[title type="h3"]Dozen Best Value & Specialty Steakhouses[/title]
Steakhouses play two different identity games. One side of the category makes a big deal over the pedigree of its beef, claiming high grades, special breeds, aging, and other matters that they hope will keep customers from focusing on the lofty prices such steaks command. We have a list of those premium steakhouses here. .
The restaurants listed below also consider steak a specialty. But instead of stressing the intrinsic merit of the beef (which is often very fine), the cooking methods, sauces, and cut of beef are the attractions. The prices tend to be lower than in the deluxe steakhouses--sometimes by quite a large margin. Also included here are a few restaurants which, while not really steakhouses, have a distinct emphasis on steak. (Merely having a good steak dish is not enough for this list.)
1. Crescent City Steak House. Mid-City: 1001 N Broad. 504-821-3271. This is the steakhouse that set the standard for New Orleans's great beefeating tradition. The bubbling butter idea started here, as did the idea of serving only top-quality beef aged in house. In its second generation the Crescent City hasn't changed much over the years. It still looks like a neighborhood cafe. The side dishes are still just okay. But they now have a bit of seafood. Prices are significantly lower than in any comparable steakhouse.
2. La Boca. Warehouse District & Center City: 870 Tchoupitoulas. 504-525-8205. The most unusual of local steak specialists, La Boca serves beef the way they do in Argentina. All the familiar cuts are here, but so are some unfamiliar ones: chuck tenderloin (a.k.a. bistro tenderloin), flatiron, hanger, and flank. Best of all: skirt steak. Offbeat appetizers and sides, too.
3. Charlie's Steak House. Uptown 3: Napoleon To Audubon: 4510 Dryades. 504-895-9705. The sizzlingest restaurant in town, little changed even after a Katrina-enforced total renovation. No claims are made for grade, and the trim leaves a lot of inedible bits in place. But for fans of T-bones (best cut), there is no better steakhouse. Best onion rings in town.
4. Austin's. Metairie 3: Houma Blvd To Kenner Line: 5101 West Esplanade Ave. 504-888-5533. Austin's has all the major cuts of beef, buys excellent quality, and serves the beef with the finesse and excitement as a steak house. But the menu goes on to make the place a general Contemporary Creole restaurant, and its steak prices are attractive.
[caption id="attachment_42841" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Filet mignon (tournedos, really) at Pardo's.[/caption]
5. Pardo's. Covington: 69305 Hwy 21. 985-893-3603. Pardo's is the only five-star restaurant on either of our steak lists, an award it wins for the polished food throughout its menu. That the place should offer two or three excellent steaks on its menu is unusual (although LeRuth's did it, back in the day). These are not merely for people who eat nothing but steak, but stand with the best dishes here.
6. Pascal's Manale. Uptown 3: Napoleon To Audubon: 1838 Napoleon Ave. 504-895-4877. Manale's is so famous for its barbecue shrimp, oysters and veal that its house filet mignon and strip sirloin are disregarded by most customers. I say that they are excellent by any standard, and priced at bargain levels.
[caption id="attachment_26047" align="alignnone" width="399"]
Steak kew, new style.[/caption]
7. Trey Yuen. Mandeville: 600 Causeway Blvd. 985-626-4476. Think of steak in a Chinese restaurant, and you think of diced beef of indeterminate origin, hiding among the stir-fry vegetables. Not here. In the steak kew and Hong Kong steak dishes, you find big chunks of either ribeye or tenderloin, seared the way a steak should be, juicy in the center. At around $20, these are the most expensive dishes on the menu. Still a bargain from any perspective.
8. Tujague's. French Quarter: 823 Decatur. 504-525-8676. Tujague's has always had a beautiful filet mignon with garlic butter on its menu, even in the days when they had one prix-fixe menu. In the new age of Tujague's that started two years ago, the steak has become even better.
9. Chateau Du Lac. Metairie 1: Old Metairie: 2037 Metairie Rd. 504-831-3773. The classic French bistro worldwide always includes "steak frites" on its menu, and so it is at Chateau du Lac. It's a hanger steak, but chef Jacques Seleun knows how to get the most out of that. He also runs a strip sirloin or a filet mignon with classic French sauces.
9. Chateau Du Lac. Warehouse District & Center City: 857 Fulton St. 504-301-0235.
10. Young's. Slidell: 850 Robert Blvd. 985-643-9331. Young's has been one of the best restaurants in Slidell since it graduated from being a hamburger joint to a major steakhouse in the 1960s. Steaks here have always been much better than the pricing of the menu imply. The cooking takes place on a hot grill that kicks up enough smoke to add flavor. Still hard to find; you have to use your instincts once you're a mile and a half from Gause on Robert.
11. Andy's Bistro. Metairie: 3322 N. Turnbull Dr. 504-455-7363. Andy's Bistro lately had a major chef and menu change, with good results. The masculinity and youthfulness of the place shifted the emphasis to simpler cooking. With that change came more steaks, with all the major cuts now represented and acquitted handsomely, with prices in the low $30s.
12. La Carreta. Mandeville: 1200 W Causeway Approach. 985-624-2990. It is well known that you can raise the level of your Tex-Mex meals by going for the one or two steak dishes on the menu. La Carreta has quite a few such dishes, employing Certified Angus Beef in good cuts. Particularly fine are the skirt steaks and the Monterey cuts.
12. La Carreta. Covington: 812 Hyw 190. 985-400-5202.
