
(UPDATED 7/3/2017) To the dismay of many, Chops closed on June 30, 2017. Chops, which had been in business for over a decade, was a favorite haunt of many legislators, legislative staff and lobbyists.
Original Post
I recently met friends at Chops Steak Seafood & Bar in downtown Sacramento for dinner. We were taking advantage of Dine Downtown Restaurant Week to enjoy a meal and catch up on “life”. Chops is located on 11th Street near L Street, across from the State Capitol.
See related blog post: 12th Annual Dine Downtown Restaurant Week
It had been a number of years since I had dinner at Chops. Before retiring, when I worked as a lobbyist, it was a convenient location close to the State Capitol to have lunch or enjoy Happy Hour. It is especially pleasant to sit outside on their beautiful patio on a nice summer day or evening. Note: Chops Happy Hour is from 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.!
SacramentoRevealed.com – All Things Sacramento (from a personal perspective)
Menu
The Chops Dine Downtown Restaurant Week menu offered:
- A Choice of two salads (Caesar or mixed green);
- A choice of three entrée’s (seared chicken breast, grilled blackened salmon or grilled filet mignon medallions); and,
- New York cheesecake for dessert.
All of us decided to start with the Chops Caesar salad (romaine lettuce, parmesan cheese, house made focaccia croutons tossed in creamy parmesan dressing).

I questioned our waitress as to whether the “blackened” salmon was spicy hot (or not) as that could have changed my choice of entrée. I was reassured, and indeed the salmon was in no way overly spicy.
Two of us opted to have the grilled blackened salmon (grilled blackened salmon topped with a cilantro lime compound butter served atop a bed of black bean and roasted corn salsa), while the third had the grilled filet mignon medallions (grilled filet mignon medallions topped with sweet balsamic reduction and served with potato au gratin).
Review
All of us enjoyed our dinner with one member of our party commenting that he felt the dinner was “a good value”.
The New York cheesecake (served with raspberry coulis) was a nice end to the meal. The cheesecake was very light (as opposed to dense) and had a distinct coconut taste – which I thought a bit unusual. However, I like coconut so it was not an issue for me.

A couple of glasses of wine, a good dinner, and catching up with friends made the evening fly by. It was only when I arrived home that I realized that I had not taken pictures of our meal!!
As I had to be downtown the next day for an appointment, I stopped by to take a few pictures of the restaurant itself to make up for my oversight.
See related blog posts: Walk Down Memory Lane and Annual Sacramento Restaurant Reviews Recap (2017)
Comments on Chops?
What has been your experience at Chops?
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Chop’s is a great place during a busy day in the Capitol to have a great Casear Salad for lunch
Thanks Darlene. I have had the Chop’s Caesar Salad as well – and I agree!