7 Popular Steakhouse Chains That Seriously Overcharge

A steak dinner: It's the first thing that comes to many American minds when it's time for a celebration. Whether it's a graduation, anniversary, birthday, pay raise, Olympic medal, or Nobel Prize, we're reserving tables at Outback Steakhouse to Bavette's and everything in between. As Alton Brown said in the first-ever episode of "Good Eats", "Steak is a food born of wide-open spaces and big skies. Even today, when the closest most of us come to a horse is the saddle on an exercise bike, steak still calls out to those with brave appetites."

We're so in love with steak dinners and steakhouse ambience that we go right ahead and look past the often obscene price tags that come along with these celebratory nights out. It's so difficult to get that steakhouse taste at home. After all, not all of us are Alton Brown (and in New York, we definitely don't have his counter space). So we return once again to the warm embrace of the all-American steakhouse, damn the expense. But some of the markups at these chains are enough to make us rethink the steakhouse celebration after all.

A staple for New Yorkers and tourists alike for decades, Peter Luger has suffered a few rough years. First, a 2019 New York Times review delivered a shocking body blow to the venerable old fighter. Written by critic Pete Wells and headlined "Peter Luger Used to Sizzle, Now it Sputters," the review tore into Luger's for inconsistent service and product, stating point blank that "you start to wonder who really needs to go to Peter Luger, and start to think the answer is nobody." Next, Luger's had its Michelin star revoked by the prestigious guide, which again cited inconsistent service and underwhelming product and nearly knocked Luger's to the canvas.

Going solely by the menu, and the prices (which are two different things but we'll get to that), you'd never know any of this negative press had seen daylight. Their online menu, annoyingly, has no prices listed. Steakhouses will often leave the dollar amount off for psychological effect, for example, listing "Porterhouse for Two 150" rather than "Porterhouse for Two: $150.00 makes the expenditure seem less real. But this extreme version of the trick, giving no prices at all and leaving diners to research the fact that Luger's charges $18.00 for its (very, very) old school sliced tomato and onion appetizer isn't a great look given their current reputation. 

Back in 1997, the New York Times praised Smith & Wollensky as the most consistent of New York's steakhouses, cementing it as a go-to for the multi-million dollar business lunch crowd for the ensuing decades. If Luger's was too far away for your break, Smith & Wollensky sat conveniently in Midtown East, close to some of the largest office complexes in the city and an imposing edifice in its own right, the classic steakhouse architecture of the original S&W building fitting New York's self-image perfectly.

Like Luger's, however, Smith & Wollensky has come under fire for a significant decline in service that doesn't seem to match the ever-inflating price tags on its menu. The $29.00 crab cake (singular) at their Vegas location, for example, will start a fierce competition between your mouth and your eyes regarding which one should start watering first. Reading reviews of Smith & Wollensky locations is a complete crapshoot, with some loyalists standing staunchly by while others, like The Guardian's Jay Rayner, found the entire experience more than a bit disappointing.

After waxing poetic in classic across-the-pond fashion about how easy it is to cook "chips" i.e. fries, Rayner delivers his verdict. "We sent back the chips because they were tepid and under-cooked. They returned to us hot and undercooked. And in that one example of carelessness and lack of attention to detail, you know all you need to."

Bourbon Steak, celebrity chef Michael Mina's small chain of steakhouses, might play into the "Aw, heck, it's a celebration" vibe more egregiously than any other establishment on this list. Would you like half a dozen different foie gras options, including simply having dollops of the stuff brought to you on a platter? Or perhaps a $45.00 Old Fashioned washed in wagyu beef fat? If your arteries are still functional, brave reader, continue on. One reviewer's six-ounce steak (yup, just six) ended up costing him $98.00 when the smoke cleared. For $16.00/oz, one could create the fanciest charcuterie board ever, practically festooned with Jamon Iberico, for less than a meal at Bourbon Steak might cost you.

Even in Michael Mina's stomping grounds in California, folks have been noticing a decline in quality for some time now. An SF Gate review from as far back as 2012 had praise for neither the service (inattentive, scattershot), the wine (too warm, especially considering the price), nor the veggies (barely seasoned). In the ensuing years, Mina has opened outposts of his steakhouse in Miami, New York, Nashville, and more. But at around $250 per person, is just another link in the chain worth it? Probably not.

Fleming's is an interesting entry on this list. One would think that a steakhouse born in Newport Beach, California, home of no less a red-meat-loving American icon than John Wayne, would fit the bill perfectly for that family outing. They even offer a three-course children's menu that treats your tykes like grown-ups. Norman Rockwell couldn't have painted a better picture of a celebratory steak night if there was an Elks Lodge meeting going on in the background.

But the reality of Fleming's is much more akin to Smith & Wollensky during its business lunch heyday. It has to be said that as much as the steak dinner is the perfect everyman's special occasion, it's also still a lever of power in the business world. So if you're hoping for an intimate anniversary dinner, the atmosphere might leave more than a bit to be desired. Clouded by moneyed testosterone in a way that reminds us of a Sharper Image catalog from the early 1990s. Everything, from the decor to the conversation you're likely to overhear, to your palms when you behold the prices, is drippingly slick. Cocktails will run you around $20 each, and the steak options can soar into the triple digits. The coup de grace, a $179 shellfish tower, seems to encapsulate the vibe. If you're expensing it so you can tell people you ate there, godspeed: if you want a nice steak dinner with the family, your wallet will thank you to skip it.

Winners are a different breed, who work hard and never quit claims Shula's Steakhouse. Opened in 1989 by NFL coach Don Shula, who led the Miami Dolphins to an undefeated season in 1972, Shula's Steakhouse wants to exude quiet perfection. They also expect you to pay for it. A lot. Even by steakhouse standards, the markups at Shula's are double-take inducing. If you start your meal with a Maker's Mark Old Fashioned at their Chicago location, you'd be shelling out $20. Now, there are more expensive cocktails on this list, but they at least work with much better bourbon. Not in the mood for hard liquor? A domestic light beer is $11. One drink in, and with tip and a party of two is already pushing $50, and that's without even touching the wine list.

Then the food arrives. If you'd like some bread for the table, it's a la carte from the appetizer menu. A braised pork belly app is nearly $30, and a Caesar Salad is $19. All sides are a la carte and average $15 each. Yes, charging for everything is part of the bit for some fine dining experiences. However, needling the customer for an extra $5 for peppercorns with their $70 7-oz filet seems a bit much, even for a restaurant that claims the slogan "Still undefeated."

If you treat The Palm as a two-for-one deal, art gallery and restaurant, it might psychologically soften the beating your credit card is about to receive. The Palm's tradition of caricatures originated in 1920s New York, when some of its early costomers—cartoonists from the King Features—"sang" for their supper in original art. Now the walls of the Palm's many outposts tend to be covered in these works, spanning nearly a century.

Founded in 1926 by Pio Bozzi and John Ganzi, whose thick accents meant their business name, Parma, was mislabeled as "Palm," the Palm is now a household name with branches across the U.S. and Mexico. And it's easy to see where all the expansion money came from. Starting with their classic steakhouse apps, we find another crab cake pushing the $30 mark, while the meatball (again, singular, but admittedly hefty) is $20, as is the bacon and bbq sauce, similar to Luger's. Why anyone would feel it necessary to use wagyu in a lasagna is a stumper, but if you absolutely have to try it, it's $38 in their needlessly fancy "Italian favorites" section, as though classic Italian needed an upgrade. Even the simple sauces for your $60-$80 cut of meat from the regular dinner menu can cost as much as a Big Mac. Meanwhile, the ultra-luxe "Butcher's Selections" push (and sometimes surpass) $100.

Morton's is all about "The Experience." There's even a whole multi-part section about it on their site. Pageantry is the name of the game at this ubiquitous chain, which makes sense considering the origins of Morton's go back to the Montreal Playboy Club, where Arnie Morton and Klaus Fritsch began marketing their "million-dollar hamburger." Nowadays you can still expect showmanship from Morton's, if not consistency. If you care most about your steak choices and desserts being paraded to your table on a cart, Morton's might still impress you.

If, however, you're wary of restaurants who require everything that can be dubiously wagyu-ified is dubiously wagyu-ified, you might not feel you're missing much. The 10-oz Wagyu filet, for example, is $109 ($115 if you feel you absolutely must baste it in $6 garlic butter), and one can't help but feel like those willing to shell out for it are subsidizing the regular old USDA Prime. Same with the mildly infuriating wagyu meatballs and wagyu pot stickers, which feel something like using a $50 Japanese cantaloupe in a melon ball cocktail.