If you try to imagine the ideal steakhouse, you might end up picturing Pappas Bros. Steakhouse, a Houston import that reigns supreme as our favorite place to get a ribeye in the entire state. The Dallas branch is nearly as good as the original in Houston, with all the same trappings: a nearly 200-page wine list, beef butchered and aged at least 28 days in-house, and a classic, cavernous dining room full of sharply dressed couples and families shushing their children. It’s in a weird little corner of Northwest Dallas surrounded by freeways and other Pappas family franchises, but trust us when we say the steak is worth the trek to bizarro world from pretty much anywhere in the Metroplex. They take meat seriously here, and if you’re lucky, they’ll let you pick out your own cut from a display case. A filet is our choice, but whatever cut you go for comes perfectly cooked and crusted in black pepper, with a concentrated beefy flavor courtesy of the dry aging. That process tenderizes the meat without getting too funky. If Pappas Bros. just had great steaks, that would be enough. But the sides hold their own, including giant stalks of asparagus that look like they’ve been on steroids their entire lives, and crispy crab cakes made almost entirely out of crab and topped with more crab. Pretty much everything here is dialed in for a maximum great restaurant experience—with the kind of attentive service your parents might wistfully reminisce about. So sit down, order a turtle gumbo (with extra sherry) and a caesar salad, and start poring over the wine book, because there are more affordable bottles than you might expect. Which makes it easier to get a second one halfway through dinner.