Never been to any of the big names, mostly due to the ridic steak sizes (I’m fine with 6-7 oz, usually) & the price tag, and several other reasons touched upon in the article.
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I love a traditional steakhouse. Yes, they are pricey, but as a once or twice a year treat I do find the experience worth it. SO and I split a regular rib eye, get a few sides, a bottle of reasonably priced wine and dessert.
After looking at the menus in the article, only Cuerno, the Mexican steakhouse, strikes me as something that I would try. It doesn’t seem overdone or trying too hard, and, as steakhouses go, the pricing is a bit more reasonable.
Do these places need to evolve? Not really. I don’t see the traditional places like Keen’s or Old Homestead dying out. And these newer concepts will likely fade, as fashions do. I’ll save my $400 special occasion budget for the old school steakhouse.
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Where I live the supper club is our steakhouse, and they’ve been the same since forever. Now, they’re becoming popular again. Good food with a sense of community. Good drinks don’t hurt, either.
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Gift Link FTW! Thanks as always.
“ridic sizes & price”
Yeah, I kind of stumbled on the $175, 52 ounce Tomahawk steak. Now, I do like big steaks - my ribeye cuts are a similar weight (about 48 oz, +/- depending on which end it comes from), especially once you factor in I don’t have an extra trailing 7 or 8 inches of bone.
But since I load up on full rib roasts each Christmas season sale (sometimes too much, as I’ve mentioned before), and cut the steaks out myself, the meat itself is about $25/steak at $7/lb for the full roasts and factoring in the trimmed fat (which I save and use for other stuff). But the meat price if the fat is worthless is close to $8/lb, vs about $54/lb for said tomahawk steak.
Of course, I’m doing all the work myself instead of paying staff and paying rent etc., and don’t have much (or any) “ambiance” in my kitchen, which is part of that $175.
But the boys don’t care about ambiance and I have eaten at expensive steakhouses before, and would put mine at pretty close, taste/texture/etc. wise, giving a bit more cred and a nod to a prime grade restaurant steak vs. my choice graded stuff. And to be a bit more fair in the comparison, if I bought prime my price would be closer to $60/steak because the same Christmas sales for prime don’t go much below $18-$19/pound.
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hmmm… I have had steak at high end places, and steak at many tiers below those . . .
properly/well/to-my-liking seasoned and cooked, @ prices reasonable to OMG!
and “names” can be a real misleader . . . sprung for an A5 imported Kobe at Tom Colicchio CraftSteak - what a total disaster. over cooked. near inedible sides . . . I think Outback can do better . .
but, , , at high(er) end places you get micro-greens . . .
absolutely no interest in mega-pounds steaks.
some high end places do the cart/showcase with dry aged from days to months.
Victoria Station was a local - and they did a veddy good job.
Texas Roadhouse has a good showcase where one can pick-a-steak . . . if you can get into the joint…
not sure “steakhouses” need to evolve. if you want fancy + waitstaff in livery . . .
it’ll cost you. but a really good steak can be had at much less stuffy places.
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Aside from our favorite French bistro in Berlin that serves a mean steak frites, we don’t go out for steaks. They’re about the easiest thing to make at home.
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Our local-ish and locally owned steakhouse is one of the few restaurants we visit repeatedly - sometimes for a special occasion, and other times, just because. High-end with impeccable food and service, yet welcoming to all. Happy to recommend.
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I have been to a fair number of steakhouses, some like the Palm, Fleming’s, Sullivan’s, and Ruth’s Chris, fairly pricey and mainly following a pretty stodgy formula. I have been to some very local ones with more variety and enjoyed them less because I actually like the formula. A couple of martinis, an MR ribeye, creamed spinach, and hash browns at the Palm, followed by a good cigar for the walk home on a cold winter’s night, is mighty fine. However, I far prefer steak frites made with rare onglet or even top round, perhaps with a little Bernaise and accompanied with a really good Bordeaux; it simply cannot be topped. I see no need to change either of those experiences. Happily, both can be replicated at home for a fraction of the cost. I recall a period, about half a century ago, when restaurants really tried to tinker with steak dinners. Remember medium steak sitting beside a lobster tail, buttered and broiled dry, along with a baked potato wrapped in foil, preceded by an iceberg salad with thick bleu cheese dressing and accompanied by a whiskey sour? Mmmmm (not)
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The last $$$ steakhouse I was at was Nick and Stef’s in Los Angeles and it was a profoundly disappointing experience.
I think the best local steak I’ve had recently is a place in Winters, CA called The Buckhorn (no relation to the fast-casual bbq chain). It’s decidedly less frou frou and formal than your classic 3 martini lunch steakhouse, but every bit as good. And it’s more $$ than $$$, which is nice.
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Wowza they’ve got one steak (Olive Beef) weighing in at $550 a pound! Have you tried it?
Lol. No. I usually go for the SRF beef tenderloin, creamed spinach, and if the seasonal veg looks good, I’ll take that, too. I used to love their crab cakes as appie, but they changed the way they make them, so these days I take a pass.
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A family tussle resulted in The Palm ending up being sold to Landry’s massive operation. So, gone are the days when a choice of oversized lobsters was an option if a steak didn’t meet your fancy.
Steakhouses are not big in the Bay Area. I think I was last at one in the 90s. Many other options and while a big hunk of cow can be great there’s lots of other stuff to consume. Also the healthier eating stuff comes into play. For special occasions I think the Michelin restaurants and tasting menu has surpassed steakhouse as the big luxury…and tasting menus are a bit in decline too with its own trappings and formality.
Interesting article, using different cuisines to flavor the steak. Fiskcue in Alameda does similar with Indonesian spices flavors on Texas bbq, and Indonesian sides….but the brisket does get excellent reviews.
A nice steak can be great but you can cook one at home to excellent results without the trappings of overstuffed leather booths, martinis and suits. The formality and trappings can be fun but also seem silly at times.
Interesting question. It seems to me that steakhouses have painted themselves into a corner. Their history of offering huge slabs of meat at rarified prices narrows their target market considerably to those that (a) really love beef and a lot of it, and (b) can afford a lot of beef. Demographic shifts away from both don’t portend well for them. They all offer other-than-beef on their menus, but they’re mostly there to placate the non-beef eaters in a group that wants a slab o’ cow, and expanding their menu to be more inclusive could well change how they are viewed by their primary target audience as losing sight of their core mission. Not to mention that that target market segment thinks nothing of paying $$$$ for something they could make at home for $$ as long as it comes from a cow, but they likely won’t pay $$$ for a $ serving of chicken or fish or (horrors!) veg. Steakhouses are becoming anachronisms.
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Sad. My memories of the Palm are quite old.
This would be fascinating to research. At least around Austin, I think the steakhouse demographic has remained pretty constant, leaning heavily on guys (predominantly) who think chicken and salmon are the outer limits of dining experiences.
I’m loosely related to a guy who thinks chicken and salmon are vegetables.
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We have a local steakhouse that is a little spendy, but not a place offering Miyazaki or other wagyu/over-the-top type beefs. That is fine with me because, as some others have noted, I can make a perfectly acceptable steak at home. But, I think that either you are a steakhouse person or you’re not. If you are a steakhouse person, then the classics are what you are there for - ridiculously large cuts of beef with all the maillard browning you could ever dream of, creamed spinach, your favorite potato, maybe a Caesar or wedge salad, oysters/raw bar situation, a wine list that may or may not rival Infinite Jest in length, and a selection of brown liqueurs of varying proofs and price points, replete with service that is attentive without being overbearing. Are there other kinds of steakhouse experience? Sure. There are all kinds of meat-centric places out there - Rodizio, Korean BBQ, Yakiniku, Hibachi, other joints catering specifically to prime rib, etc., ranging from neighborhood joints to $$$$. Last time I was in San Diego there was a place that was marketing itself as Argentinian, rather than Brazilian. I’m not sure anything needs to “evolve”, at least no more than how restaurants typically do anyway due to local tastes and preferences. Is finding a new marketing niche so that you get a boost, at least initially, in your foot traffic “evolving”?
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My point exactly, although I have no qualms about the trappings of a dry AF martini with my steak 
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