Review: Cattleman's Steakhouse - El Paso, Texas

Sculptures that surrounded us in the Garden Room

There used to be a restaurant in Albuquerque called the Great American Land and Cattle Co. up on Tramway and Indian School. When this place was open, it was my absolute favorite restaurant. They had a small menu of only the best cuts of meat and a baked potato, and they served pineapple coleslaw, beans, and rolls to the table family style. When it was your turn to be served, they waitstaff wheeled your meal to you on carts that came directly from the kitchen. I spent so many birthday and special occasions here, and was devastated when it closed.

When I saw the Cattleman's Steakhouse on the Travel Network I knew I had to check it out! So I made M take me there for Valentine's Day. What a treat! Besides being located on a ranch in the middle of nowhere and having a petting zoo, it was almost identical to what I remember at the Great American Land and Cattle Co. Since Cattleman's Ranch has been around since the sixties, I have a feeling that my old favorite may have copied their business model just a bit (like exactly).

 

Since we were anticipating a huge meal for dinner, we took it easy for breakfast that morning. By the time we arrived at Cattleman's we were starving. We ordered the 12oz sausage appetizer. There wasn't anything special about the sausage, but the bbq sauce was pretty good. It tasted like it had an extra dose of vinegar in it. We also ordered drinks; I had a margarita and M had a Jack and coke.

 

 

For our main course, M ordered the NY Strip, medium well, with fried shrimp. The shrimp were beer battered and golden fried to perfection. I ordered the NY Strip, medium well. We got humongous baked potatoes with our steaks, pineapple coleslaw, baked beans, and rolls. They even gave a generous portion of butter and sour cream for our potatoes. The steaks were awesome! They were cooked just as were asked, and were so flavorful! They were moist and juicy. M had asked for a bottle of A-1 - just in case - but he never had to open it. It was just like I was envisioning...well maybe a little better!

After dinner, we passed on dessert. I wanted to get some pictures in so we headed out to  take a look around the Indian Cliffs Ranch. Unfortunately, there were a lot of people headed in and we didn't get to see much. The parking lot, while there are attendants, is a little nuts.

We first arrived to the restaurant around 4, and were seated right away without waiting. When we left, around 6, there was a huge wait to be seated and more and more people were coming in. Cattleman's does not take reservations and since it was Valentine's day weekend I think it added to the craziness.

We would go there again? heck yeah! It's definitely a special occasion place though...Our meal with drinks was over $100. Yikes! My only regret was missing the gift shop! I'm a sucker for magnets, and would have loved to have a memento to commemorate our little Tejas journey.