Keens has been around since 1885, but unlike some legacy steakhouses, the food at this Midtown spot is actually good. Even if you’re primarily here for steak, you should at least get the appetizer-sized “Taste of Mutton,” the thing that Keens is actually famous for. It comes with crisp bits of fat and a jar of mint jelly that’s the color of actual mint. The wedge salad is great, the porterhouse has an impressive bark, and you should not skip the coffee cantata sundae to close out your meal.

A disclaimer: yes, this is our steakhouse guide, and this fancy Midtown East restaurant from the team behind Carbone is a steakhouse. But we're going to recommend the prime rib over the steak every single time. Still, if you're looking for a big pink steak with all the steakhouse-adjacent frills—creamed spinach, sub-zero martinis, multiple potato preparations—The Grill is a fantastic choice. Come here for a spendy special occasion dinner in the dark wood dining room that’s lit up like a stage.

You might think that an old-timey steakhouse in the middle of Times Square couldn’t be good, but Gallagher’s is our favorite place to eat a slab of beef with a side of creamed spinach in New York City. Your experience starts the moment you walk up to the restaurant, since you can see into the meat locker from the sidewalk. Some kind of witchcraft happens in that meat locker, because no other steak tastes quite like this one. In terms of atmosphere, food, and service, the experience is flawless.

If by chance you can get into this pocket-sized restaurant decked out like the dining car of a robber baron’s train, you’ll get to enjoy beef in its finest forms. There will be bone-in filets, dry-aged ribeyes, a french dip on a crusty roll with a side of glistening jus, and, of course, prime rib. Go for the relatively slim, melt-in-your-mouth English cut, and accompany it with a side of creamed spinach infused with blue cheese.

This Williamsburg mainstay is a classic for a reason. Open since 1887, your meal adheres to an unbreakable formula: first, free bread and the signature steak sauce, which tastes like doctored-up cocktail sauce, and always will. Next, a wedge salad, with a bacon-to-lettuce ratio of one-to-one. And finally, the impeccable creamed spinach, peppery german fried potatoes, and the porterhouse. The famous steak has a crispy-crackly crust, a soft, luxurious interior, and a whole lot of butter.

There are a lot of places on this list where important people go to eat red meat and talk insider trading, probably. But Delmonico’s makes us normals feel like power players too. This Fidi restaurant has been through some changes, but the 19th-century dining room still exudes old-world glamor, hosting retired investment bankers who eat lamb chops under retro light fixtures. Get the Delmonico steak, a juicy, top-shelf 18 oz rib-eye that remains one of the more flavorful cuts around town.

Cote is basically Korean BBQ, turbocharged. Each element of dining at this Flatiron spot is taken up a notch—from the high-end steakhouse-quality meat to the fancy grills and smooth marble tables. You’re welcome to order however you want here, but most people will go for the $68-per-person prix-fixe Butcher's Feast. The steak is excellent—rich, tender, buttery—to the extent that you’ll want to eat some of it on its own before wrapping it up in a lettuce leaf with one of the provided sauces.

This steakhouse has been a London institution for long enough (with enough locations) to have lost some of its intrigue on the other side of the Atlantic, but we say keep the sticky toffee pudding coming. The steaks at this big, sleek Gramercy spot are unique in that they’re grilled over charcoal. They do their best work with the filet mignon, and the rump steak is another reliable option if you don't want to spend too much.

In the mid 2010s, the butcher steak at Williamsburg’s St. Anselm cost a little under $20. Now, it’s $34. The price increase might seem outrageous—but, truthfully, it was never about the money. St. Anselm knows how to cook meat. Grilled behind the counter in a little room that sits somewhere between a saloon and a hunting lodge, their signature hanger steak arrives charred and tender, like juicy beef sashimi. Add a few sides like spinach gratin and fried mashed potatoes.

Here, you eat your red meat atop the ivory tower of the Time Warner Center, in an elegant, airy space overlooking Central Park. At $180, the porterhouse here is one of the priciest in the city, but it’s cooked perfectly, seasoned well, and comes with an unparalleled view. At lunch, you can get a three-course $52 steak frites situation that’s easily the best steakhouse lunch deal in this part of town. If you’re ordering à la carte, you’re morally obligated to get the ice cream sundae.

A fixture in Midtown East for over 40 years, Smith & Wollensky isn’t trying to be anything other than a classic and reliable steakhouse, and that’s exactly what it is. You’ll see white tablecloths, wine bottles stored everywhere, and servers wheeling out plates on carts throughout the large, two-story space. The massive prime rib is juicy and has an intense beefy flavor, but the bone-in dry-aged filet is the surprise winner here.

There’s something about the old-school way the food is presented at Christos that makes you feel like you’re eating a meal fit for a villain—a robber baron, perhaps. But you don’t have to feel too bad about it, because you’re (probably) not an oil tycoon. You’re just someone enjoying lobster mashed potatoes in a lobster shell at a low-key steakhouse in Astoria. The menu here leans Greek, which means you can (and should) get a fried saganaki, loukaniko sausage, and a Greek salad with your meal.

Even older than Keens, and almost every other spot on this list, Old Homestead has been in operation since 1868. The three-story space has the look of a Presidential library. You can choose from over 15 different steaks, but there are two we recommend. The Porterhouse is cooked and seasoned very nicely, though it didn't knock our socks off. We actually like the ribeye here best of all. It's tender, has a ton of flavor, and pairs well with the excellent garlic mashed potatoes and creamed spinach

Think of Meet The Meat as a budget Peter Luger, with a few twists on the menu. The main attraction is one of the few quality porterhouses in the city under $100, but you can also get a side of mac with mushrooms in it and a slab of Canadian bacon that’s more like a pork chop and less like fatty pork belly. You’ll find some misses—we do wish they had regular bacon, and the desserts don’t seem like they’re made in-house—but there are more than enough hits for you to leave satisfied.