Christopher’s World Grille  was opened by Chef Christopher Lampo in a 100 year old ranch house to offer a fine dining experience to Bryan and College Station, home of Texas A & M.  In 1999 he opened Christopher’s in the restored Andrews House (1913) offering an eclectic menu featuring steaks and seafood.   His kitchen provided catering to former President George H. W. Bush and is the preferred  caterer for the presidential library in adjacent College Station.  The rennovation of the house left as many historic features in tact as possible thus the large restaurant is spread over multiple room, all a little different but very decorative.  Lots of windows to the outside let in much natural light, music was in the background, carpet on the floors (which made the noise level quite nice) and art is on the walls.  Service was friendly and welcoming and in addition to the menu there were several nightly specials described to us by our server with their prices, which is a nice touch.  Portions are very generous and even on a Wed. night they did a lively business.  There was seating outside and a large dedicated free parking lot.  I would recommend this place when visiting the area.

Set-up

Food

On the servers recommendation we started with Mrs. Pham’s Egg Rolls which contain pork, chicken, shrimp and vegetables in a fried roll that was served with lettuce wraps, mint, cilantro and a red chile-lemon dipping sauce called nước mắm.  The egg rolls came 4 to an order and are to be wrapped in the lettuce with a mix of the herbs then dipped in the sauce.  The rolls had a nice crisp coating with a slight gelatinous chewy layer underneath and were well stuffed.  I couldn’t really identify the filling ingredients but the overall effect was tasty with good textures.  My one suggestion would be to serve a moist cloth afterwards to get the sticky sauce off your hands.

Christopher’s House Filet was a grilled 8 oz. center-cut beef tenderloin on creamed spinach and house potatoes topped with fried crawfish tails and béarnaise sauce on a port demi glace.  This dish has been on the menu since the place opened and is a heavy plate of food.  The crawfish tails get lost in the mix and that may be why the server questioned whether we wanted to add crabmeat to the pile.  The beef was tender, tasty and cooked the rare requested with a ton of the sticky well reduced demi glace.  Along with the bearnaise this made a plate that personified rich.

A side of the tobacco onion rings was requested and the servers was nice enough to  bring some at no extra charge.   They were crispy with a touch of sweet onion inside.

One the evening’s specials was a New York strip steak that was grilled then coated with a parmesan crust and served with a 5 pepper cognac sauce.  Also on the plate were air roasted fingerling potatoes and shredded Brussells sprouts.  I like my meat rare with a warm center which in many steakhouses is a med-rare order.  I chose to stay with rare even though the server said it could be cold in the center because you can always cook more but you can’t undo and it’s unusual to be too undercooked.  Go with the rare here cause it was plenty warm and more a med-rare cook in my book.  That said it was delicious beef.  The server said they only serve prime cuts and the tenderness and juiciness of the meat would validate that claim.  I didn’t really tasted the parmeasan layer but the sauce was delightful.  We both liked it better than either of the ones with the tenderloin.  The server called this one a plate packed with flavor and he was right.  It came topped with the tobacco onion rings which added flavor and crunch.  The potatoes were a mix of colors and delicious and cooked perfectly.  The shredded Brussels were even more of a surprise  as they were very tasty, not a hint of bitterness.  Cooked enough to make them tender but not cooked to mush.  This was a winner.

Dessert was an oral menu, but you can find written descriptions online.  However availability varies and so what is offered is on the tray that comes to the table with each described.  They looked fun but I had read that they did ice cream dessert drinks and so we tried their Brandy Alexanders.   They were made with Christian Brother’s Brandy and Créme de Cacao Dark with ice cream.  Served with a marachino cherry on top they were a disappointment.  Somehow the maker had ground ice into the ice cream which was just wrong to have all this ice in the mix.  The flavor was okay but the texture was all wrong.