America's 50 Best Steakhouses 2015

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 50 best.

One of America's oldest restaurants (and the oldest in Denver), the Buckhorn Exchange was opened by Henry "Shorty Scout" Zietz opened in 1893, an era when cattlemen, miners, railroad workers, silver barons, Indian chiefs, drifters, and businessmen all dined under the same roof. The restaurant was given the first liquor license in the state of Colorado and the menu remains mostly unchanged to this day. The Buckhorn is a true Wild West holdout, with its circa-1857 antique bar, wooden fixtures, 575-piece taxidermy collection, 125-piece gun collection, and a menu that reflects that good ol' American desire to eat some red meat. For those who really want to celebrate being on top of the food chain, there are plenty of exotic meats on offer, including elk, quail, and buffalo (and sometimes ostrich and yak). But if you're in the mood for UDSA Prime steak, we suggest you go for The Big Steak, a New York strip loin carved tableside and available for two (two pounds) to five (four pounds) guests. 

Richard Chamberlain — the chef, not the actor — opened this classy Texas meat emporium in 1993, and the place has thrived ever since. Unconventionally for a steakhouse, the appetizer lists includes such exotica as sweet potato soup with spiced almonds and maple mascarpone; lobster deviled eggs with caramelized bacon and chive cream; and crisp duck "cigars" with smoked cheese fondue and green chile salsa. But there are also 18 different steaks and chops (counting various sizes and sauces), from a six-ounce filet mignon to a 10-ounce American-raised Kobe New York strip, as well as some seafood choices, half a dozen salads (the baby iceberg with bacon, tomatoes, onions, and creamy blue cheese dressing is a classic), and a dozen-plus side dishes ranging from wild mushroom mac and cheese to Vermont Cheddar steak fries to crispy Brussels sprouts. If you go home hungry from Chamberlain's, you're just not trying.

In a town known for great steak, Jess & Jim's stands apart from the pack, and did so even before Calvin Trillin put it on the map in 1972, when he named it one of the country's best steakhouses in Playboy. Family owned and operated since 1938, this no-frills, casual steakhouse is no pomp and all steak. The beef is from Wichita-based Sterling Silver, and is hand-cut daily (trimmings are ground into meat for world-class burgers). It's served completely seasoning-free, all the better to taste the meat in its unadorned glory. You could go for the KC strip, a cut that this restaurant helped to popularize, but you might as well go all out and order the "Playboy Strip," named in honor of the publication that helped make this place famous: a two-inch-thick, 25-ounce sirloin. Save room for the twice-baked potato. 

The first thing you'll notice about the cozy and comfortable Brother Sebastian's is that it looks like a monastery, right down to the staff, who are costumed in monk's garb and occasionally break out in Gregorian chant. Theme gimmickry aside, however, this steakhouse, which opened in 1977, is one of the best in a city that has no shortage of them. The menu has changed little over the years. Steaks are USDA Choice, and the menu is about as old-school as it gets, with tried and true dishes including escargots, carpaccio, frog's legs, and chicken cordon bleu. But the restaurant isn't stuck in time — it's turning out faithful renditions of classic fine dining fare. Steaks include slow-cooked prime rib, New York strip, filet Oscar (topped with crab, asparagus, and hollandaise), chateaubriand for two, and a 22-ounce porterhouse. Prices are incredibly reasonable (most steaks cost less than $30), and if you're looking for a true throwback experience, you can even top your meal off with baked Alaska or cherries jubilee. 

This SOMA steakhouse (with additional locations in Cupertino, Pasadena, and Taipei) is unique and exciting, with plenty of Japanese influence, and every item is impeccably sourced. Where else can you find Wagyu beef from an astounding 11 different farms sharing a menu with uni toast, pastrami beef cheek, and veal sweetbreads with scallops, yellow wax beans, and braised tendon? If you're not feeling particularly adventurous, there are plenty of traditional offerings as well, from dry-aged T-bone to a 20-ounce prime rib. 

Located in a former Clorox factory in up-and-coming Inman Park, Kevin Rathbun's steakhouse is part of an empire that also includes Rathbun's and Krog Bar, all located on the same street. At his spacious, whimsically appointed steakhouse, Rathbun serves steakhouse classics like escargots, seafood towers, dry-aged porterhouse for two and three, a 22-ounce cowboy ribeye, and 16-ounce New York strips, but there's also a wide selection of items that you don't see on most steakhouse menus, like Coca-Cola baby back pork ribs, eggplant fries, lobster fritters, ahi tuna poke, and Asian-style meatballs. If you go twice, order whatever you like. But if you go once, get the steak; we'd recommend that cowboy ribeye. 

Las Vegas has no shortage of glitzy, glamorous steakhouses in big-name resort casinos helmed by even bigger-named chefs, but old-school Vegas steakhouses are still going strong off The Strip, and none are better than Golden Steer, which has consistently been serving excellent steaks since 1958. The building is as unassuming as it gets, while the dining room, with its wood-paneled walls, red leather banquettes, and framed paintings of the Old West, will transport you back in time. So will the menu. All the throwback steakhouse appetizer staples like oysters Rockefeller, clams casino, escargots, tableside Caesar salad, and stuffed mushroom caps are available, in tried and true preparations that haven't changed in decades. Lamb chops are even served with mint jelly and a pineapple ring. But while it's all decidedly retro, one bite of the USDA Prime, dry-aged steak makes it clear that they're not playing around. Their 22-ounce bone-in ribeye, 24-ounce "Diamond Jim Cut" prime rib, 20-ounce T-bone, 16-ounce New York strip, and 12-ounce filet mignon (which the menu amazingly calls "The Aristocrat of Tenderness") can easily compete with any of the big guys on The Strip.

The poet Carl Sandburg called Chicago the "Hog Butcher for the World," but its famous stockyards were long known as a source of great beef, too. Since 1941 this old-style Italian-flavored steakhouse (start your meal with Italian sausage and peppers, minestrone, or fried ravioli) has done beef proud. The steaks are broiled and dependably good; the bone-in filet mignon is not to be missed. A huge choice of non-steak items, including more than a dozen pastas and a fair amount of fish, is also served.

The flagship restaurant inside the National Historic Landmark Mission Inn Hotel & Spa, Duane's Prime in an opulent and sophisticated place (it has been awarded four diamonds by AAA every year since 1996) that serves wet-aged USDA prime steaks as well as a wide selection of fresh seafood. The chateaubriand for two, carved tableside, is the way to go if you're on a date, but other attractive offerings include grilled ribeye and filet mignon, a 20-ounce rib chop, classic steak Diane, and a trio of filet medallions. "Keepers of the Inn" Duane and Kelly Roberts will make sure that you're in good hands. You just need to make sure to save room for the chocolate soufflé with chocolate Grand Marnier sauce. 

A zig-zagging white-and-black floor and ample Art Deco touches greet you upon entering Osso, a Nob Hill newcomer that takes its steaks very seriously. How seriously? Steaks are "dry-aged four to six weeks in a large, specialized facility that provides a sanitized and closely monitored environment; the temperature must be maintained at 33-34 degrees (F), the humidity must be precisely 82%, and there must also be a constant air flow of fifteen feet per second around the open meat at all times, all of which takes place under the watchful eye of a highly-skilled butcher." If you order the porterhouse, the filet and strip are separated and cooked separately to ensure they're both perfect.   

Setting foot into St. Elmo is like stepping back in time ­— to 1902 to be exact. The saloon-style décor hasn't changed save for a '90s-era expansion, and neither has the menu: There's a wide selection of wet-aged steaks and chops, a classic shrimp cocktail with sinus-clearing cocktail sauce and saltines, a wedge salad, and a loaded baked potato, all served with the professionalism you'd expect from a place that's been doing it for more than 100 years (one waiter has been on-staff since 1976). St. Elmo is steakhouse-meets-comfort food, an inviting place where time really stands still. That commitment to keeping the past alive doesn't mean that quality suffers, however; the menu proudly displays the names of 17 local sources for the food served.

One of the better "chef's steakhouses" around, this warmly furnished Time Warner Center restaurant, with its romantic views of Central Park, lets culinary veteran Michael Lomonaco have fun with a meaty menu whose choices range from roasted beef marrow bones with toast and filet mignon steak tartare to grilled skirt steak with Argentine chimichurri sauce and chile-rubbed 45-day-aged Brandt ribeye. Homemade kettle-cooked potato chips are among the ample side dish options. There are also plenty of good wines on offer.

It's been 30 years since Gambino Family crime boss Paul Castellano and an associate were shot to death outside Sparks, but martini-swilling first-timers can still be heard here joking about preferring to sit in "the no-shooting section." Well, never mind. Sparks is a great, old-fashioned steakhouse in the classic Manhattan style. The atmosphere is unmistakably masculine, the service is friendly-brusque, and the wine list is an anthology of California cabernet sauvignons, red Burgundies and Bordeaux, and other reds, plus a decent selection of whites, at prices that are often very fair.

With locations in West Hollywood and Santa Monica, BOA is bold, colorful, and modern to the max. Steaks include a 40-day dry-aged New York strip and a 21-day dry-aged ribeye, and all are served with your choice of rubs and sauces. But the offerings don't stop there: The seafood platter is legendary, there's a wide selection of seafood, and the tableside steak tartare is about as classic as it gets. 

Going strong for more than 50 years, Plaza III hails itself as "the gold standard of Kansas City steaks," and it may just be right. The no-frills dining room hasn't changed much over the years, serving as a simple backdrop to the corn-fed, USDA Prime steaks that are aged for up to 28 days in specially-designed meat lockers. Prime rib is thick-cut and served with a roasted rib bone; strip steaks come topped with Roquefort or brandy cream sauce; the ribeye, porterhouse, and T-bone are all perfectly cooked; and the Kansas City strip is, as expected, a knockout. Whatever you do, make sure you start your meal with their famous steak soup, made with coarse-ground chuck. 

This L.A. classic, open in its original downtown location since 1921 (there is a newer offshoot in Santa Monica), serves prime dry-aged corn-fed beef in eight or nine cuts, with various accompaniments (including a choice of six sauces), along with the usual steakhouse offerings of shrimp cocktail, various salads, and pretty good seafood. The "baseball cut," a particularly thick slab of aged top sirloin, is the apotheosis here. The wine list is a knockout, full of trophy bottles with names like Opus One and Penfolds Grange, but also a number of very drinkable choices that mere mortals can afford. 

Dark woods, potted palms, chandeliers, bookshelves, and deep Chesterfield-style booths immediately let you know that Harris' Steakhouse, a San Francisco landmark since 1984, means business. Dry-aged steaks are sourced from the Midwest's best farms and butchered in-house, and popular dishes include the Harris steak (a thick-cut bone-in strip), prime rib, and classic steak Diane. Start your meal off right with a martini and Gulf prawn cocktail, and strap in for a timeless steakhouse experience.

Perini Ranch proprietor Tom Perini is a living legend in Texas, where his eponymous ranch, steakhouse, and guest quarters are tiny Buffalo Gap's claim to fame. A master of cowboy cuisine, his burger is the stuff of legends (and one of America's best) and his Angus steaks — seasoned with a proprietary rub and grilled over mesquite coals — are well worth the trek. Thankfully, you can purchase that rub (as well as an entire mesquite-smoked peppered beef tenderloin) online. 

Even though it might look like a roadhouse from the outside, once you set foot inside the surprisingly elegant Killen's Steakhouse you'll know that you're in for a world-class steakhouse experience. Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef Ronnie Killen opened the restaurant in the outskirts of Houston in 2006, and it's since been hailed as one of the top steakhouses in the state by innumerable publications. It's one of the few restaurants in the country that has separate menu sections for wet-aged and dry-aged steaks, which are sourced from Allen Brothers in Chicago and Strube Ranch in Pittsburg, Texas. Options include a 34-ounce dry-aged long bone-in ribeye, a Mishima center-cut filet, and even a chicken-fried sirloin. As another nod to the Lone Star State, the menu also includes fried chicken, jumbo fried Gulf shrimp, and smoked pork and black-eyed pea gumbo. Be sure to save room for the crème brûlée bread pudding, which Food & Wine Magazine named one of the top 10 dishes in the United States in 2008. 

Having conquered Spanish cuisine both traditional and avant-garde, the cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean, historical American fare, and both the Mexican-Chinese and Chinese-Peruvian idioms, what was the ceaselessly energetic José Andrés going to tackle next? Hmmmm. How about, oh, I don't know, meat? At this Sin City venture, Andrés includes plenty of Spanish tastes as well as an extensive raw bar and "meat from the sea" (fish to you), but while pedants might argue that this isn't exactly a steakhouse, the focus is appropriately meaty. A menu of carpaccio, tartares, cured meats, and, yes, serious beef rib steaks from California, Oregon, and Washington, including a chateaubriand from the Golden State's Brandt Beef, served with truffle sauce and pommes soufflés, Bazaar Meat can provide pretty much all the meat you need when you're out on the town. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.