Smith & Wollensky

My husband took me here for my birthday this year. The special salad was a perfect (but very large) starter for evening. We followed that with one Roquefort topped filet mignon and one salmon - I usually pass on restaurant salmon because I like my own preparation, but this was divine. It has the most delicious sauce...can't quite place all the ingredients. We also had a side of hash browns (a MUST for any potato lover). We each had a glass of wine and split a coconut cake for dessert. Needless to say, I was stuffed at the end of the night...stuffed, but fully satisfied! My steak was a perfect medium rare with enough tenderness and juice to make every bite melt in my mouth. The one flaw to eating here is that it is a big spot for business dinners, so the majority of your fellow diners are suits dining (and drinking, sometimes loudly) on corporate accounts. more

My medium-rare porterhouse was absolutely heavenly in accompaniment with this mystery thick yellow colored and mouth watering dipping sauce. Now what was the name of that sauce? It was a Béarnaise sauce! Bearnaise pretty much consists of an egg yolk, shallots, a little tarragon vinegar, and butter. Smith and Wollensky is a classic old-school style steakhouse with red checkerboard tablecloth. I highly recommend this steakhouse if you are having that carnivorous craving for red meat. p.s. I sat at a table next to Keith Hernandez who was watching me scarf down my porterhouse! more

It's men, men, men in suits of all sorts, enjoying masculine meat platters amidst touches of patriarchal Americana. It feels like the kind of place Sinclair Lewis characters would have gone to celebrate a deal, loudly ordering New York cut sirloin, Porterhouse steaks and T-bones. Everything is oversized, including the lobster, which weighs in from 3-13 pounds. Victor Chavez is the chef, who also touts his Maryland crab cakes, grilled chicken breast, and Cajun-spiced filet mignon. If you think you need an appetizer before all this, there's shrimp cocktail, lump crabmeat cocktail, and lobster cocktail. Here you'll find a steakhouse that focuses on an American cuisine an emphasis on steaks. more