Clearman's North Woods Inn - San Gabriel

"It was a Friday night and we were starving after driving across town during rush hour. Listen, when you visit North Woods Inn, you know what you’re getting yourself into. Bring your stretchy pants and be prepared to stuff yourself. You can review the menu all you want, but what you should be coming here for is a medium rare steak, grilled scallops, and lobster tail. The restaurant was bustling and after that drive I didn’t feel like waiting for a seat before ordering a libation so I started off by quickly ordering a tall boy from Ashley at the bar, who did an excellent job of managing multiple parties sitting in the bar area. Without even looking at the menu, we ordered our usual, steak, scallops, and lobster tail (duh). Within moments, out came the piping hot cheese bread wrapped in foil, and our personal favorite part, the cabbage and dinner salads. What you do is you mix 1/2 of the cabbage salad with 1/2 of the dinner salad and go to town. Occasionally dip the cheese bread into the salad or use it as a vessel by which you make a cheese bread/ salad flat bread, and you have yourself an exceptional first course. We had just enough salad to momentarily satisfy our appetite that way when the main course arrived we’d be ready to polish that plate off. A few minutes later, our main courses arrived. The steak was perfectly medium rare (as usual) and the grilled scallops had a wonderful charred, Smokey flavor. The lobster tail was bigger than my fist and the mushroom stuffing was a perfect compliment to the cheese potato and rice. Now let’s talk about how amazing this cheese potato is. When you mix the cheesy goodness together with the potato you get cheesy mashed potato goodness that perfectly marries itself with the steak and lobster. By the time we reached the end of our meals we needed a to go box and a wheelchair out of there. The service was amazing as usual. Considering we were in a large group, which the restaurant expertly handles, our meals arrived in a timely manner and were expertly prepared. I’m salivating thinking about our return visit."

"The steaks are always cooked perfectly and the cuts are the best. My wife loves this place for the salad and cheese bread alone which is always the perfect appetizer. Seriously, don't bother with the appetizers because the salad and cheese bread come with dinner and they are amazing. I don't typically order lobster because I'm cheap, but it did not disappoint. Huge portion, perfectly cooked, and very delicious. I barely had room to eat two bites of my steak before taking it home with me. This place is popular and gets very loud on weekends so don't expect a quiet atmosphere. Although the restaurant has a lovely ambiance. Servers are very friendly and helpful."

"Loved it! People complain about the quality of food, but those tend to be lower class republican type people. It’s not fancy! If it was it would be Frank and Mussos or Taylor’s Steakhouse. It’s a dive steak house with an 80s cabin theme and the ambiance. You for for the vibes not the food per se."

"Food was good. I ordered the Porterhouse Steak. Which was cooked perfectly. The Baked potato was good. I recommend the cheese butter, but on the side. Salad and cabbage was good, especially their Blue cheese dressing. Clam Chowder is also good. The Cheese toast was good, but a little too greasy for my liking. And our Waitress was great, very helpful and even let us sample certain things."