Jackson Metro Eats: Ely's

That's right boys and girls, it's that time again.  The Tuesday Date Night has come and gone, but boy it was good.  With my picks, I have a goal of always trying a local restaurant, and preferably, one we haven't tried yet. This week, we left good ole Flowood and headed across the Rez to Ridgeland.  I have been craving a good steak for awhile now, and we found it.

Ely's (Urbanspoon) is this really cool restaurant on the second floor in Old Towne in Ridgeland.  There's simply an unmarked elevator that takes you to the entrance of this delicious place.  It's very tastefully decorated, with subtle and lovely lighting, and great views of the street below.  But, enough about the decor, let's talk about the real reason we went here, the food.

We started out the night with the seafood dip.It's a rich and creamy dip, with crawfish and shrimp, served with pita chips.  It was tasty, but seemed like it was lacking something.  The best way I can describe it as needing a kick.  Like I said not bad, but not the best seafood dip I have had.  As we were finishing up, our sweet server showed up with our salads, with Bleu Cheese dressing and homemade Remoulade.  They were super fresh and full of dark leafy greens.  It is the exact kind of salad I like, good greens, a few tomatoes, and yummy homemade croutons.

For our entrées, Patrick had the Blackfish Beurre Blanc and I had the Center Cut Filet, and we split a side of creamed spinach.  I am not going to pass judgement on Patrick's (I am so not a fish person), but it was flaky, and he seemed to enjoy it a lot.  It was topped with a white wine sauce and crab meat, so I don't think you can possibly go wrong with that.  My filet was absolutely fabulous.  The thing I kept telling Patrick was that it was obvious Ely's used high quality beef.  It was perfectly seasoned and, unlike other restaurants, they really let the beef (and perfect grilling-medium rare) do the rest.  It was so, so good.  The creamed spinach was delightful, and Patrick enjoyed it so much that he asked me to make it at home.  It was creamy (obviously) and the Parmesan on top gave it the perfect amount of saltiness and crunch.