Updated September 2026. Sophia Steak, 181 East Laurel Avenue, Lake Forest, Illinois. We paid for our own dinner. Two glasses of sparkling wine were sent to the table for our anniversary and I say so again further down. The bill is at the bottom.
We booked a table for six o’clock on a Saturday, which is the hour you pick when you have kids, and then somewhere on the drive up you remember that tonight you do not have them with you. It was our wedding anniversary. Sophia Steak sits on a corner in Lake Forest with a plaza out front, striped umbrellas, string lights, people eating outside in the last of the evening. It is about a thirty minute drive for us, which for a Saturday night is a real decision and not a casual one.
We walked in just before six and the dining room was scattered, maybe a third full. By the time we left it was loud and packed and there was exactly one long table still open. If you like a room with people in it, do not come at four thirty.
This is the first American steakhouse we have written up on this site, and I want to be straight about how it went, because Vika and I came away from the same table with two different answers.
The Side Room Is the Reason the Night Worked
We were not seated in the main dining room. We were put in a side room off the corridor with a floral mural, a starburst chandelier and maybe half the noise, and I think that single accident of seating is the reason we both enjoyed the evening as much as we did. The main room is handsome and it was buzzing. It was also loud enough by eight that I would have been leaning in to hear her. Neither of us thinks we would have liked the night as much out there.
The look is a nineteen fifties New York restaurant and I would say the room gets there. What surprised me is how relaxed the dress is against all that brass and velvet. Business casual on a jeans Friday is about the closest I can get to describing it, and that goes for the staff as well. The guests ran the whole range on a Saturday night, sports jackets at one table and jeans and a t-shirt at another. I was in nice shorts. As far as I could tell nobody looked twice at anyone.
Something I did not expect, and it is the most useful thing I can tell you about the room. The crowd is genuinely mixed. Couples in their late twenties, families with teenagers, retired couples out on double dates, all in at once. I had assumed a place like this skews one way, and it does not.
The menu they handed us had Happy Anniversary Vika and Alex printed across the top of it. Nobody mentioned it, it was just there when we sat down. It costs a restaurant almost nothing and it is the single nicest thing that happened all evening.
What We Drank, and the One We Would Argue About
I had the Tribeca, twenty dollars. Old Forester bourbon, amaretto, Amaro Montenegro, Banane du Bresil, molasses bitters, over a large cube. I ordered it specifically because I did not want a plain old fashioned, and the amaretto in place of simple syrup is exactly what I wanted from it. Sweetness without tasting of sugar. I could have gone for two of them.
Vika had the Kick Starter, fourteen dollars. On the menu it is tequila blanco, mezcal, jalapeno, cucumber, lime and black sea salt. She asked for it without the mezcal, because she is not a fan of the smoky taste. She enjoyed it, and nothing about it stood out. It is billed as spicy and she says it really was not. That is a modified drink and it is only fair to say so.
Here is where we split, and I am leaving both halves in because I do not think either of us is wrong. I said the drink needed a Moscow mule sort of element to make it distinctive. She says that would have ruined it for her. She also did not want wine, and looking at that cocktail list, the Kick Starter was the only thing on it calling to her at all.
The bread arrives before any of that matters. Warm, and the whipped butter comes in its own little tin. It is not the reason you come, but it is a good sign about a kitchen when the free thing is not an afterthought.
The Best Thing on the Table Cost Twenty Three Dollars
The yellowfin tuna tartare is twenty three dollars and it is the best thing we ate. That is not a close call and it is the only dish either of us called better than we expected.
It comes on ice with fried shallots piled on top, wasabi ponzu underneath, and macadamia through it. The shallots carry the whole thing. Vika went in expecting the Asian style ahi tartare that the menu wording suggests and it is not that, it is more its own idea than that, and the macadamia is a layer I have not seen on this dish anywhere else.
The chips are load bearing, and I want to be specific about that because it is the kind of thing a menu never tells you. They are what give it crunch. It would not have tasted as good without them. Vika did not intend to eat any of them and ate them.
The Carpaccio Is Where They Actually Do Their Own Thing
My one real complaint reading the menu is that very little on it is original. Almost every dish is a thing you can name before it arrives. The wagyu beef carpaccio, twenty five dollars, is the answer to that.
Carpaccio with chunks of lump crab through it is not common, and that is their twist. Vika spotted it first and she is right. We both thought it was excellent and we both put it just behind the tartare. The presentation on both appetizers was the best plating of the night.
Where We Stopped Agreeing
The surf and turf is a hundred nineteen dollars. Seven ounces of cold water lobster tail, seven ounces of Australian wagyu New York strip, truffled bearnaise, drawn butter, asparagus and a house steak sauce.
The lobster over delivered for both of us, and that is worth saying plainly because lobster is easy to ruin. A small overcook and it goes rubbery, which I have had happen on cruise ships and I have done it myself at home. This was not that. Vika said before it arrived that she did not want any lobster, and then kept going back for it.
The steak came exactly as ordered. Crust done properly, everything inside still pink. So the kitchen did its job.
How we ended up with it is worth telling, because it changes how you read her verdict. Vika spotted the flat iron on the menu before we ordered and asked whether I would split that with her. Then I saw the surf and turf and that was what I wanted. She did not want a main of her own, so we agreed to split mine instead. One main on the table for two people, and it was my pick over hers.
One thing I would do differently, and the menu photo is what settles it. The daily specials run along the bottom and Friday is a roasted branzino with shiitake mushroom, cilantro and yuzu butter at forty eight dollars. We were there on a Saturday, when the special is a sixteen ounce prime rib at fifty eight. If we had come a night earlier I would have taken the branzino over the surf and turf, and I say that having enjoyed the surf and turf.
My reservation is about wagyu itself and not about the kitchen. More fat is what wagyu is, and I am not sure that is what I want in a steak. I would still like to try a proper Japanese A5 one day, although traveling food guy has not made enough money for that yet.
Vika’s objection is a different one and it is about value, not quality. A hundred nineteen dollars for seven ounces of wagyu strip and seven ounces of lobster did not justify itself to her. Her words were that she just was not impressed by it. She would rather have spent that money on more appetizers. I enjoyed the mains more than she did, and I am not going to pretend otherwise.
The Fries Are the One Thing We Flatly Disagree About
Seasoned steak fries, twelve dollars. I would order them again. Vika would not. They are thick cut, so they carry more oil, and she found them heavily fried for her taste. I liked the bark and the chew on them.
We do agree on one thing. The word seasoned is doing nothing. It is salt and pepper, and the pepper is the only thing marking them out from ordinary fries. Neither of us tasted garlic, onion or anything Cajun.
The miss we both regret is the truffle and parmesan fries. I skipped them because the steak description already mentioned truffle, and then the truffle turned out to be a sauce on the side. We did not try them, so I cannot tell you how they are, only that we both think we would have preferred them.
The Chocolate Cake Is a Ferrero Rocher in Cake Form
That photograph is from the next morning, it is half eaten, and it is sitting in a foil takeout tin. There is a reason for all three and it is the best part of the story.
We do not usually order dessert. Two things went against us that night. I love a chocolate cake and I was never going to walk past thirteen layers of one. And partway through dinner the kids messaged to ask if we would bring them back something, which was fair enough, because they are the reason we had the evening to ourselves in the first place.
So we ordered the thirteen layer chocolate cake, eighteen dollars, and then we did not eat any of it at the table. That was on purpose. We had already had a big meal, so we boxed the whole thing and took it home. I did want to taste it before it went in the fridge, so I had three or four bites before bed, and that was me done for the night. I forgot to take a picture before I did, which is why the one you are looking at was taken the following morning.
It tastes like a Ferrero Rocher in cake form. There are whole hazelnuts in the tin with it, which is where the comparison comes from, and for any chocolate lover I would absolutely say try it. With that said it is very, very rich. It was worth the three or four bites. Share it.
The next morning the kids finished it, and they loved the whole thing, frosting included. I went back for another couple of bites and it was still just as good. Vika tried it for the first time that morning and thought it was very tasty and, in her words, very rich. So it holds overnight, and that is the practical part. Order it, box it, and it is still worth eating the next day.
Because we ate it at home out of the tin, I cannot tell you how it looks when they bring it to the table.
The Bubbles Were on the House, and They Nearly Did Not Arrive
Two glasses of sparkling wine were comped for our anniversary and I want that stated clearly. They are on the check at zero dollars. Everything else we paid for and the visit was not hosted.
They were meant to arrive when we sat down and they did not. The item sat on the check the whole meal and nobody brought it. Vika raised it, the server said oh yes, sorry, did you not get it, asked if we still wanted them, and brought them at the end.
I am putting it in because it happened, not because it ruined anything. It is a small miss, handled well the moment it was mentioned, and we both walked out thinking about the meal rather than about that. If I am honest, having them at the end with the last of the cake conversation was probably better than having them at the start.
Would We Bring Josh and Emily?
This is the question this site exists to answer, and most Sophia Steak reviews are written by couples who never ask it.
Not for an ordinary Friday. We both said it without hesitating. It is too expensive for a regular family dinner and, more to the point, the kids would not value what they were getting. That is not a knock on the restaurant.
For an occasion, yes. A birthday, absolutely. And we are both confident about the order. Josh would want a steak, Emily would want steak and fries, and both of them would be happy. The cake settles the rest of it, and now we know that for a fact rather than as a guess.
One thing I will not tell you, because we did not check. There were no children’s entrees on the menu we were handed and we did not ask for a kids menu. Their own website does publish one. So it exists, it just was not in front of us, and I am not going to write that a restaurant has no kids menu on the strength of not having looked.
The other half of the question is about other people’s children, and I want to be careful how I say it. Partway through the evening a father took two young children outside so the room could eat. The staff showed no sign of minding. Several guests plainly did. I do not think that is a rule about the restaurant so much as a fact about the hour. At dinner service, in that room, a small child having a hard time is a difficult fit, and that dad read it correctly.
So Would We Go Back?
Both of us would. Neither of us is in a hurry.
For Vika it is distance plus cost. Thirty minutes each way, and this particular meal did not earn a soon. She would not be unhappy to be back there. Her closing line is the best summary either of us managed, so I will give it to her. I would go for the appetizers, but I would probably skip a main.
For me it is narrower and more specific. I would make that drive for upscale American steak or fish, which is a step above a Cooper’s Hawk sort of night, and that is the tier I am measuring it against. The menu is not steak only either, there is fish and a couple of chicken dishes, which matters if you are the one person in the group who does not want a steak.
If you want the same question asked in euros, we ran it at La Cabrera in Barcelona, where the argument was about what a hundred forty eight euros buys a family of four. And the nearest thing to this on our own patch is Black Pearl in Glenview, which is a completely different kind of night out for a fraction of it.
What Dinner for Two Actually Cost
Two people, one check, two hundred fifty seven dollars and fifty six cents. That is two cocktails, two appetizers, one surf and turf, a side of fries and a dessert. No wine, no second round.
Kick Starter fourteen. Tribeca twenty. Yellowfin tuna tartare twenty three. Wagyu beef carpaccio twenty five. Surf and turf a hundred nineteen. Seasoned steak fries twelve. Thirteen layer chocolate cake eighteen. Two glasses of bubbles at zero.
Two things about that number worth knowing before you sit down. There is a three percent restaurant surcharge and it is a line item on the check, six dollars and ninety three cents on ours, which means the menu prices and your total will never quite reconcile without it. Their own menu page discloses it. We did not ask whether it can be taken off, so I cannot tell you.
And there was no automatic gratuity on our check for two. Tax was nineteen dollars and sixty three cents on a subtotal of two hundred thirty seven ninety three.
The shape of the bill is the whole story. The single most expensive thing we ordered is the thing we disagree about, and the best thing on the table was twenty three dollars.
Sophia Steak Lake Forest, Hours and Reservations
Address. 181 East Laurel Avenue, Lake Forest, Illinois 60045.
Phone. (847) 920-7002.
Hours. Their site lists dinner only, seven days, opening at four thirty. Sunday through Thursday until nine thirty, Friday and Saturday until ten thirty.
Reservations. Through Resy.
Parking. Complimentary valet, and there is the plaza and street parking around it.
Does Sophia Steak Lake Forest have a kids menu?
Their website publishes one. It was not on the menu handed to our table and we did not ask for it, so I can tell you it exists on paper and not that it was offered. If it matters to your booking, call ahead on (847) 920-7002 rather than taking my word for it.
How much is dinner for two at Sophia Steak Lake Forest?
Ours was two hundred fifty seven dollars and fifty six cents for two, including tax and the three percent surcharge, and that was two cocktails, two appetizers, one shared main, a side and a dessert. You could eat there for meaningfully less by skipping the surf and turf, which is the single biggest line on our check by a distance.
Is the three percent surcharge optional?
It appeared as a line item on our check and their own menu page discloses it. We did not ask whether it can be removed, so I am not going to tell you either way. Ask at the table if it matters to you.
Is there a dress code at Sophia Steak Lake Forest?
I could not find a published dress code. What I can tell you is what the room actually looked like on a Saturday night. Business casual on a jeans Friday is about right, staff included, and the guests ran from sports jackets to jeans and a t-shirt. I was in nice shorts. I would not stress about it.
Do you need a reservation at Sophia Steak Lake Forest?
I would book. The room went from a third full at six to packed with one table left by the time we walked out, and that was a Saturday. Reservations run through Resy.
Is Sophia Steak good for a family with kids?
For a celebration, yes, and I would say the four thirty opening is the friendliest hour for it. For an ordinary weeknight family dinner, no, and that is about the price rather than the welcome. At full dinner service the room is loud and adult and a restless toddler is going to have a hard time in it.
We paid for our own dinner at Sophia Steak. Two glasses of sparkling wine were sent to the table for our anniversary and are noted above. Prices come from our own itemized receipt on the night and are not taken from a delivery app.
