Jack’s Place selects the most tender cuts of beef that are both lean yet succulent and with a buttery texture and blend of subtle beefy underbites. Jack’s Place uses premium grass-fed New Zealand beef for their steaks. Shipped chilled from farms in New Zealand with a process and temperature-controlled environment that has been fine-tuned over six decades, Jack’s Place ensures that only the best, most succulent beef are selected for their restaurants. Steaks are then aged for 60 days to draw out the natural flavours.

Ten ways to enjoy your steak

This year’s Jack’s Place Tenderloin Fest introduces ten feast-worthy ways for diners to enjoy their Signature Tenderloin steaks. These are as follows.

Jack’s Special Steak ($31): Tender eye fillet topped with white asparagus and black mushroom sauce
Fire Steak ($30.50): A sizzling tenderloin flamed with brandy
Tenderloin with Escargots ($32.50): Tender fillet with escargots in garlic and herb butter
Ultimate Turf and Surf ($32.50): Tenderloin with Cajun prawns and house brown sauce
Carpetbag Steak ($32.50): Succulent oyster stuffed in a tenderloin fillet steak
Bacon Fillet with Truffle Butter ($31.50): Fillet steak crowned with turkey bacon and topped with truffle butter
Sambal Steak ($30.50): Tenderloin with Jack’s spicy sambal sauce
Cajun Steak ($30.50): Fillet steak with Cajun-style chunky tomato and capsicum sauce
Mushroom Onion Steak ($30.50): Fillet steak topped with mushroom onion sauce
Black Pepper Steak ($30.50): Tenderloin topped with Jack’s black pepper sauce
Cajun Steak.

What we had

Members of the media were invited to a tasting session at the Jack’s Place Bras Basah outlet, where we were given a steak tasting platter comprising of cajun, sambal, black mushroom and house brown sauces.

On the tasting platter too, was a piece of Jack’s Place signature steak, baked potato and vegetables, as well as a small serving of escargots and grilled prawns – so that we could, in a way, sample all of the ten steak dishes without having to eat ten different main courses.

Our mini media-tasting platter. This is not on the menu.

The Steak

The steak, on its own, was cooked to medium. It was slight moist and juicy and has an apparent chargrilled note which brought out the flavour of the meat well. Jack’s Place is famous for their steaks after all.

The sauces

Out of the sauces, I felt that the black mushroom and house brown sauces went the most well with the steak.

The house brown sauce (Ultimate Turf and Surf) gave the steak a pleasant savoury note.

Carpetbag Steak.

I enjoyed the distinctive mushroom taste and the black pepper notes from the black mushroom sauce (Jack’s Special Steak) that brought out the steak very well.

The Cajun sauce (Cajun Steak) was quite intense, with strong tangy tomatoey notes. As well, it also had a mildly spicy kick. I felt that it was a tad overpowering for the steak.

The sambal sauce (Sambal Steak) had strong flavours of dried shrimp. It was pretty spicy and well-suited to diners who like spicy food. But I felt that it overpowers the steak.

The Cajun and Sambal steaks are the new limited-edition sauces which have been added to the restaurant menu as part of the Tenderloin Fest.

Fire Steak.

Also on our plate

The escargots on our plate (from Tenderloin with Escargots) were slightly chewy and without much flavour on their own, but the garlic and herb sauce that these come with, is very thick and flavourful, with rather strong buttery and herbal notes. This is something that you can’t really eat much of.

The grilled prawns (from Ultimate Turf and Surf) tasted fresh and complements the steak well, especially when dipped in the sambal sauce.

Add-on an appetiser for just $8.80

As well, in conjunction with Jack’s Place Tenderloin Fest, diners can also add-on an appetiser for $8.80 with every order of a tenderloin steak.

The appetisers available are as follows.

Lobster and crab stuffed mushroom ($12.50)
Scallops Bienville ($12)
Escargots in Shells with Garlic Butter ($11.50)
Meat-free Chargrilled Pieces Salad ($11.50)
Crispy Sampler Platter ($16.50)

I would say that these are definitely worth topping up with your steak meal.

What we had

Our media-tasting appetiser platter. This is not served on the menu.

Members of the media were given tasting portions of some of the appetisers for our comments and reviews.

The Lobster and Crab Stuffed Mushrooms were pretty delicious and I could tell that it was distinctively mushrooms that I was eating. As well, there appeared to be strong cheesy notes in the mushroom – but not much other flavours detected.

For the Scallops Bienville, my first impression was that it was cheesy. The cheese flavour was pretty strong with a slight hint of scallop notes as an aftertaste.

The Meat-free Chargrilled Pieces Salad was flavourful and crispy, with the light dressing completing the natural flavours of the vegetables. The chunks of deep-free “meat” in the salad somehow reminded me of chicken nuggets in terms of the look, feel and texture.

Beverages

We were given a Mango Peach Cooler ($9.80 for two glasses) to wash down our food. The drink is fizzy, light and definitely refreshing, and served with chunks of mango at the bottom of the glass.

Those who prefer alcohol can get a glass of Chianti Classico DOCG or Pinot Grigio from the Wine of the Month selection at $8.80.