The steakhouse (or steak house — also sometimes called a chophouse, or chop house) is America’s quintessential restaurant type. There are certainly steak-centered restaurants in other parts of the world, among them the churrascarias and other all-the-meat-you-can-eat establishments found in Brazil, Argentina, and elsewhere around South America, and some of the big American-born chains now have outposts in other countries — but the good, old-fashioned, U.S. steakhouse speaks particularly eloquently to our national dietary preferences.
For one thing, we love beef. According to World Population Review, in 2020, the last year for which data is available, we were the third-largest beef consumers in the world, eating about 81 pounds of it per capita (Argentina was in first place with 103 pounds, followed by Zimbabwe with 93). For another thing, we love abundance, and steakhouses commonly serve 12-, 16-, 24-, or 28-ounce portions and sometimes more — an amount of meat that would feed a family of four or more in most other countries.
Steakhouses are dependable choices in towns where you don’t know the dining scene. They’re almost always comfortable places, with good cocktails, good wine lists, and long menus offering not only steak but other meats as well as seafood choices and an array of mostly familiar-sounding appetizers, side dishes, and garnishes.
To compile a list of the best steakhouse in every state, 24/7 Tempo consulted reviews and ratings published by scores of city, regional, and state websites, extrapolating a shortlist of the most acclaimed establishments, then using editorial discretion to make our final choices. With a few exceptions, explained below, we have not included chain operations.
Some of the restaurants on this list have been around since the first half of the 20th century. Some are only a few years old. All of them take special care in sourcing their beef, with many of them aging the meat in-house and cutting it to order. Some patronize local or regional ranchers, while many source wagyu (beef from specific breeds of Japanese cattle) raised here, in Australia, or in Japan itself. (The latter can be stunningly expensive.) Most offer traditional accouterments (oysters, shrimp cocktail, Caesar salad, baked potatoes, creamed spinach, etc.) but increasingly, steakhouses are expanding the possibilities to showcase regional or international specialties. Some even offer sushi as an appetizer.
While we have picked out what we believe to be the best, the truth is that almost any steakhouse, and especially the individually owned ones, will probably give you an excellent dining experience. (A handful of steakhouses are included in our list of the best fine dining restaurant in every state.)
Scroll down to read about the best steakhouse in every state.
Alabama: George’s Steak Pit
- Location: Sheffield
Founded in 1956 and run by the same family until a couple of years ago, this regional favorite prides itself in grilling its seafood and steaks over hickory in an open pit. A prime T-bone is the specialty cut, and there are also such variations as a tenderloin beef kabob and both steak and shrimp or lobster and steak and chicken combos — as well as a ground sirloin steak, ground in-house daily from ribeye and filet trimmings.
Alaska: Club Paris
- Location: Anchorage
Open since the late 1950s in a building that once housed a funeral parlor and a furniture store, Club Paris serves Alaskan seafood (including an Alaskan halibut fingers appetizer) but considers steaks to be the house specialty. Their signature is a 14-ounce filet mignon — but, warns the menu, “The house cannot guarantee the quality and tenderness of steaks ordered well done.”
Arizona: The Stockyards
- Location: Phoenix
Cattle baron Edward A. Tovrea opened a packing house in Phoenix in 1919, and his operation eventually grew to include what was then the world’s largest cattle feedlot. In 1947, his son and daughter-in-law opened this restaurant, initially meant to feed packing house workers. It grew into a landmark for the entire city, and today is famous for its 18-ounce, bone-in Delmonico, among other steaks, and for related specialties like a Chateaubriand for two, grilled elk medallions, and bison meatloaf.
Arkansas: Arthur’s Prime Steakhouse
- Location: Little Rock
Three kinds of premium beef are featured at this clubby establishment — USDA prime, dry-aged for 28 days in-house; Australian-raised wagyu; and expensive-but-worth-it certified Japanese Kobe (priced by the ounce). The prime New York strip is a classic. There are also numerous steakhouse-style appetizers and sides, plus more than half a dozen seafood choices.
California: Niku Steakhouse
- Location: San Francisco
A steakhouse with a Michelin star, Niku features Japanese, Australian, and American wagyu, dry-aged in-house and cooked on a wood-fired grill. (Occasionally the rare Kagawa olive wagyu, from cattle fed on toasted olive pulp, is available.) The unusual appetizers include Dungeness crab tacos, black truffle gnudi with chicken and lardo sausage, and crispy pig’s ears with caramelized fish sauce.
Colorado: Guard and Grace
- Location: Denver
Chef Troy Guard opened this elegant steakhouse, with wraparound floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on the city, in 2014 (Grace is his daughter). The menu offers prime steaks, including a bone-in tomahawk ribeye, as well as grass-fed and wagyu alternatives (there is also a filet flight, with 4-ounce portions of filet mignon from all three categories). One steak-related dish is a wagyu short rib with huckleberry barbecue sauce. (Guard opened a second location in Houston in 2019.)
Connecticut: Gabriele’s Italian Steakhouse
- Location: Westport
At this fancy restaurant, transplanted several years ago from its original home in Greenwich, you’ll find seafood towers, Caesar salad, pan-seared salmon, and the like, along with an Italian accent expressed through things like burrata with prosciutto and pappardelle bolognese. But this all leads up to what the menu hails as “The Steak Experience.” That means a choice of seven different cuts (plus a veal chop), dry-aged for 28 days and seasoned with sea salt and crushed black pepper, with available sauces including truffle butter and chimichurri.
Delaware: 1776 Steakhouse
- Location: Rehoboth Beach
This longtime local favorite reopened in 2007 under new ownership, with steak very much front and center. In fact, the menu stresses that “We are extremely passionate about our beef!” and that “Our custom aging process ensures that our hand selected beef sets an industry standard….” Among the choices is a 10-ounce “barrel” — the eye of the ribeye, described as “uniquely ours.”
Florida: Bern’s Steak House
- Location: Tampa
The late Bern and Gert Laxer started out by buying a little luncheonette in 1953 and, through a series of adventures and misadventures, ended up with a steakhouse seating 350 guests in eight dining rooms, now run by their son. The immense menu includes 18 kinds of caviar, a classic steak tartare, and 15 different cuts and sizes of dry-aged prime beef, broiled over charcoal. The steaks are cut to order, and customers also have the option of specifying a cut or size that isn’t listed. The wine list is famous, with scores of examples available by the glass, and the dessert menu — served upstairs in a room lined with wine casks — goes on forever.
Georgia: Kevin Rathbun Steak
- Location: Atlanta
James Beard Award-winning chef Kevin Rathbun (his brother, Kent, is also a noted chef) established this offshoot of his Rathbun’s in 2007. Unusual appetizers here include lobster fritters and a smoked salmon and caviar blini, and the steaks are either USDA prime or Australian wagyu. There’s also an offering of steak frites and a double-patty prime burger with bacon and cheddar.
Hawaii: Ya-Ya’s Chophouse and Seafood
- Location: Honolulu
The atmosphere is casual here, with cartoony murals on the walls and bare tabletops, but the appealing appetizers (seafood ceviche, Maine lobster cocktail, foie gras with ginger vinaigrette, etc.) lead into serious steaks, including a 16-ounce filet mignon with peppercorn sauce, a 30-day-dry-aged NY strip, and a 5-ounce portion of A5 Nagasaki wagyu with (the menu promises) “extreme marbling.”
Idaho: Chandler’s Prime Steaks & Seafood
- Location: Boise
While this luxurious restaurant is known for fresh fish and shellfish flown in from Alaska and Hawaii, it also features more than a dozen steaks, including Midwestern corn-fed beef and various grades of wagyu from the U.S., Australia, and Japan. The Snake River American wagyu bull’s eye ribeye (cut from the heart of the rib) is one example. The restaurant also sells hand-cut raw steaks to take home.
Illinois: Bazaar Meat
- Location: Chicago
Among famed chef and humanitarian José Andrés’s many restaurants are three dubbed Bazaar Meat (the other two are in Los Angeles and Las Vegas). At this luxurious location, as at the others, both traditional and avant-garde Spanish dishes are part of the menu — from the finest Jabugo ham and chicken croquetas to cotton candy foie gras and spherified olives. But steaks are the focus. These include Hyōgo Prefecture Kobe eye of the rib (at $65 an ounce!), American wagyu from Texas and Oregon, and California-raised “vaca vieja” (old cow), a particularly flavorful steak from 8-to-10-year-old Holsteins.
Indiana: St. Elmo Steak House
- Location: Indianapolis
An Indianapolis tradition since it began as a tavern in 1902, St. Elmo proposes only one appetizer other than salads: the “world famous” shrimp cocktail. There are nine different steaks, some of them dry-aged prime, plus a bone-in prime rib. They’re served with a choice of navy bean soup or tomato juice and a side (baked or mashed potatoes, fries, or green beans).
Iowa: Archie’s Waeside
- Location: Le Mars
The late Archie Jackson, a packing-house veteran, opened his restaurant in 1949, and his descendants are still in charge. There are nine steaks on the menu (10 counting the “hamburger steak”), including Archie’s Special, an aged sirloin, and the Benny Weiker, a 16- to 18-ounce “well aged” tenderloin. Dinners include a tossed salad, a relish tray, and a choice of baked or hash brown potatoes or fries — but it’s worth ordering the onion rings, “our specialty!”
Kansas: 6S Steakhouse
- Location: Wichita
With its striking modern architecture, this upscale restaurant has been a conversation piece around town. The beef is mostly Black Angus from Kansas’s own Creekstone Farms, with a number of cuts available — for instance, Rodney’s Prime, a 16-ounce prime strip steak with a three-peppercorn rub. Among the sides, the whipped potatoes, baked potato, or mac n’ cheese can all be enhanced with crab or lobster.
Kentucky: Rodney’s on Broadway
- Location: Georgetown
There’s a subtle elegance to the look at chef Rodney Jones’s restaurant, which occupies an old brick mansion, and the food is old-school but beautifully prepared and served. This is the place for familiar dishes like iceberg wedge salad, baked artichoke dip, grilled Maine lobster tail, and above all USDA prime steaks, including a 20-ounce bone-in ribeye.
Louisiana: Ruth’s Chris Steak House
- Location: New Orleans
Yes, Ruth’s Chris is a chain — a large one, with more than 150 locations, including units in some 21 countries — but this is where it all began, when single mom Ruth Fertel mortgaged her house to buy the 60-seat Chris Steak House. It burned down in a fire in 1976, and when she reopened in a new location, she added her own name to the place. She designed an 1800-degree broiler to cook her steaks and decided to serve them on a platter sizzling with butter. Fertel sold what had become a thriving chain in 1999 and died a few years later, and Ruth’s Chris is now owned by Darden Restaurants (Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, etc.). The USDA prime steaks are still superb, though (the 16-ounce bone-in aged filet is a must), and there’s a special resonance to enjoying them in the town where the whole thing started.
Maine: Nick’s Steakhouse
- Location: York
Australian-born Nick Foley managed Capital Grille and Del Frisco’s steakhouse locations in Boston before moving to southern coastal Maine and launching this place of his own. Half a dozen steaks are available, including a 24-ounce prime porterhouse, and there’s also a braised Australian wagyu brisket and — if you must — a cauliflower steak with lemon truffle sauce.
Maryland: Lewnes’ Steakhouse
- Location: Annapolis
The Lewnes family, immigrants from Greece, opened the ancestor of this place in 1921 and have run it ever since, as it grew into a major steakhouse. Using beef “selected from sources such as 4-H clubs and Future Farmers of America, where the animals are pampered and cared for on an individual basis,” the restaurant serves seven different steaks, from an 8-ounce petit filet to a 40-ounce tomahawk ribeye. An Aegean-style shrimp appetizer and “Spiro’s famous Greek salad’ are reminders of the founders’ origin.
Massachusetts: The Bancroft
- Location: Burlington
A modern-style steakhouse that calls itself “edgy and urban,” The Bancroft acknowledges its New England location with such starters as lobster and smoked haddock stew and fried Ipswich whole belly clams. The steaks come in seven variations, not counting a skirt steak with charred avocado and chipotle butter. Hot Roquefort butter and red wine salt are among the garnishes offered.
Michigan: London Chop House
- Location: Detroit
This Detroit institution opened in 1938, quickly becoming known as the city’s premier restaurant, often compared to New York’s legendary “21” Club. It didn’t survive changing tastes and changing times, though, and shut down in 1991. Happily, new owners reopened it in 2012 and it is flourishing again, exuding comfortable old-style glamour and offering a menu that includes such dishes as oysters Rockefeller, crab bisque, and braised short ribs, as well as seven different prime or wagyu steaks, double-cut Australian lamb chops, and a Limousin veal chop.
Minnesota: Murray’s
- Location: Minneapolis
Located in a downtown building dating from the 1880s and family-run for generations, Murray’s serves the kinds of appetizers steakhouse-lovers expect (crab cakes, stuffed mushrooms, oysters Rockefeller, wedge salad), as well as a few seafood and other non-steak dishes — but steak is the thing. The house signature is the Silver Butter Knife Steak for Two, a 28-ounce strip sirloin carved tableside. All the steaks are cut in-house and aged for at least 28 days, and they come with a choice of Caesar salad or French onion soup and mashed, baked, or au gratin potatoes.
Mississippi: Doe’s Eat Place
- Location: Greenville
Like Ruth’s Chris, Doe’s has grown from a single unit into a chain — in this case with about a dozen franchised locations across six states — but this is the original, opened in 1941 as a grocery store and Blacks-only honky tonk by Dominick “Big Doe” Signa and gradually evolved into a steak-centric restaurant. Doe’s has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places and named one of America’s Classics by the James Beard Foundation. Diners enter through the kitchen (where the honky tonk used to be), where they can see the oversized T-bones, ribeyes, filets, and other steaks being pan-fried in cast iron skillets. A few other options are available, but the essential appetizer is a serving of Mississippi-style tamales.
Missouri: Stock Hill
- Location: Kansas City
At this two-level, 14,000-square-foot restaurant in the old Kansas City Board of Trade building, chef Jacob Hilbert sources meat from ranches around the Midwest, and serves Australian and Japanese as well as American wagyu. There’s also a daily changing selection of prime steaks dry-aged in-house. Steak-adjacent offerings include wagyu tartare and meatballs, wagyu sausage ragout, and an old-fashioned steak Diane — a prime filet flambéed with cognac.
Montana: Buffalo Block Prime Steakhouse
- Location: Billings
Steak is the star at this Western-themed establishment — specifically prime beef, either wet-aged for 30 days or dry-aged for 40, then wood-grilled. (There’s also a wet-aged bison ribeye.) Among the unusual first courses are buffalo tenderloin carpaccio and a wild game sampler that includes rattlesnake and rabbit sausage and a small elk filet, and there’s a popular burger made with a house blend of filet and bacon.
Nebraska: The Committee Chophouse
- Location: Omaha
This popular establishment owes its name to a group of Blackstone’s Hotel bigwigs who once met regularly for a food-fueled poker game, earning the nickname “The Committee.” Today’s Chophouse resides in the Cottonwood Hotel, a reinvented version of the vanished Blackstone’s. The numerous steaks on the menu include a whiskey strip (a Bourbon-marinated 16-ounce short loin), a 72-ounce “three plate” beef rib designed for two, and a beef Wellington built around a 16-ounce Chateaubriand.
Nevada: Cut by Wolfgang Puck
- Location: Las Vegas
Famed celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck has, in addition to countless other restaurants in many styles and many places, seven manifestations of his Cut steakhouse — this one, plus others in Beverly Hills, New York City, Washington, D.C., London, Singapore, and Bahrain. Las Vegas is full of great steakhouses, but this one has a style and confident consistency that puts it at the top. Among the menu offerings: American wagyu sashimi, both dry- and wet-aged prime beef from various states, Snake River Farms wagyu from Idaho, three examples of Australia’s Stone Axe wagyu, private reserve “Snow Beef” wagyu from Hokkaido Prefecture ($300 for a six-ounce NY strip), and even a Hokkaido Prefecture wagyu burger.
New Hampshire: Library Restaurant
- Location: Portsmouth
Built in 1785 as a private home and opened as a hotel in 1833, with a dining room later added, the historic brick structure known as Rockingham House was bought by developers in 1973 and converted to condominiums, with this restaurant installed in 1975. Steaks include prime filet mignon, NY strip, and bone-in ribeye, pasture-raised Alberta sirloin, and Australian sirloin strip. There are also wagyu meatballs and wagyu tenderloin carpaccio.
New Jersey: Steakhouse 85 Restaurant
- Location: New Brunswick
Billing itself as the “official steakhouse of Rutgers athletics,” this establishment opened in 2008, with beef as “the back bone of our menu.” Steaks are seared on a 1200-degree cast iron grill, then finished by broiling. Eight different cuts are listed on the menu, along with two surf and turf variations and a Black Angus burger. The showpiece is a 26-ounce tomahawk bone-in rib chop, dry-aged for 28 days, and crusted with a garlic-blue cheese rub and a cabernet bordelaise.
New Mexico: The Bull Ring Steakhouse
- Location: Santa Fe
Opened next to the state capitol building as a restaurant serving the local political and business communities almost three-quarters of a century ago, the Bull Ring was taken over by restaurateur Harry Georgeades in 1995. He moved it to new quarters nearby and shifted its focus to one thing: beef. Nine different sizes and cuts of steak are on the menu, including El Matador — a 14-ounce prime strip loin dry-aged for at least 30 days, served with green chiles, sautéed mushrooms, and onion straws. The steaks are presented Ruth’s Chris style, sizzling in butter on hot plates. This being New Mexico, red or green chile stew, made with prime beef, is one of the sides.
New York: Keens Steakhouse
- Location: New York City
An institution founded in 1885, Keens is famous above all for two things: its collection of long-stem clay pipes, kept there for members of the early 20th-century Pipe Club (among them Babe Ruth, Teddy Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, and “Buffalo Bill” Cody) and now on display; and “our legendary mutton chop” — which these days isn’t actually mutton, meat from older sheep, but more conventional lamb. There are steaks aplenty too, though, including a dry-aged prime porterhouse for two or three people and a filet mignon and Maine lobster combo.
North Carolina: Angus Barn
- Location: Raleigh
Opened in 1960 in, yes, a big red barn on a hilltop, Angus Barn burned to the ground four years later. It was immediately reconstructed, however, larger and more efficiently designed, and remains in the family of one of the founders. Nine steaks, plus a prime rib and a filet kabob, are on the menu. The aged 42-ounce bone-in tomahawk is “recommended for 2, or a challenge for 1.” Another specialty is the espresso-rubbed filet mignon, served over blue cheese mashed potatoes with a red wine and chile reduction.
North Dakota: Harry’s Steakhouse
- Location: Grand Forks
This unabashedly 1940s-style steakhouse is named after a restaurant and liquor store that once occupied the same site, run by “Happy Harry” Gershman, father of Hal Gershman — owner of today’s steakhouse. Starters like shrimp cocktail, escargots, and Caesar salad and sides including creamed spinach, button mushrooms with sherry cream sauce, and hash browns with blue cheese and applewood-smoked bacon are apt surroundings for the baseball sirloin, bone-in ribeye, and six other steaks, all aged for at least 21 days. Sourced from ranches around the Midwest, the beef comes from humanely raised 1881 Hereford cattle.
Ohio: The Top Steak House
- Location: Columbus
This locally owned vintage-1955 restaurant has a Midwestern supper club vibe, and in keeping with that feeling, offers classic cocktails and nightly piano music as well as an accessibly attractive menu. The char-broiled steaks include a NY strip, a bacon-wrapped filet mignon, and a porterhouse, and among the signature sides are truffle mac n’ cheese, roasted asparagus with hollandaise, and a twice-baked potato.
Oklahoma: Cattlemen’s Steakhouse
- Location: Oklahoma City
Quite possibly the state’s oldest restaurant, opened as Cattlemen’s Cafe in 1910 (a few years after Oklahoma attained statehood), Cattlemen’s original served ranchers and ranch hands who brought cattle into Stockyards City, a major meatpacking plant serving the East Coast. It was renamed Cattlemen’s Steakhouse in 1957. About a dozen different steaks, all Midwestern corn-fed beef, either prime or choice, are on the menu — including a chicken-fried steak as well as a T-bone that the restaurant notes “is the steak President Bush preferred when dining in Oklahoma City” (which President Bush is not specified). Steak and eggs is a choice on the breakfast menu.
Oregon: RingSide Steakhouse
- Location: Portland
Opened in 1944 and still owned by the family that launched it, RingSide cooks up choice, prime, and prime dry-aged steaks (a bone-in ribeye for two is the marquee offering) served with garlic mashed or baked potatoes, French fries, or garlic rice pilaf, and there are also two varieties of Japanese wagyu strip loin. The onion rings, which James Beard called “The finest…I have ever eaten in America” are considered a must, and the extensive international wine list includes a wealth of Oregon pinot noirs and Washington cabernets and red blends.
Pennsylvania: Three Oak Steakhouse
- Location: Easton
A newcomer to the steakhouse game, opened only in 2017, Three Oak has nonetheless made its mark in the Lehigh Valley for its nine different steaks, among other entrées. Featured cuts include a 20-ounce dry-aged Kansas City strip and a 24-ounce dry-aged porterhouse. A wide choice of appetizers ranges from crab-stuffed mushrooms to grilled octopus with olive tapenade to beef sliders with creamy blue cheese, and among the sides are green beans with smoked bacon and sweet potatoes au gratin with goat cheese crumbles.
Rhode Island: Double Barrel Steak at the Preserve
- Location: Richmond
The Preserve is a 3,500-acre planned community and resort surrounded by forest, about 35 miles south of Providence. Double Barrel Steak was opened with great fanfare in March 2023 with famed chef-restaurateur David Burke in charge of the kitchen. His name has since been scrubbed from the menu and press materials, and his involvement is uncertain, but the wet-aged and 45-day dry-aged steaks are still superb —including the 12 Gauge (a 12-ounce wet-aged prime NY strip) and the 20 Gauge (a 20-ounce bone-in ribeye). There’s also steak frites (a hanger steak with béarnaise and fries), a wagyu burger, and a Makers Mark boneless short rib with wild mushroom cavatelli.
South Carolina: Grill 225
- Location: Charleston
Debuting in 2002 in the Market Pavilion Hotel, Grill 225 has an elegant feel, with hardwood paneling, plush booths, high ceilings, and a bank of windows giving onto the street. It sums up its philosophy as “Truth in Beef” — which translates to USDA prime meat aged in-house for at least 42 days (the signature NY strip gets 50), as well as such specialties as a prime veal rib chop and a prime steak fromage (stuffed with Roquefort and wrapped in bacon). Lowcountry blue crab chowder and jumbo shrimp and grits add a local accent.
South Dakota: Minerva’s
- Location: Sioux Falls
There have been restaurants under various names on the site of Minerva’s since 1917. There’s an attractive old-fashioned feeling to the interior, full of wood, stained glass, and chandeliers, and the menu ranges from Idaho rainbow trout with pink peppercorn cream to a choice of steaks, including a filet mignon wrapped in applewood-smoked bacon and a regeneratively pasture-raised bison ribeye. And don’t miss the steakhouse onion rings with sriracha blue cheese sauce.
Tennessee: Folk’s Folly
- Location: Memphis
Memphis-born developer Humphrey Folk, Jr. opened what calls itself “Memphis’ Original Prime Steak House” in 1977, adding “Folly” to his own name because his friends and advisors, considering his lack of restaurant experience, thought he was mad to open the place. The joke was on them because it has thrived ever since, not least because of offerings such as a 21-ounce bone-in prime Kansas City strip and a 24-ounce prime porterhouse. Other beefy choices include filet mignon medallions with Maker’s Mark peppercorn sauce, a petite bacon-wrapped filet with mushroom purée and sliced garlic mushrooms, and Folly’s Tidbits (bite-sized filet mignon pieces, battered and deep-fried and served with béarnaise).
Texas: Perini Ranch Steakhouse
- Location: Buffalo Gap
Utah: Maddox Ranch House
- Location: Perry
Irv Maddox, who’d had a tiny lunch counter in Brigham City during World War II, opened what’s now billed as “Utah’s Original Steakhouse” in Perry in 1949, and his family still runs it. The house-aged beef here includes the usual cuts, as well as a spicy sirloin (a top sirloin steak marinated in a house spice blend) and four preparations of pasture-raised bison — including a NY strip and a chicken-fried version. The restaurant notes that “Entrées are served with: Ice cold well water, heavenly homemade rolls and cornbread with raspberry butter, fresh steamed vegetables, your choice of baked potato or fries or mashed potatoes, and your choice of soup or salad or seafood cocktail.”
Vermont: Raven’s Den Steakhouse
- Location: Manchester Center
Veteran Vermont chef Edward St. Onge oversees this resort town favorite, which has plenty of seafood choices as well as serious meat, featuring Certified Black Angus beef. The star of the show is a prime NY strip, dry-aged in-house for six weeks, with veal demi-glace. There’s also a classic beef Wellington available with 24 hours’ advance notice.
Virginia: Piedmont: A Virginia Steakhouse
- Location: Culpeper
Opened in 2012 in a historic 19th-century brick building, this handsome establishment — now woman-owned and -operated — serves prime filet mignon, ribeye (bone-in and otherwise), and NY strip, plus a bison ribeye. Everything comes with vegetables and a choice of potatoes. A few pasta dishes and some seafood specialties are available, and the first courses include fried pickles with jalapeño ranch and lamb lollipops with house-made tzatziki. (A second location is in the works in Middleburg.)
Washington: Churchill’s Steakhouse
- Location: Spokane
Bill Alles, grandson of a master butcher from Germany, opened his steakhouse, named for noted food and wine lover Winston Churchill, in 2007. The steaks here, ranging from an 8-ounce filet mignon to a 24-ounce porterhouse, are all USDA prime Midwestern corn-fed, dry-aged beef. They’re served with mashed potatoes, vegetables, and fresh-baked bread with imported butter. Other meaty entrées include sautéed prime tenderloin beef tips, veal osso buco, double Duroc pork rib chop, and Colorado lamb chops with port and currant reduction. There’s an extensive collection of Washington cabernets on the wine list.
West Virginia: The Wonder Bar Steakhouse
- Location: Clarksburg
Opened in 1946 and renovated in 2012, the Wonder Bar serves a selection of standard steakhouse appetizers and sides (seafood towers, Caesar salad, four kinds of potatoes, etc.) and some Italian dishes (seafood pasta, chicken parmigiano, and the like), but takes particular pride in its array of aged Certified Angus steaks. There’s even a special deal, The Host Choice — a 12-ounce ribeye served with a house salad, a choice of potatoes, pasta, or rice, and a glass of house wine, all for $50.
Wisconsin: Carnevor
- Location: Milwaukee
Opened in 2006, then closed a decade later before reopening in its current location, Carnevor has been named the state’s best steakhouse a number of times. The menu, under the direction of chef Mario Giuliani, includes a dozen steaks, from an 8-ounce, barrel-cut, wet-aged filet mignon to such Chef’s Reserve Cuts as a 13-ounce, citrus-fed Australian wagyu NY strip and a 6-ounce A5 Hokkaido Prefecture wagyu filet mignon. There’s also a steak salad, a steak risotto with Wisconsin blue cheese, and a braised American wagyu brisket with potato gnocchi.
Wyoming: Cavalryman Steakhouse
- Location: Laramie
The Cavalryman occupies a 1925 vintage building that was originally the clubhouse for a now-vanished golf club established on the parade grounds of historic Fort Sanders. The restaurant opened on the site in 1970 and became famous for its steaks (including a grass-fed Wyoming offering that changes periodically and a bison ribeye) as well as its “Wyoming traditions” — for instance, the Cattlemen’s Turf and Turf, which is a blackened prime rib topped with Rocky Mountain oysters, which of course aren’t seafood, but calf’s testicles. (If it’s actual shellfish you’re after, consider this list of the best seafood restaurant in every state.)