Steak on Gourmand Syndrome

Palladino's

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 17:59:24 -0500

Palladino’s Steak and Seafood is owned by Joseph Palladino, who was a former NYPD officer and opened Nick and Sam’s Steakhouse in Dallas 20 years ago. He wanted to bring this restaurant type back to his motherland city, NYC. This restaurant recently opened in Grand Central Terminal, just opposite of the Apple store in the main concourse on the second level. I was able to make a reservation for 2 very easily for 5:45 for the dining area that has fantastic views of the main Grand Central floor and its beautiful ceiling.

The Dynamo Room

Fri, 15 Aug 2025 20:30:04 -0400

The Dynamo Room is a relatively new steakhouse located in the Penn District, right next to Madison Square Garden and in the heart of the area. The whole area feels like Times Square, considering how there are a lot of police presence with a lot of crowds. The restaurant seats 200 people, and I was easily able to make a reservation at 5:30 PM for 4 people without any issues. What initially attracted me to this restaurant was the summer restaurant week menu. For $45, it seemed like a good deal, especially given that the items seem to represent their normal menu.

Benjamin Steakhouse Prime

Fri, 25 Jul 2025 11:45:49 -0400

Restaurant Week is notorious for it’s multi-course offerings that feature items that aren’t on their respective restaurant’s menus. Here’s a fun tip. Steak places are typically a really good bang for the buck as they typically offer you things on their menu. As a way to chill out and celebrate solo, I went to Benjamin Prime. I walked in on a Friday around 4:30 PM without any issues alone. They asked if I wanted a table for 1 or sit at a bar, and I asked for a table which they accommodated. This location is a very close walking distance from Bryant Park.

Crane Club

Sun, 25 May 2025 17:00:08 -0400

Crane Club is located across the street from Chelsea Market. It’s being led by executive chef Melissa Rodriguez, who formerly oversaw Al Coro, which earned 2 Michelin stars at one point. This restaurant is under the Tao Hospitality Group, which oversees some upscale trendy hot spots like Hakkasan, Lava, and TAO Asian Bistro. We were able to make a reservation for the dining room very easily for 5:30 PM on a Friday night. This restaurant’s food was meant to be unapologetically fancy.

Gui

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 21:31:33 -0400

Gui caught my attention because it offered a baked Alaska and prime rib. What I did not realize was that this restaurant had some folks with a track record of good Korean foods. Chef Sung Chul Shim comes from Kochi and Mari. Pastry chef, Sarah Smith, comes from many fine kitchens including Le Bernardin and Le Rock. The reservation was very easy to reserve for a 5:15 PM dinner on a Friday night. The restaurant is located on the second floor, but you check in on the first floor.

La Tete d'Or

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 16:54:03 -0400

La Tête d’Or by Daniel is a tribute to timeless flavors and traditions with infusion of French flavors. What attracted me with this restaurant was that chef Daniel Boulud has a pretty decent track record of delivering good refined flavors. We went to Le Gratin previously, and we were very impressed by the taste of everything. As usual because he also holds some type of celebrity status, this restaurant is located in a posh area very close to Eleven Madison. I was able to book a reservation about a week out for 5:30 PM on a Friday night.

Hawksmoor

Sun, 02 Feb 2025 11:52:36 -0500

Hawksmoor is a London restaurant that has a few other locations in the U.S. This is the first New York City location. In the UK, Hawksmoor is known for its food integrity, drinks, and visually appealing dining areas. They claim they have found the perfect way to cook steaks. One of the biggest appeals for me was they have a “Sunday Roast”, which is supposed to be a heavy Sunday meal. I had to make a reservation for this restaurant a few weeks in advance since the Sunday roast was only served on Sundays in the early-mid afternoons.

Bourbon Steak

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 21:58:49 -0500

Michael Mina is an award winning chef and restaurateur that currently runs and operates over 40 restaurants worldwide. He opened this restaurant in the JW Marriott Essex House, right across from Central Park south and near Columbus Circle. This is his love letter to the classic American steakhouse. Bourbon Steak has multiple locations in the United States, so it’s not an entirely new restaurant. I picked this restaurant particularly because of their prix fixe menu that seems to give a pretty good spread of what this restaurant has to offer.

Monkey Bar

Fri, 19 Jul 2024 21:27:50 -0400

Monkey Bar is a restaurant from the same people that are behind Au Cheval and 4 Charles in NYC. The Monkey Bar has a rich history dating back to the 1930s, where it formerly served New York City’s upper social class. In 2022, it reopened under the ownership of the 4 Charles team, and they created a menu that was very similar to the aforementioned restaurants. I was craving for prime rib, so I wanted to give this a try since I am reluctant to snipe 4 Charles reservations.

Monterey

Fri, 08 Mar 2024 19:43:29 -0500

This restaurant is a fairly close walk east of Rockafeller Center. I stumbled onto this restaurant as I was looking for something new and solo-friendly for a Saturday. It turns out that this restaurant has a Friday/Saturday prime rib prix-fixe menu, which has my attention. For $65 per person, you get 3 courses: a caesar salad, prime rib with french fries, and a choice of dessert. That doesn’t seem like a bad deal to me. We were able to make a reservation for 5 PM on a Friday night with no hassle.

Vinyl Steakhouse

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 12:51:41 -0500

Vinyl Steakhouse has been a steak place that I’ve been wanting to go for quite some time. The Flatiron area has been experiencing many new restaurant openings post pandemic, and this was one of them that was appealing. Similar to Turntable Chicken Jazz, this restaurant has a load of vinyls on display, and it plays music as requested. We were able to walk in on a Friday around 6:30 PM without reservations for 2. They seated us at the front of the restaurant.

The Grill

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 21:48:36 -0500

The Grill was always something on my bucket list not only for a prime rib trolley, but also for Baked Alaska, my favorite dessert. Every place makes this different, so it’s fun to see different interpretations. In addition, this restaurant has always been difficult to get reservations timely, so we were able to book this a few weeks out for 5:30 PM on a Friday evening. The restaurant is located in the Seagram building, and the entrance is located off of 52nd St. You can’t miss it because there’s a carpet laid out.

Hunt & Fish Club

Fri, 10 Nov 2023 17:02:29 -0500

My partner was able to secure another show lottery near Times Square. Because I work near here and the fact that they have been able to win so many lottery shows, we’re running out of choices for restaurants. We were walking along 44th, and we stumbled onto this restaurant. After looking at the menu and the ability to walk in without reservations, we decided to try out this restaurant, Hunt & Fish Club. We were able to walk in at around 5:30 PM on a Friday without reservations easily.

Charlie Palmer

Wed, 10 May 2023 19:14:28 -0400

We had yet another show to catch, so we decided to look around the Bryant Park area. I stumbled onto Charlie Palmer, and it had been on my list of steak places to try. What was nice about this place specifically is they offered a 2-course pre-theatre menu for $49 which included a starter and entree. If you wanted dessert, you would have to pay an additional $10. Lucky for us, we weren’t that hungry, so a 2-course meal sounded fine for us. The waiter mentioned that the portion size for either course was the same as if you ordered in peak hours.

Gage and Tollner

Mon, 17 Oct 2022 14:28:24 -0400

Gage and Tollner has been on my list for quite a while now. I was casually browsing for restaurants with baked alaska, and this had shown up high on people’s list. Whenever I had tried to look at reservations, it was pretty booked. I was very lucky to have found an open reservation for 2 at 5 PM on a Sunday the night before. So how did it go?

Carne Mare

Fri, 15 Apr 2022 14:58:48 -0400

Carne Mare is an Italian chophouse restaurant from Andrew Carmellini. He has opened a number of restaurants in NYC already as well as other places in the U.S. The thing that attracted mem to this restaurant was I was craving for prime rib, and then I noticed they had this gorgonzola cured strip-loin that people have been raving about. To add to this, they also offer baked alaska which is basically one of my favorite desserts of all time.

Skirt Steak

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 23:36:40 -0400

I’ve always enjoyed simple menus of steak frites. We visited L’entrecote, and it was a pretty good restaurant for a similar value as this one. When I arrived at 5:20 PM and because this restaurant doesn’t take reservations for small parties, there was already a line out of the door. Fortunately the total wait time for us was about 15 minutes in line because we volunteered for bar seats if they were available. We were hoping this restaurant would be another spot of equivalent, if not better, caliber steak frites. So how did it fare?

Bacall's Family Steakhouse

Fri, 25 Feb 2022 15:28:47 -0500

One of our traditions that will be coming back soon is eating out on Fridays after work. We’ve been exploring the heart of midtown area and trying to walk into restaurants without reservations. We tried to go to one of the Cuban restaurants, but unfortunately they required a 40 minute wait. This restaurant wasn’t too far away, but they did have prime rib on the menu. When we arrived, it seems there was some show going on, but we were able to sit at a small table in the bar area.

Quality Italian

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 19:31:32 -0500

We were around the Bloomingdales area running some errands back and forth around the Midtown East area and decided to take the risk of looking for a restaurant without making reservations since we normally eat dinner fairly early. This Quality Italian seems to be from the same owners of Quality Meats and Quality Bistro which are on my list. Quality Italian is a modern take on the Italian American steakhouse tradition, and the prices are probably on the mid to high range.

Keens Steakhouse

Sat, 29 May 2021 20:05:37 -0400

For this memorial weekend, we wanted to go somewhere out of town, but we had to cancel plans including non refundable bus passes. I’ve been watching the Cooking Channel as my background noise, and they had an episode of steak. My partner hadn’t been to Keen’s, and I thought this would be a great time to introduce them to it. I had been here back in 2018 for the first time, and it had a very delicious, if not the best, prime rib. Dinner reservations were difficult to make, so we opted for a lunch reservation instead which was quite easy.

M.Wells

Sat, 22 Aug 2020 13:24:00 -0400

Summary

This place is across the street from Food Cellar. It’s nestled in a garage and used to serve a lot of steak dishes. The menu has changed into a more casual patio like experience (I am guessing just for the summer). When we arrived, there was no table service. Instead you have to go to the counter and place your order there. The menus are shown via QRCode. After you place your order, you carry the utensils, dishes, and drinks back to your table. The waiter will serve the dishes, so you don’t have to go pick up that. When you order, you (can) leave with them your credit card to open a tab. When you check out, they will tell you that gratuity is already included.

Empire Steak House

Sat, 03 Aug 2019 14:10:38 -0400

Summary

We were looking for a decent steak place that was walkable from where we were. The best steak house in my opinion in the city is Keen’s Steakhouse, so expectations were set pretty low. This venue is fairly nice. It’s close to Smith and Wollensky and located inside some hotel. This was one of the few steakhouses at this time that had hardly any people, so one can only think that this place wouldn’t be that good.

Gallagher's Steakhouse

Sun, 16 Sep 2018 22:05:59 -0400

Gallaghers is a steakhouse located in the Midtown area near the Theater District. Similar to other Midtown steak places, this has been around for a while, and it has a very old school feel. I had been here many years ago, but I never took pictures nor tried it with my partner. We were able to walk in for 2 at around 9:30 PM on a Thursday night, and we sat at the bar. Even though the bar area can get crowded, these classic steakhouses an accommodate small parties without much issue if there’s room.

Delmonico's

Sun, 16 Sep 2018 22:04:09 -0400

Delmonico’s was a steak restaurant I recall going a long time ago. I wrote that the steak kind of sucked because it wasn’t flavorful or fatty. Now that I’ve gone through an extensive journey in steak world, I’m curious how my palette has updated itself. We went to this restaurant mainly because it apparently is known for its Baked Alaska, my favorite dessert. Fortunately, they offered this dessert option in their restaurant week menu at $60 per person, which includes choice of 1 appetizer, 1 entree, and 1 dessert.

Ikinari

Sun, 16 Sep 2018 22:02:06 -0400

Got the rare strip. It was pretty good for $30 for 14 oz. Not a lot of fat on it. I think the price keeps getting cheaper because not a lot of people go to this.

Chuck and Blade

Sun, 16 Sep 2018 22:00:30 -0400

New York strip was so so. Cream of spinach was not good. There were lots of tendons in the meat. The lava cake dessert was good though.

Quality Eats

Sun, 16 Sep 2018 21:59:13 -0400

Skirt steak was pretty good. Very affordable. Good date spot I think.

Strip House

Sun, 16 Sep 2018 21:57:37 -0400

Steak was just OK. Service was slow as hell. Truffle cream of spinach was good.

American Cut

Sun, 16 Sep 2018 21:56:20 -0400

Decent for the price. This is Marc Forgione’s steak house.

212 Steakhouse

Sun, 16 Sep 2018 21:54:49 -0400

Ok, this place is the only legit place in NYC that has real kobe certified beef from Japan. It was delicious and cheap… with the groupon.

Old Homestead

Sun, 16 Sep 2018 21:50:26 -0400

Summary

For the first visit and not pictured, we got the aged rib eye for 2. It was surprisingly good and flavorful.

The applewood smoked slab of bacon was thick and tasty. For 2 people, it’s enough to just get 1.

The prime rib on the bone was super thick and good. Like Keen’s, this is a monster and can probably be shared by 2 people. I would say the thickness of this was probably close to 1.25 inches. I couldn’t finish the whole thing comfortably. It came with cream of horseradish and chunky horseradish on the side. The cream of horseradish was delicious. The consistency was similar to sour cream but with that hint of horseradish in it. The steak itself was cooked a solid medium rare throughout.

Peter Luger

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 21:52:39 -0400

Peter Luger’s steak house has been around for a very long time. At one point, it even had a Michelin Star. Many tourists always recommend eating here and rave about it. The locals though on the other hand are rather indifferent. People have told me that their steaks suck and that their best dishes are their appetizers. Others have told me it’s the best steak they ever had. Does it really live up to the hype? Time to find out.