Any way you slice it, there is nothing trivial about steak.
It comes from the biggest animal humans raise for food, and it takes about two years for that animal to reach its ideal weight of about 1,200 pounds. It’s no knock on vegetables or, for that matter, on lamb, veal, pork, fish, chicken or the trusty burger to say that steak is the summit of carnivorous eating.
When you consider the time that goes into raising a great Black Angus steer, the aging that tenderizes the meat, and the deft management of intense heat that creates the mouthwatering char, it’s no wonder it tops the menu in price.
New Jersey’s chefs sure know what to do with beef in its most rarified form, as showcased at our 20 favorite steakhouses around the state. (Want to brush up on the different kinds of steak cuts? Look no further.)
[RELATED: The Best Restaurants in New Jersey]
1776
Morristown
Situated just off the Morristown Green, 1776 is primed for meat eaters. The sirloin, rib eye, porterhouse for two, and even the burger are Prime Angus beef, dry aged in a 100-square-foot, salt-brick aging box. Beyond steaks, 1776 offers a modern menu of sushi, pizza, sides and dazzling desserts. The restaurant made our Best New Restaurants list when it opened in 2021. —KT Harrison
67 East Park Place • 973-829-1776
The Capital Grille
Paramus, Parsippany, Cherry Hill
A nostalgic Art Deco air imbues the Paramus location of this national name. Ample booths and corner tables mute the hubbub of the 350-seat meat-ing place. Like the room, the steaks are sizable and spirited. Most are Prime Angus, grass-fed, lightly marbled, and fired in an 1,800-degree oven for a crisp sear. The strip steaks are dry aged 21-28 days. The New York strip au poivre, lavished with cognac-cream sauce, tingles under a roof of cracked black peppercorns. The potent bone-in strip gains a rumbling low note from its Kona-coffee rub. —KTH
One Garden State Plaza, Paramus • 201-845-7040
10 Dryden Way, Parsippany • 973-889-8622
2000 Route 38, Cherry Hill • 856-665-5252
Char
Raritan, Red Bank
Befitting its name, Char serves all its beef with a hearty crust that reveals a juicy interior. The 14-ounce, dry aged prime strip steak is rich, firm and full-bodied in flavor. The filet mignon is buttery and delicate. Each steak is garnished with a roasted garlic bulb. Char offers 16 sides, from sautéed or creamed spinach to anchovy-stuffed Italian hot peppers. Standouts include potato gratin blanketed in Gruyère, and crisp Asiago truffle fries. Start with the hearty lobster avocado salad, topped with a whole claw in a lively citronette dressing, encircled by tomato confit. Maple-bourbon-pecan bread pudding is a substantial chunk of eggy brioche infused with maple syrup and bourbon, and topped with pecans, vanilla ice cream and a large mint leaf. —Kelly-Jane Cotter
777 Route 202 North, Raritan • 908-707-1777
33 Broad Street, Red Bank • 732-450-2427
Chubby’s
Gloucester City
For the Land & Sea platter at Chubby’s, Chef Jeremy Borton grills a 6-ounce filet mignon (to later top with two butter-poached lobster tails, and serve with white-truffle mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus). Photo by Felicia Perretti
Sometimes you want to dress to the nines, slide into a luxurious banquette, and talk up the snooty servers wielding crumbers. That ain’t Chubby’s. In this working-class neighborhood a block from the Delaware River, come as you are. The vibe is warm, the staff is friendly, and the steaks are superb. The rib eye? Juicy, under a nice char. Filet mignon? Perfect temperature. Seldom-seen side? Apple chutney with ginger and golden raisins. Recurring weeknight specials include Thursday’s 22-ounce porterhouse, $49. All desserts made in-house. —Victor Fiorillo
239 Monmouth Street • 856-456-2482
Edward’s Steakhouse
Jersey City
In a handsome 1800s townhouse that fits snugly on a narrow street a few blocks from the Hudson River, Edward’s brings a casual, chummy kind of elegance to the consumption of fine chops and steaks. The upstairs is a little more roomy; the downstairs, below street level, is more clubby and dark, with sconces. The forest mushrooms seem to be just sliced white-button types, but the creamed spinach is made from fresh, whole leaves, which requires something novel for creamed spinach: chewing. You may want more than one order of the crispy onions. That’s what they’re called and, cut extra thin, that’s irresistibly what they are. The porterhouse is exemplary, but don’t miss the lamb chops. Seven to an order, you pick them up by the bone and devour them like lollipops of protein, the meat presenting eye-rolling flavor and sublime texture. —Eric Levin
239 Marin Boulevard • 201-761-0000
Knife & Fork Inn
Atlantic City
Barely a block from the beach, the Knife & Fork opened in 1912 as a private club for men and was a favorite hangout of political boss “Nucky” Johnson (watch Boardwalk Empire for a refresher). Though not as colorful these days, the Knife & Fork still plates some of the best steaks at the Shore. There are eight on the menu, from the 12-ounce prime sirloin ($42) to the 24-ounce prime porterhouse ($69). For $22 more, you get jumbo lump crabmeat and Bearnaise sauce. The peppery boneless rib eye may be small at 10 ounces, but packs serious flavor, is served with broccoli rabe and Italian long hots, and is generously showered with shaved garlic and Parmigiano-Reggiano. Novel sides include beer-battered string beans and french-fried beet chips. But if there’s a must-try side, it’s the pommes soufflé, a house specialty for decades. —VF
3600 Atlantic Avenue • 609-344-1133
The Pub
Pennsauken
At the Pub in Pennsauken, the tomahawk steak arrives with plenty of delicious fixings. Photo by Felicia Perretti
Quality and value connect here, near the Ben Franklin Bridge, in a building that started as a nightclub in the 1930s. New owners remade it as the Pub in 1951. It burned down in 1960 and was rebuilt. The most expensive meats (26-ounce prime porterhouse, 12-ounce filet) are $52.95 and include house-made bread, potato (you want the stuffed baked), and the salad and relish bar, where the Caesar is a hit. All steaks are cooked over charcoal, a rarity these days. Step in the door; your nose tells you you’re in the right place. —VF
7600 Kaighn Avenue • 856-665-6440
Let’s Meat Steakhouse
River Vale
Nestled on a leafy street, this neighborhood gathering place feels like a lounge, with its gregarious bar scene, dark décor and sparkly curtain fronting the restrooms. The menu includes a raw bar and a smattering of Italian favorites, such as irreproachable beef-pork-veal Sicilian meatballs with ricotta. Steaks are 35-day dry-aged high-Choice Angus, more affordable than Prime but close in flavor and texture. The kitchen follows a salt-and-pepper rub with a grill sear and a finish in a 600-degree convection oven. Our strapping porterhouse flaunted an irresistibley crunchy bark and made a satisfying meal with just a side of pancetta-laden roasted brussels sprouts. —KTH
625 Rivervale Road • 201-660-7960
Morton’s the Steakhouse
Hackensack, Atlantic City
The overall impression is plush. Luxuriously carpeted and chandeliered, the Hackensack location (one of 65 nationally) is filled with diners bedecked for date night. The menu beckons with excellent grilled oysters and an ahi tuna poké appetizer with avocado chunks and soy-caramel glaze. The Prime Angus cuts are wet aged, with the exception of a dry-aged, bone-in Kansas City strip. The steaks are flicked with a salt-pepper-herb blend and expertly broiled in a ceramic-lined, 800-degree oven. A filet mignon emerge splendidly seared, velvety inside. —KTH
One Riverside Square, Hackensack • 201-487-1303
2100 Pacific Avenue, Atlantic City • 609-449-1044
Ocean Steak
Atlantic City
The finest casino in Atlantic City is Ocean Casino Resort, so it’s no surprise that the city’s finest steak house, with its recently renovated bar, sits inside the towering property. Start with a classic wedge salad, whatever East Coast oysters are being shucked, and the local scallops in a Jersey-corn-purée appetizer. Then dig into the ginormous tomahawk chop for two, topped with the shrimp scampi add-on, of course. —VF
500 Boardwalk • 609-783-8000
Old Homestead
Atlantic City
They say every casino needs a steakhouse, and for years the Borgata had two: Bobby Flay Steak and the Old Homestead, sister to the original in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, the oldest continuously operating steakhouse in the nation. But in 2021, Flay’s flickered out. Diners won out. Old Homestead serves the finest cuts, most wet aged 28 days, with polished, attentive service to match. The signature 34-ounce bone-in rib eye is pure delight, easily sating two for $72 à la carte. —VF
1 Borgata Way • 609-317-7723
Prime & Beyond
Fort Lee
You can order a dry-aged steak with a kicky side of kimchee carbonara or egg-topped kimchee rice at Prime & Beyond. The few-frills dining room has 40 seats and a semi-open kitchen, and patrons are given a two-hour dining window to enjoy their meal. Unlike most steakhouses, Prime & Beyond is BYO. The beef, tended by owner and butcher Kyu “Q” Kang and also sold in his butcher shop next door to the restaurant, is Certified Prime Angus, “grass fed and grain finished,” says Q, for a leaner, firmer texture. Steaks are dry aged on premises at least 28 days (the filet mignon is wet aged). Every steak gets a salt-and-pepper rub and a quick skillet sear to seal in juices. Then it’s broiled over ceramic briquets at 600 degrees. BYO. —KTH
501 Main Street • 201-461-0033
Rails Steakhouse
Towaco
Overlooking the train station, Rails serves its broad menu in a range of environments, including a Prohibition-themed grotto dubbed the Speakeasy, a sleek central dining room, a quiet nook called the Library, a convivial bar, a firepit-warmed loft and outdoor terraces. Prime Angus steaks are cut and dry aged in-house for at least 28 days. They emerge from a 1,600-degree infrared oven with a toothsome char and emphatic beefiness. Start with textbook fried calamari, then attack the strapping bone-in cowboy steak (side of four-cheese creamed spinach a must). Finish with a gargantuan hunk of transcendent, house-baked chocolate layer cake. —KTH
10 Whitehall Road • 973-335-0006
River Palm Terrace
Edgewater
This consummate steakhouse is nearly always full, and no wonder. The food and service are terrific, and the mood is ebullient and a bit raffishly, joyously Jersey. Though River Palm has been open since 1983—and many of the signed glossies on the walls date from that era—it keeps up with the times. On the soundtrack, current pop alternates with sultry Sinatra; contemporary concoctions like a bacon-swizzled Manhattan coexist with classic cocktails; and superb sushi complements the traditional raw bar. Steaks are Prime Angus, dry aged in-house (apart from the wet-aged filet mignon). A perfectly rare porterhouse for two epitomizes the dry-aged tang that is carnivore catnip. We left still purring. —KTH
1416 River Road • 201-224-2013
Roots Steakhouse
Morristown, Princeton (Roots Ocean Prime), Ridgewood, Summit
In Morristown, when we visited, welcomes were warm and interiors inviting, with wood accents, gentle lighting, a vibrant bar and plentiful booths. The steaks, Prime and Choice, are juicy. They include a hefty, flavorful Prime New York strip slathered with butter. A dry-aged, lushly marbled cowboy steak is priced the same as the wet-aged. Interesting draft beers likewise respect your budget. Don’t miss the stack of thick onion rings, resembling crispy churro doughnuts, creamy inside. —KTH
40 W Park Place, Morristown • 973-326-1800
98 University Place, Princeton • 609-772-4934
17 Chestnut Street, Ridgewood • 201-444-1922
401 Springfield Avenue, Summit • 908-273-0027
RP Prime
Fair Lawn, Mahwah
Whether you dine in the Mahwah location’s buzzy bar or its more mellow wood-beamed dining room, servers in trim jackets choreograph the delivery of your Prime Angus steaks, sizzling in pan drippings on oven-hot porcelain platters. “The meat may look a little rarer than you ordered,” our server told us. “But it’s still cooking on the plate.” The residual sizzle settled the steak at the perfect point of doneness. Our rare porterhouse for two was intensely flavorful and succulent. All RP’s steaks are cut and dry aged in-house (28-42 days), patted with salt and pepper, seared on a grill and finished in the 900-1,200-degree broiler. The menu includes a raw bar, numerous weekly specials, and more than a dozen sides. —KTH
41-11 Rte 4, Fair Lawn • 201-267-0702
209 Ramapo Valley Road • 201-529-1111
Ruth’s Chris Steak House
Parsippany, plus six other NJ locales
With around 140 restaurants in the United States and one menu, Ruth’s Chris could be the party-game hint for “steakhouse.” It is traditional and consistent, with utterly professional service and primarily Prime steaks as sizeable as the tabs. Most cuts are wet aged, a process pioneered by the brand, which was founded in 1965 in New Orleans. Steaks are cooked precisely to your desired doneness in an 1800º infrared broiler and served a-sizzling in butter on a 500-degree plate. Ruth’s crisp, all-meat crab cake proved the gold-standard crab cake of my steakhouse visits, and the house’s Sin Cake, made with primo Belgian chocolate, is a worthwhile vice. Of Ruth’s seven Jersey outposts, I dined in Parsippany, in a retro wood-and-leatherette booth. —KTH
1 Hilton Court, Parsippany • 973-889-1400
Sear House
Closter, Little Falls (Sear House Grill)
Sear House’s Little Falls exterior resembles a castle with a parking lot for a moat. Diners get a fine view of the Passaic River and a roster of Prime Angus aged five weeks. Orders are seared on a grill, broiled at 800 degrees on a porcelain platter, and brought to your table in a pool of bubbling butter. Our 3-pound porterhouse flaunted an enticing char and excitingly near-gamy dry-aged flavor. Sides worthy of these kingly steaks include crisp calamari in exemplary marinara, Parmigiano-topped creamed spinach, and seriously spicy sauteed Italian long hots with caramelized garlic. The wine list includes several appealing bottles under $35. —KTH
411 Piermont Road, Closter • 201-292-4612
1 Newark-Pompton Turnpike, Little Falls • 973-785-4225
Stage Left Steak
New Brunswick
Wagyu strip steak on a 500-degree Himalayan-salt brick is seen at Stage Left Steak. Photo by Felicia Perretti
Named for its location next to the State Theater, this long-running steakhouse turns out 28-day dry-aged Prime Angus steaks on a firepit-like, applewood grill with crusty char and buttery flesh. Stage Left serves seldom-seen cuts such as a silken Japanese Wagyu strip and an aged, bone-in filet mignon, tender but brawny in flavor. Equally compelling is the burger—11 ounces of dry-aged ground beef cooked on the grill. Stage Left was founded and is still run by two Rutgers grads, Mark Pascal and Francis Schott. They offered one of the first serious cheese boards in the area, and were also early in offering eye-opening, estate-bottled wines from small producers. —KTH
5 Livingston Avenue • 732-828-4444
Steakhouse 85
New Brunswick
Spirited and unpretentious, Steakhouse 85 has elements of a sports bar, with multiple screens and framed Rutgers jerseys. But the white tablecloths and high-caliber service set the stage for superb dry-aged steaks rubbed with sea salt, black pepper and fresh herbs, seared on a cast-iron grill before broiling. The 14-ounce Delmonico, dry aged 35 days, is robust, well marbled and juicy. The 12-ounce filet mignon, a center-cut Angus tenderloin, had melt-in-your-mouth texture and mild flavor. For max flavor and lusciousness, go with the 18-ounce, bone-in cowboy rib eye. Sides are not afterthoughts. Buttery Yukon mashed potatoes are accented with bits of peel. Roasted brussels sprouts are almost as meaty as the steaks. —KJC
85 Church Street • 732-247-8585
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