Fine Living Top 10: Steaks

he best steaks aren’t always the top-dollar buys in the world\'s finest restaurants. While Kobe and Wagyu beef are excellent, they have their share of competitors.
Look for restaurants who obviously go above and beyond in their attention to detail. Do they age on the premises, for example? And who selects the cuts of meat for sale?

The finest steaks are those that are aged, seasoned and cooked to perfection.
Number 10
Prime Porterhouse
Metropolitan Steak House, Seattle, WA

Metropolitan’s main focus is on prime beef and the restaurant has built its reputation on delivering the best of the classic cuts: filet mignon, New York peppercorn steak, porterhouse, and Delmonico.

Chefs here personally select each cut that will be served and choose only the best corn-fed USDA prime meat that has been dry-aged. The meat is then seared over high heat using imported mesquite charcoal -- the Iron Wood of the world.

Metropolitan’s prime porterhouse is a combination of the best, most tender and flavorful cuts, and also happens to be the biggest piece on the menu. An excellent meal!
Number 9
Steak for Two
Peter Luger’s, Brooklyn, NY

Leave your pretenses at the door. Peter Luger’s is not a place where you sit down to wine and dine in style. This is a steakhouse first and foremost and it makes no bones about it.

The service here is brusque, but undoubtedly delivers some of the best steaks in the U.S. There’s good reason Zagat’s has rated Peter Luger’s the best steakhouse in NYC for 23 straight years.

Owner Sol Forman dry ages all meat on the premises and he and his staff hand-select each piece personally. The result is a buttery, silky textured steak that melts in your mouth -- it can’t be beat.

When you go, plan to share: The steak for two (a porterhouse) is large enough to serve a small family and is backed up by a mean creamed spinach and fries.
Number 8
Charbroiled Kobe Filet
Aragawa, Tokyo, Japan

This is undoubtedly one of the finest restaurants in the world.

Tucked away in the Shinbashi district of Tokyo is Aragawa, and the staff here is so fussy about their steaks that they serve nothing else and every cut is delivered to the table with only pepper and mustard.

Reservations are nearly impossible to come by, but the Kobe steaks -- sourced from only one local farm -- are beyond comparison and a real treat at $370 per serving.

Montreal, Dubai, Japan, and Argentina offer great steaks too...

Bone-in 18 oz. filet mignon
Queue de Cheval Steak House, Montreal, Canada

One of Canada’s best steak houses, the Queue de Cheval is known the world over for its prime cuts of meat.

Every steak on the menu is hand-selected from corn-fed animals and each cut dry-aged for 35 days in the restaurant’s meat lockers. As you make your order, you are personally shown your steak before it’s put to the fire.

The Queue’s bone-in, 18-ounce filet mignon is truly an unforgettable and exquisite experience.
Number 6
Australian Wagyu Striploin, 300 g
Al Muntaha Restaurant, Burj Al Arab Hotel, Dubai

Take one of the express panoramic elevators up to the top of Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai and one of the first things to greet you is a magnificent view of the Arabian Gulf and its coastline. At 200 meters above sea level, the view is breathtaking.

Take a seat at one of the restaurant’s tables and the next to greet you is a list of some of the best Mediterranean cuisine money can buy. We recommend the Australian Wagyu striploin. A 300-gram piece sells for about $170, but the cut is cooked perfectly, giving it that buttery, beefy taste that only comes from the best Wagyu -- truly a fine dining experience.
Number 5
Bife de Costilla, 35 oz
La Cabaña, Buenos Aries, Argentina

Take one bite of La Cabaña’s 35-ounce Bife de Costilla (prime rib steak) and you’ll see why the Argentinians are the most prolific meat eaters in the world. Here is Buenos Aries’ finest steak and some of the best in the world.

Delicately seared on a spit and served with a bold Argentinean Syrah, the Bife de Costilla at La Cabaña is second to none.
Number 4
Grain-Fed Beef Rib Eye
Ekki Bar & Grill, Four Seasons Hotel, Tokyo, Japan

The menu at Ekki Bar and Grill is simple and varied -- designed to be a take on contemporary New York-style cuisine. The chefs here pair their unique culinary skills with the best seasonal ingredients to produce some of Tokyo’s finest entrées.

One of Ekki Bar’s winners is the grain-fed, beef rib-eye. It’s a departure from the Kobe and Wagyu beef more commonly preferred in Japan, but holds its own when cooked and seasoned to perfection and complemented by the best selection of new-world wines.

Who holds our No. 1 steak spot?

Number 3
16 oz New York strip loin
BLT Prime, New York, NY

You just know that any restaurant that features its dry-aging room as its dining room showpiece is serious about beef.

It’s all about steaks at New York’s BLT, be they Kobe or Wagyu or certified Black Angus or USDA prime.

The New York strip loin isn’t the most expensive offering, but it’s the best buy by far. Paired with the perfect sauce -- three mustard, red wine or Roquefort -- and married with generous sides, it’s a meal you won’t soon forget.
Number 2
Churrasco de lomo
Gaucho Restaurant, London, England

Seek out London’s Gaucho Restaurant for Argentinean food done as well as the best in Buenos Aries.

As you enter Gaucho, and walk down the unique wrought-iron staircase, you can’t help but salivate at the smell of meat firing on the open grill. Sit down and order the signature beef dish Churrasco de Lomo. It’s a wonderfully tender and slim-cut steak that’s opened and turned out before cooking, which gives it a chance to delight in its olive oil and garlic marinade.
Number 1
Steak frites
Le Relais de Venise, Paris, France

No one should go to Paris without tasting steak frites at least once and Le Relais de Venise serves the city’s finest.

The menu here is limited -- in fact you’ll have almost no choice -- and the servers barely tolerate you asking for any level of doneness other than rare. What arrives, however, is sublime. A romaine salad with walnuts and horseradish to start, followed by the beef, which arrives sliced and served with a secret herb-butter sauce with, of course, excellent fries.
what\'s your beef?
The best steaks don’t always have to be the priciest. When ordering the finest steaks, make sure they are selected with care, aged to perfection and seared to bliss. Marry your perfect cut with a winning marinade or best sauce and you have a meal fit for a king.