Steakhouses have main character energy. Coming across them in movies or television, it’s easy to picture yourself seated next to Don Draper and Roger Sterling entertaining clients over martinis, or imagine overhearing John Travolta’s character order his steak “bloody as hell” in Pulp Fiction’s “wax museum with a pulse,” as he describes the restaurant. Steakhouses are bold and dramatic spaces, often sporting red leather booths, moody lighting, and platters of grilled meat — and across the country, diners can’t seem to get enough of them lately.
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Over the past year (and with many more to come), major cities across the country are experiencing a steakhouse resurgence. James Beard Award-winning chef Kwame Onwuachi and restaurateur Stephen Starr are hot for steaks as of late, with respective openings in Vegas and Miami in the past month alone. These new steakhouses represent trends playing out across the country, such as pairing sizzling meats with global flair, as seen at the new Mexican-leaning Cuerno in NYC and Argentine import Brasero Atlántico in D.C. These aren’t your grandfather’s steakhouses, either, with many throwing in fun elements like Skee-ball, Caribbean flavors, and high-fi listening bars.
Below are some of the most significant steakhouse openings that have either occurred over the past year or are soon on the way, representing a cross-section of cities across the country.
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.
The fourth installment of Bazaar Meat by José Andrés may be the celebrity chef’s most personal one to date. Set inside the tony Waldorf Astoria Washington D.C., Bazaar Meat replaces his Spanish Japanese restaurant Bazaar (which opened in 2023), marking the global humanitarian’s first new restaurant in years on his home turf. At Bazaar Meat, his fire-fed offshoot for carnivores gaining steam across the country, a menu prepared with international techniques is split into sections like Our Big Guys, Cooked José’s Way, which features massive prime cuts of bone-in New York strips from Oregon and rib-eye chuletons from Texas. Diners start their meal here the Spanish way, waving over the trained cortadora de jamón to carve impossibly thin ruby slices of the prized pig.
2535 S. Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas, NV
Come April 24, Tatiana chef Kwame Onwuachi will expand his reach beyond the northeast and into Miami with the new Maroon, a Caribbean steakhouse tucked inside the Sahara resort casino. At Maroon, Onwuachi will combine the classic American steakhouse with the island diasporic flavors that he loves to explore. In the center of Maroon will be a custom-made live fire jerk pit. The team will serve steaks, seafood, and sides full of the Caribbean’s many spice blends, with an emphasis on jerk techniques. The interior is equally ambitious and seats 125 diners, with private dining rooms and a bar-lounge for drinkers.
545 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA
San Francisco chef Marc Zimmerman staged his steakhouse comeback by opening Superprime Steakhouse in mid-2025. The San Francisco chef is known for his expertise in handling meats over fire at Alexander’s Steakhouse, plus his notable wagyu steakhouse, Gozu. In June 2025, Zimmerman closed his Japanese-influenced listening bar, Yokai, and converted the space into Superprime Steakhouse. It’s already grabbed San Francisco’s attention by serving a 2.5-pound porterhouse, a bone-in filet, and a New York strip prepared over a wood grill with a compelling charcoal-roasted bone marrow add-on. The wagyu arrives at the table as skewers or 3-ounce cuts, and there’s plenty of Japanese-imported seafood, like the uni toast with duck confit over milk bread. And because hi-fi listening bars are all the rage throughout California, the vintage 1970s-era JBL Pro Series studio set the sound levels just right.
9700 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, Florida
East Coast restaurant wizard Stephen Starr seamlessly transformed his sushi spot Makoto at the Bal Harbour Shops into the throwback steakhouse of his dreams in March. The “who’s who” of Miami Beach almost forget they’re in a mall as soon as their Chanels step into this glam new portal to the Roaring ’20s to clink together lychee martinis and devour 36-ounce Owner’s Choice Delmonico, impeccable rib-eyes, and dedicated American and Japanese wagyu sections that cap out at $210 for an 8-ounce strip. Starr’s clearly in his high-steaks era as of late, which includes his well-received Chez Frites in Atlantic City. Starr is so proud (and protective) of the beef program, he won’t divulge the ranch he exclusively sources from. Slim’s also showcases some of the restaurant magnate’s best sellers from other restaurants, including the $100 foie gras-topped cheesesteak made famous on his Philly home turf at Barclay Prime (where it’s even pricier at $140).
5311 S. Lake Park Avenue, Chicago, Illinois
James Sanders’s story is already legendary. In 2024, the Chicago chef opened one of the nation’s most celebrated barbecue spots, Sanders BBQ Supply Co., which still draws a steady queue of customers waiting to try his barbecue, which uses techniques that date back to the Great Migration. Sanders says he’s on track to open his next project, Sanders BBQ Prime, where his team, including pitmaster Nick Kleutsch, will grill meats with Asian, and Caribbean flavors. He’s reluctant to call it a steakhouse, though steaks, lamb chops, and other meats will be cooked on a live fire in front of diners. Side dishes already sound like must-haves, including a sweet potato salad, and popcorn prepared with smoky beef tallow. Taco meat will be thrown on the grill the second it’s ordered, and they’ll hand out samples while casual service takes place cafeteria-style with a tray and a charming dining room. Sanders BBQ Prime will open its doors on the lower level of the former Promontory music venue in June 2026 — hopefully, he says, on the same weekend as the Obama Presidential Center debut, which is less than a mile away in Hyde Park.
86 Bedford Street, New York, NY
Eugene Remm and Tilman Fertitta, the hitmakers behind Catch Hospitality Group, gifted the West Village an uber-exclusive, “neo-speakeasy” steakhouse in September, and a visit from Taylor Swift cemented its hot-spot status early on. With just 10 tables, the Eighty Six remains the hardest reservation to secure in the city (with no openings for the foreseeable future). Those lucky enough to get in are seated in brown-leather booths and get the red-carpet treatment from chef Michael Vignola (best known for Soho’s wildly successful Corner Store). Rib-eyes and porterhouses cut and aged beneath the century-old bar join luxe foie gras-topped filets and a cheesesteak made from 72-hour Australian rib-eye. The seafood here also takes center stage, including oysters with gin-celery mignonette and well-dressed shrimp cocktails topped with horseradish snow.
1801 N. Shepherd Drive #B, Houston, TX
Star Rover is quite possibly the quirkiest and most fun steakhouse of the year. Certain cues are a dead giveaway, with red and white checkered tablecloths, a Skee-Ball section, a bar lined with decorative cowboy hats, and a sparkly midcentury neon sign illuminating the entry. Operator Ford Fry, who was embroiled in controversy in 2024, closed his former Tex-Mex restaurant Superica in January and quickly replaced it less than two months later with his casual steakhouse, Star Rover. The families will love the milk rolls, onion rings, and potato skins served with Star Rover’s T-bone, skirt, burgers, or rib-eye grilled on a plancha and slathered generously in butter. Crab cakes, shrimp cocktail, and a deep-fried lobster tail are ultimate crowd pleasers. Those with a bottomless pit have one hour to finish a 76-ounce steak, milk rolls, salad, onion rings, and fries to receive a free meal, T-shirt, and a sign on the wall that says, “I Ate the 76er.”
117 Cherry Street, Black Mountain, NC
A steakhouse with a Japanese bent opened just east of Asheville in December, bringing “America’s Prettiest Small Town” a fine dining destination for koji-marinated rib-eyes, local wagyu, and unique game meats like elk loin. Named for chef and longtime local Jake Whitman’s culinary grandmother, Beverly, Bev’s Steak embraces the state from start to finish. Family-owned cattle farm Brasstown Beef supplies beautifully marbled meat that’s cut in-house and seasoned with Spicewalla spices and Sichuan peppercorns.
970 N. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles’s next unique steakhouse will come from a team that operates a tea and cocktail space in Chinatown’s Mandarin Plaza: Souu LA. Steep was initially launched as a pandemic pop-up by owners Samuel Wang and Lydia Lin in 2020, who expanded it into a popular late-night tea-infused spirits, savory cocktails, and Asian bar bites spot called Steep After Dark. The partners took over an adjacent space (the shuttered Angry Egret Dinette) to serve traditional Taiwanese breakfast in the daytime hours, then shift to a Taiwanese steakhouse inspired by iron-plate steaks made famous in Taiwan’s night markets. In 2025, the crew started serving steak platters out of Steep and at pop-ups throughout the city. At the moment, Souu operates out of Downtown’s weekly food and retail bazaar, Smorgasburg, which is where fans can find a preview. Souu’s steakhouse represents a first for Chinatown, a neighborhood that typically leans into its Asian roots, but this time courtesy of an innovative team that’s bucking tradition.
1066 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.
The Buenos Aires-born standout made a sizzling stateside debut last October, impressing discerning D.C. diners from the start with a striking, 2,000-pound custom oven grilling up the prime cuts of meat Argentina is known for. While its wood-fired steaks, like a 24-ounce tenderloin, rib-eye, or New York strip, steal the spotlight, Brasero also pays extra attention to its pastas, which honor Argentina’s 19th-century wave of Italian immigrants. Founder Renato “Tato” Giovannoni is a Renaissance man of sorts, converting what used to be D.C.’s oldest firehouse into the ambitious two-part project that includes Florería Atlántico, his award-winning basement bar that pours his own line of vermouth.
1271 Avenue of the Americas, Time & Life Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, NY
One of Midtown’s most anticipated openings of 2025, high-energy Cuerno lives up to the buzz by serving some of the best steaks in the city, all set to upbeat guitar music. Cuerno marks the first American restaurant from the Costeño Group, which oversees a vast portfolio of restaurants in Mexico and Spain. Gargantuan tomahawks and rib-eyes parade around in tandem with tableside margs dusted with a chile-crusted rim, and Cuerno’s standout salsas also have a fast following. Family-owned ranches on the pristine grasslands of South Dakota provide the richly marbled cuts of beef, which get the dry-aged treatment, a shake of flaky Colima sea salt, and a sear over a Josper charcoal grill before finally landing on the plate. Cuerno finally got a buttoned-up Manhattan neighborhood to let its hair down in a soaring space that resembles an open-air hacienda, all wrapped up in a tequila-soaked bow.
1500 San Ignacio Avenue, Coral Gables, Florida
Daniel’s Miami achieved the near-impossible in its first nine months of service — debuting at No. 40 on the World’s 101 Best Steak Restaurants list for 2026, the only spot in Florida its undercover steak inspectors deemed worthy of the choosy ranking. In short, Daniel’s must be doing something exceptionally well. A world-class steak program overseen by culinary director Daniel Ganem showcases a swath of premium cuts from ranches both near (Florida) and far (Tasmania), including 10-ounce wagyu skirt, 36-ounce porterhouse, and 32-ounce tomahawk, which join next-level sides like creamed spinach with local Malabar greens. A prime rib cart roving around the white-tablecloth dining room is also a crowd-pleasing feature at its older Fort Lauderdale sibling, though the Miami edition is the clear breakout star of the two.
