Forget The Steak — Customers Rave About The Pork Chops At This Steakhouse Chain

Typically when you head out to a steakhouse, you've got beef on the mind: strips, sirloins, beautifully marbled ribeyes. After all, such restaurants specialize in these kinds of cuts. But a number of steakhouse chains also make a great pork chop. If there's one spot in which you'd want to turn your attention to that dish, it's Perry's Steakhouse and Grille. In fact, some say that at Perry's, the pork chop is really the star of the show.

What was once a modest, no-frills butcher shop in Houston, Texas, has evolved to become a mini meat-lover's empire, with locations scattered across the Southern and Mid-Western United States. And while Perry's lineup of steak offerings is no doubt popular with its customers, the eatery's famous pork chop has quite the fan club of its own. "That pork chop is a true labor of cured, roasted, slow-smoked, and caramelized love," raved one of the Reddit users who have sung its praises on the online forum. "And all that love shows, it's a brilliant hunk of meat."

Indeed, this is no thin, dried-out sliver of pork you'd find at your local diner. At Perry's, the "famous chop" (as it's actually referred to on the menu) is a three-rib masterpiece, measuring seven fingers high (a nod to how the butchers used to do it back in the day) and "so tender you could cut it [with] a spoon," as another Redditor put it.

Now, being thick and hearty is one thing, but what actually makes the pork chop at Perry's such a standout? It's all in the semi-secret approach to preparing it. Per the restaurant, the recipe has been honed over the past four decades. The meat is first rubbed with a hush-hush blend of seasonings, then cured, roasted, and slow smoked over pecan wood for up to six hours until it develops a caramelized crust. After a finishing round in the oven, the Perry's pork chop is then topped with an in-house herb-garlic butter to make its sweet and smoky flavors sing.

While you can get a slightly smaller cut as part of the chain's Pork Chop Friday lunch special, this scene-stealing dish is given a bigger spotlight during dinner service. It is carved tableside, starting with the "eyelash" (the juicy top portion above what's called the "eye" of the chop), then the loin, then the ribs. And, of course, no pork chop meal is complete without a side of apple sauce — and Perry's goes above and beyond with its homemade accouterment. Its sauce has actually been compared to the taste of apple pie, serving as the ideal complement to the chop's rich savoriness. Just be warned: This bad boy is so massive, the restaurant actually provides pork chop leftover recipes on its website for the portions you'll inevitably be taking home (if you don't split it with a dining companion or two).