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Gus's Chop House
Photograph: Courtesy of Teddy Wolff

The 13 best steakhouses in NYC

NYC's top spots serve incredibly tender chateaubriand, plus porterhouse, sirloin and rib-eye steaks.

Amber Sutherland-Namako
Written by
Amber Sutherland-Namako
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Few dining daydreams capture a corner New York City’s culinary appeal as keenly as the notion of the classic steakhouse. Bustling dining rooms lined with big, plush booths. Moody lights. Tables topped with frigid martinis martinis, perfectly paired sides and cuts you just can’t quite recreate at home. 

The New York City steakhouse can turn any occasion special, significant, or quietly distinguished. And, while we have plenty to choose from, some are simply better than the rest. So sharpen those knives for a slice of Gotham at its prime. 

RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the best restaurants in NYC

Best steakhouse in NYC

  • Restaurants
  • Korean
  • Flatiron
  • price 3 of 4

Some of New York City’s toughest tables are fixed with gleaming grills like crown jewels at Cote Korean steakhouse. This one’s design skews more sleek than plush, but its ambiance is still flattering, with scattered pops of neon light. Its butcher’s feast is the one to beat: four cuts of expertly curated meat and banchan like a best-in-class duo of stew and a positively giddy egg soufflé. 

  • Restaurants
  • Steakhouse
  • Midtown West
  • price 4 of 4

Keens is the kind of place where everybody knows its name. The 138 year-old chop of history is also almost as famous for its mutton chop, formally detailed as “our legendary mutton chop” on the menu, as it is for its titular item. The former’s fun to try, but stick with the latter, always abide by the recommended doneness and go for the creamed spinach and baked potatoes in an ornately throwback dining room that soars over the top of the genre. 

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  • Restaurants
  • Eating

The first time I visited a Hawksmoor for Sunday roast in London, where there were seven, it was a highlight of a very good trip. Years later, one would land here in NYC, in a stunning, cavernous space that’s bound to dazzle. Ours has a Sunday roast, too, with roast beef and a batch of sides for $45, or special cuts like wonderfully tender chateaubriand for an additional charge. 

  • Restaurants
  • Downtown Brooklyn

Gage & Tollner is a lot of things. One of 2021's best new restaurants. An excellent cocktail destination with a dedicated martini menu. And a fancy chop house, all inside a beautiful space.This should also  be your top pick when dining with the steakhouse-averse, as it has plenty of other excellent options to choose from. (Try the fried chicken.) And the T-bone, ribeye and NY strip are a cut above many places that amplify their steakhouse proclivities much louder. 

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  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants
  • Carroll Gardens
  • Recommended

One of the best new restaurants of 2022, Gus’s Chop House on a quaint, tree-lined brownstone Brooklyn street is ideal for nicer-than-normal nights out. It also has a surprising deal of a Sunday night roast, when items like a fantastic tri-tip, done sous vide before a sear on the plancha, is served with an abundance of sides like fries, brussels sprouts and popovers for in this cut’s case, $36. 

  • Restaurants
  • Steakhouse
  • Williamsburg
  • price 4 of 4

The place that launched a thousand takes, guess what, Luger is perfectly fine and good, and if you’re going to take your visiting in-laws out for steak, and you must choose between here and a less-known, maybe even slightly technically better spot, it’s gonna be Luger time, every time, baby. Pick the house dry-aged steak of your preference, skip the sliced tomatoes and onions and instead choose from salads and sides like the Caesar and potatoes a few ways. 

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  • Restaurants
  • Steakhouse
  • Midtown West
  • price 4 of 4

Another oldie, Gallagher’s first opened as an actual speakeasy at this very address in 1927. Once alcohol was made legal, they added meat to the mix and it was a hit. Enjoy legal libations with your steaks, chops, and a long list of alternatives, snap a selfie outside its famed meat window, and have a look at its timeline should you happen to be a film producer looking for your next project. 

  • Restaurants
  • Steakhouse
  • Williamsburg
  • price 2 of 4

This Brooklyn spot is terrific in its own right, and it's also the one that everyone’s friend who likes to cleverly degenerate other famous and beloved competitors in an effort to demonstrate their own—I don’t know, superior credibility?—says they’d rather visit. Leave them behind in any case to better enjoy St. Anselem’s grilled fare and cozy, brick-lined environs. 

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  • Restaurants
  • Steakhouse
  • Chelsea
  • price 4 of 4

This 1868-vintage, one-time dockworkers’ chophouse, is not only also one of the best restaurants in Chelsea and top bachelor’s party dinner destination, it also recently peddled the most excellent ad campaign since those Grand Prospect Hall commercials. Its interior is dated closer to the 1980s in appearance, but pleasant enough to study the lengthy menu in comfort. 

This is the second location for Sparks, which got its start down on 18th Street in 1966. Its midtown move wasn’t until 1977, and notoriety arrived eight years later a mob hit occurred outside its doors. In spite of its macabre distinction, Sparks has still made frequent appearances on lists such as this over the years, and today its menu still transcends its charmingly dated space. 

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  • Restaurants
  • Steakhouse
  • Tribeca
  • price 4 of 4

Wolfgang’s eponymous owner worked at Peter Luger for many years before opening his own midtown steakhouse in 2004, followed by this offshoot in an ordinary, restaurant-looking space with notable steaks. There are now seven operating in NYC and beyond, all absent all the noise of its proprietors alma mater, this one serving thick, juicy and nicely charred steaks that never finish second best.  

  • Restaurants
  • Steakhouse
  • Upper West Side
  • price 4 of 4

Pleasant views mingling treetops and skyscrapers await from some seats at this somewhat stuffy, highly expense account appropriate restaurant in the big mall at Columbus Circle. Its open for lunch and dinner with all the adeptly executed items of expectation, and if I were like a high-powered (and paid) finance type (is that still the money getting one?), I’d totally be here at least twice a week.

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  • Restaurants
  • Steakhouse
  • East Village
  • price 2 of 4

As midtown as downtown gets, Bowery Meat Company has a lot of the proclivities of its counterparts a few dozen blocks north with a bit more of a relaxed air. It still isn’t cheap, though, so you’re just paying about the same-to-slightly-more as anywhere of its ilk for similarly good sourcing and preparation, plus a wider variety of starters and sides (king pao duck wings, shishito peppers) than you’ll see elsewhere. 

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