Where's the Beef? America’s Best Steakhouses
Photo by Getty Images. Design by Lauren DeLuca for Yahoo Travel.
By: Dan Myers
From grand Las Vegas carnivore temples helmed by world-famous chefs to old-school Middle-American chophouses where a ribeye is preceded by a visit to the salad bar, from clubby Chicago dining rooms loaded with mahogany and brass to New York institutions with now-household names, America has no shortage of great steakhouses. These are the 10 of the best.
Toe see a complete list of the 50 best steakhouses in America, visit The Daily Meal.
10. Cattlemen’s Steakhouse, Oklahoma City
(Photo: Cattlemen’s Steakhouse/Facebook)
Not to be confused with Cattleman’s Steakhouse down in Texas or any of the other restaurants with the same name across the country, this 104-year-old gem, located in the heart of famed Stockyards City, is Oklahoma City’s oldest continually operating restaurant. The no-frills temple to the noble steer is as popular with cowboy-hatted locals as it is with former president George H. W. Bush when he’s in town. One look at what’s on everybody’s plate — beef, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner — will tell you what this place is all about, as will the giant illuminated photo of grazing cattle along the back wall. The beef here is sourced locally, aged “according to a closely guarded house secret,” the website says, portioned out on-premises, broiled under an intense charcoal fire, and served with natural jus. Go for the T-bone after your appetizer of lamb fries (don’t be afraid, they’re good), and finish it off with a slice of homemade pie. Now that’s a country steak dinner we hang our hat on.
9. Pappas Bros. Steakhouse, Dallas and Houston
(Photo: Pappas Bros./Facebook)
If you’re in Dallas or Houston and you find yourself in need of a perfect steak, a red leather booth, wood-paneled walls, and a wine list that boasts about 2,300 options, head over to Pappas Bros. At this shrine to beef, which has repeatedly been lauded as one of the state’s best restaurants since it opened in 1976, the meat is dry-aged in-house, and served bone-in or bone-out. There’s something for everyone, from a 40-ounce porterhouse carved tableside down to an eight-ounce filet mignon, with stops along the way including an 18-ounce bone-in New York strip and a ribeye of Texas Akaushi Kobe beef. They’re seasoned with just salt and pepper and finished with some butter. The entire experience is about as classic steakhouse as you’re likely to find.
8. Red, Miami and Cleveland
(Photo: Red/Facebook)
With two locations in Cleveland and one in Miami, Red is stylish, classy, and just about everything you look for in a steakhouse. Steaks are certified Angus and there are plenty of traditional classics like oysters, French onion soup, and shrimp cocktail, but you’ll also find unique offerings like a free-range veal chop stuffed with foie gras, mushrooms, and fontina as well as Italian options like lobster fra diavolo and linguine with clam sauce. Their off-menu surf & turf, which pairs an herb-brushed tomahawk ribeye with a king-crab-stuffed 16-ounce lobster tail, also might just be America’s best. High-rollers, take note: If you want to top your steak with seared foie gras with black truffle demi-glace, nobody will stop you.
Related: Beef Up with the Best Burgers in America
7. Craftsteak, Las Vegas
Part of TV star and famously good cook Tom Colicchio’s ever-growing Craft empire, the clubby steakhouse centers its menu around eight different steaks, mostly dry-aged Angus, variously grilled or roasted, and also offers a wide choice of both domestic and Japanese Wagyu (an eight-ounce Japanese A5 Wagyu New York strip will set you back $260). More than 20 side dishes are served, including five different servings of mushrooms — a great accompaniment to good meat.
6. CarneVino, Las Vegas
Powerhouse restaurant duo Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich + steak + Vegas = greatness. CarneVino, their temple to all things beef in The Palazzo Hotel & Casino, pulls out all the stops, aging their beef for 30 to 60 days (and in some cases, more than a year — yes, there’s a section of the menu titled “Riserva”), and these steaks can compete with any other offering, anywhere. This “super prime” beef is developed especially for Batali and Bastianich’s restaurant group, and — oh, yeah — this is a Batali restaurant after all, so the pastas and other menu items certainly don’t get short shrift.
5. Barclay Prime, Philadelphia
Sure, this Stephen Starr steakhouse on Rittenhouse Square might boast a selection of as many as seven different steak knives and a $100 Wagyu ribeye and foie gras cheesesteak that comes with a half-bottle of Perrier-Jouët, but that doesn’t mean it’s gimmicky. Described as a “luxury boutique steakhouse” on its website, the restaurant replaces red leather with green and yellow suede, a clubby soundtrack, and slightly incongruous crystal chandeliers. While the setting is undoubtedly twenty-first-century, the menu is as classic as can be: Steaks are dry-aged for 28 days, and the ribeye, from New York’s Gachot & Gachot (which supplies the legendary Peter Luger Steak House in Brooklyn; see number 4), is arguably the best steak in the city — and there’s world-class service to boot. Don’t forget to order the shrimp cocktail; these monsters come four to a pound.
4. Peter Luger, New York City
(Photo: Yelp)
When you sit down at your table at the perpetually packed Peter Luger, located in an off-the-beaten-path corner of Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood, don’t ask for a menu. Just order the tomato and onion salad, some thick-cut bacon, creamed spinach, hash browns, and the steak for three, a massive porterhouse, broiled under extreme heat before being sliced and presented on a platter. Sure, the wait staff might be a bit gruff in this surprisingly casual German-styled old steakhouse that’s been here since 1887, but that’s all a part of the show. The star attraction, the steak, is among the best you’ll find in New York City. It’s dry-aged and butchered on-premises, and when it’s presented, in all its crusty, well-marbled, beefy glory, your jaw will drop. Use the house steak sauce to douse the onions and tomatoes (don’t let it anywhere near the steak), and be prepared to drop a wad of cash on the table before leaving — no credit cards accepted here, big spender.
Related: Yup, This Beef and Lobster Pie Is Worth $9,500
3. Bern’s, Tampa
(Photo: Bern’s)
Don’t come to Bern’s if you’re on a diet; Bern’s is about wonderful excess. There are 20 kinds of caviar on the menu of this big, old-style, legendary establishment. The menu also includes two preparations of foie gras, two kinds of steak tartare (one with truffles), oysters three ways, endless varieties of fish and shellfish, 16 different cheeses both domestic and imported, nearly 50 desserts (including gluten- and sugar-free varieties) — served upstairs in a special dessert room — and a list of about 7,000 wines (5,500 of them red). Oh, and did we mention steaks? Seven different cuts, in a total of 51 different sizes (from six ounces of filet mignon to 60 ounces of strip sirloin), broiled to eight different temperatures, from very rare (“no crust, cold and raw”) to, gulp, well-done (“sturdy little crust, no color, no juice, dried out”). Come hungry.
2. Keens, New York City
(Photo: Keens)
Since 1885, this New York institution has done one thing, and done it really, really well: steak. Perfectly charred steaks and chops are served in this labyrinthine shrine to old New York, which is spread over two floors and three townhouses. Before you’re served your expertly cooked, gigantic dry-aged sirloin, filet mignon, prime rib, porterhouse for two, or porterhouse for three, have a look around. There’s memorabilia from more than 100 years of New York history, including playbills, political cartoons, and photographs, as well as a collection of more than 50,000 pipes, from back when regulars, including Babe Ruth and Teddy Roosevelt, would store theirs there. If you go once, try the steak. If you go twice, try the famous mutton chop, a 26-ounce lamb saddle that’s nearly two inches thick and dates back to the restaurant’s earliest days.
1. CUT, Beverly Hills
(Photo: Beverly Wilshire Beverly Hills)
Wolfgang Puck helped invent California cuisine (and gave us California-style pizza) at Spago, pioneered Asian fusion food at Chinois on Main, and even figured out a way to produce decent airport food at his many Wolfgang Puck Express outlets, so we shouldn’t be surprised that he has also reinvented the steakhouse, with CUT in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel (there are now spin-offs in Las Vegas, London, and Singapore). The traditional red leather booths and bucolic paintings have given way to a cool white interior by rationalist architect Richard Meier and a series of pieces by conceptual artist John Baldessari. In place of iceberg wedges and grilled swordfish, look for warm veal tongue with baby artichokes and roast Maine lobster with black truffle sabayon. Oh, and the steaks? Not the usual four or five choices, but a total of 17 cuts and places of origin, from Australian filet mignon to Illinois bone-in New York sirloin to genuine Japanese Wagyu ribeye from Miyazaki Prefecture. Puck has reinvented the steakhouse experience at CUT, and what he’s done is nothing short of mind-blowing.
More from Daily Meal:
9 Foods People Eat in North Korea
10 Wacky Themed Cafés in Japan You Really Have to Visit
6 Reasons to Visit Golden, Colorado
WATCH: Zebra, Crocodile and Antelope Oh My! You Won’t Believe What’s on This Restaurant’s Menu
Let Yahoo Travel inspire you every day. Hang out with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Check out our original adventure travel series “A Broad Abroad.”
