Meat Your Maker
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Lisa West’s Double Nickel Steak House, Lubbock
• USDA Top Choice
• Wet-aged for 30 days or more
• Broiled at 1,800 degrees
As you walk through dark-paneled doors on a cool West Texas evening, you will be transported to an elegant San Francisco gold rush steakhouse. Deep-red walls and dazzling red linens create a courtly setting, but the dining experience is all about warmth without pretense. Start with luscious inch-thick broiled scallops wrapped in bacon. Then ponder which steak to choose. The flavorful ribeye is offered bone-in or bone-out and brims with rich marbled flavor under a slightly crusty exterior. Even better is the world-class New York strip, cut an inch or more thick and imbued with a marvelous beefy taste. All are served with a choice of potato, fresh-off-the-cob creamed corn, and a slice of Ms. West’s signature deep-fried mozzarella sticks on a blistering plate. As you depart, you will swear you hear the clanging of a cable car. 5405 Slide Rd., 806-792-0055. Dinner Mon—Sat 5—10. Closed Sun.
Killen’s Steakhouse, Pearland
• USDA Prime
• Boneless cuts wet-aged for 35 days; bone-in cuts dry-aged for 21 days
• Seared on a griddle and broiled at 1,800 degrees
Step into this humble roadside restaurant, and you’ll be shocked, shocked to discover white tablecloths and a Cordon Bleu—trained chef. Revelations continue in the appetizer department with richly sauced crab cakes, nicely garnished with fresh lump crabmeat and a giant succulent shrimp. You’ll even find extravagant wet-aged Kobe and Wagyu beef on the menu, for a pretty penny. But you’ll likely be just as satisfied with the towering, abundantly marbled New York strip seasoned with cracked black pepper and kosher salt. Chef and owner Ron Killen, a Pearland native, buys his beef from Allen Brothers of Chicago, and the quality shows. All steaks bear a dark tan from the broiler, and about the only criticism is that they occasionally arrive too rare. While the salad dressings don’t thrill, sides of beautifully fried onion rings and jumbo hollandaise-blanketed asparagus amaze. You’re limited on your wine choices, but there’s no end to the smiles and the homey, small-town welcome. 2804 S. Main, 281-485-0844 or killenssteakhouse.com. Dinner Mon—Thur 5—9, Fri & Sat 5—10. Closed Sun.
Ranchman’s (Ponder Steakhouse), Ponder
• USDA Choice
• Wet-aged for 14 days or more
• Cooked on a griddle
Ask about Grace “Pete” Jackson in this part of north-central Texas, and you’ll hear only nice things. She started this revered restaurant in 1948, and though she died in 1998, her spirit remains. In fact, the spare, rustic dining room looks much like it did half a century ago, from the vintage booths to the wagon-wheel chandeliers. Over the years, it has attracted attention from the Food Network’s Bobby Flay and Playboy magazine, which once held a shoot here. Your waiter may act disappointed if you pass on the calf fries, but you have to be in the right mood (sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t). Be that as it may, the quail quarters make for a tasty appetizer. While the rib steak, served with melted butter on top, is great, many customers’ favorite is the eight-ounce club steak, a surprisingly tender small T-bone minus the usual filet. Two final instructions: Preorder your one-pound baked potato before three o’clock in the afternoon (it’s that good) and don’t even try to stop at one bite of the homemade coconut pie. 110 W. Bailey, 940-479-2221 or ranchman.com. Open Sun—Thur 11—9, Fri & Sat 11—10.
Bohanan’s Prime Steaks & Seafood, San Antonio
Bohanan’s is one of our top three steakhouses in Texas. Read our review here.
Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar, San Antonio
• USDA Prime
• Wet-aged
• Broiled at 1,600 degrees
The salad plates are icy, the smoky mac and cheese is steaming, and the bits of lobster and vegetable tempura are so hot and light they almost glisten. Such attention to detail makes you appreciate how often other restaurants flub quality control. Fleming’s occupies a freestanding building in the Alamo Quarry Market, where it attracts townies and tourists alike. The look is expensive, but not too, with the usual dark woods and warm colors, plus paintings of wine bottles and sparkling glasses that beam a subliminal message your way (“Wine is nice, you want to order wine, very expensive wine . . .”). Appetizers include a good wedge, spruced up with blue cheese crumbles, pretty little grape tomatoes, red onions, and a not-too-sweet ranchy dressing. While French onion soup came off slightly scorched under a sludgy Gruyère, Swiss, and Parmesan topping, that lapse was balanced by a straightforward broccoli side dish with a decent hollandaise. But the pièces de résistance are the steaks: meaty, delicious, and satisfying all carnivorous expectations. By the way, several sauces will be suggested, but don’t bite. The flavors are muddy, and all they do is distract from the pure flavor of excellent Prime beef. And after all, red meat is why you came. 255 E. Basse Rd., in the Alamo Quarry Market; 210-824-9463 or flemingssteakhouse.com. Dinner Mon—Thur 5—10, Fri & Sat 5—11, Sun 5—9. Also located in Austin, Houston, and the Woodlands.
Ruth’s Chris Steak House, San Antonio
• USDA Prime
• Wet-aged
• Broiled at 1,800 degrees
Except for the absence of people walking around wearing mouse ears, San Antonio’s Sunset Station looks like something from a Disneyland Victorian village. In one of the restored nineteenth-century buildings, outfitted with cushy booths, white tablecloths, and flattering lights, is the downtown Ruth’s Chris. Out-of-town visitors keep the place jumping on the weekends, but early in the week it’s so quiet that diners can be seen practicing the all-but-lost skill of conversing without shouting. When you’ve had your fill of talk, definitely order the fabulous “crabtini,” a slawlike salad topped with a king’s ransom of perfect lump crabmeat. Then have the bone-in ribeye. It’s cooked just right and arrives in its own little force field of sizzling butter. The sweet meat close to the bone is only an iota less tender than the notably yielding filet. And as long as you’re indulging in a fat fest, you might as well order the lyonnaise potatoes, which are sliced thin and pan-fried with onions, hashbrown-style. For dessert, try the crème brûlée, sultry under its burnt-sugar topping. It makes a worthy milestone in your lifelong search for the lush dessert’s Platonic ideal. 1170 E. Commerce, 210-227-8847 or ruthschris.com. Dinner Sun—Thur 4:30—10, Fri & Sat 4:30—11. Also located in Austin, Dallas, and Houston.
Backstage Steakhouse and Garden Bar, Spicewood
• USDA Top Choice
• Wet-aged for 28 days
• Cooked on a gas grill
There’s live music on the patio on Friday and Saturday, making it fun to drive out from Austin for dinner and a show. Honestly, if the Backstage were in a big city, you might snicker at the tatty, dated look (fake Tiffany lamps, no less). But amid the junipers and scrub oaks 25 miles outside town, it seems just fine. And no excuses whatever are needed for the likes of the sixteen-ounce ribeye, cooked perfectly medium-rare, or the pounded tenderloin special, crusted in green chile and cornmeal and wonderfully delicious. A pool of ancho-chile butter and an interesting (and good) spinach-and-mashed-potato flat-style enchilada complete the picture. The treatment is not surprising given that the chef is Raymond Tatum, who headed up highly regarded Jeffrey’s in Austin in the eighties, when Southwestern cuisine was in its heyday. On the other hand, another edgy special, tenderloin drizzled with a bizarrely sweet soy concoction, should probably be skipped. Most desserts are a little sugary, but the fantastic crusts on the pies (like a fruity coconut-buttermilk) will bring childhood Christmas memories flooding back. Marcel Proust would understand. 21814 Texas Hwy. 71 West, 512-264-2223 or backstagesteakhouseaustin.com. Dinner Sun & Tue—Thur 5—9, Fri & Sat 5—10. Closed Mon.
Line Camp Steakhouse, Tolar
• USDA Prime
• Wet-aged for 28 days
• Grilled over pecan
Most people have only one complaint about the Line Camp: that they aren’t eating there right now. The atmosphere at this spot about fifty miles southwest of Fort Worth? Like a ranch house that’s been in your family for generations. The service? Friendly and comfortable—you’re just as likely to talk with your server about high school football as the extensive wine list. As for the food, start with the baked jalapeños wrapped in bacon and stuffed with pork sausage, cheddar, and cream cheese. Then move on to a crisp, fresh salad with pineapple-mango vinaigrette. Regulars love the eight-ounce flatiron, a flavorful and tender cut of shoulder beef. Even more lush is the eight-ounce tenderloin, judiciously seasoned and served perfectly medium-rare. You’ll do well to order the side of ranch beans loaded with bacon and have the homemade peach cobbler for dessert. As you leave, it might just happen that the classic song “Wings of a Dove” comes on the sound system—it’s the one Robert Duvall’s character sings in the movie Tender Mercies after his daughter leaves—and if it does, you’ll think, “This is exactly what a Texas steakhouse should be.” 4610 Shaw Rd., 254-835-4459 or linecampsteakhouse.com. Open Thur 11—9, Fri & Sat 11—10, Sun 11—3. Closed Mon—Wed.
