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Steakhouses in Boston: Twelve Rooms Between Back Bay and the Seaport

Boston Steakhouses, Massachusetts

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The 761-793 Boylston Street block, Back Bay, Boston

Twelve rooms, and they sit in two clusters about a mile apart. Four hold Back Bay: Grill 23 on Berkeley Street, Abe & Louie's and the Capital Grille on Boylston, and Davio's on Arlington at the corner of the Public Garden. Four more hold the Seaport, all of them built or rebuilt in the last twenty years — Mooo on Melcher Street, Del Frisco's and Ocean Prime on the harbor side of Northern Avenue and Seaport Boulevard, and Mastro's Ocean Club out on Fan Pier. Smith & Wollensky sits between the two on Congress Street in Fort Point. The last three are downtown: Mooo's original room on Beacon Hill, Bogie's Place behind a curtain on Temple Place, and Ruth's Chris in Old City Hall on School Street.

  1. Berkeley at Stuart, Back Bay. The default answer when a Bostonian is asked where to eat a steak.

  2. 793 Boylston, between Exeter and Fairfield. Start with the hand-cut beef tartare and sit outside under the awnings.

  3. 900 Boylston, in the Prudential Center. One room inside the city; Chestnut Hill and Burlington are the other two in the state.

  4. 75 Arlington, at the Public Garden. The veal chop is the one to order if someone at the table does not want beef.

  5. 294 Congress Street, Fort Point — not Back Bay. Ask for a table over the channel.

  6. 140 Seaport Boulevard, in 100 Pier 4. The terrace opens for the warm half of the year.

  7. 49 Melcher Street. The younger of the two Mooo rooms and the easier one to get into.

  8. Second floor at 250 Northern Avenue. The 45-day dry-aged cuts are the reason to come, per the house menu.

  9. 25 Fan Pier Boulevard, beside the ICA. Furthest out on the water of the four Seaport rooms.

  10. 15 Beacon Street, in the XV Beacon hotel. The original room, and the quietest steakhouse on this page.

  11. Through jm Curley at 25 Temple Place and behind the curtain. Fifteen minutes' walk from any Back Bay room and nothing like them.

  12. 45 School Street, inside Old City Hall. The building is the reason to pick this branch over any other.

Back Bay

Four rooms inside a few blocks of each other, and the longest-established name on the page is among them.

Grill 23 & Bar is at 161 Berkeley Street, on the corner with Stuart, and it is the room most Boston steak arguments start from. The house does not publish a dry-aging program, so this page does not describe one.

Abe & Louie's is at 793 Boylston Street between Exeter and Fairfield, with a sidewalk terrace under black awnings; hand-cut beef tenderloin tartare sits at the top of the menu ahead of the steaks. The operator's only other room is in Boca Raton, Florida.

The Capital Grille holds 900 Boylston Street in the Prudential Center, and it is the only Capital Grille inside the city — the operator's own locations list puts its other two Massachusetts rooms in Chestnut Hill and Burlington. The chain began in Providence, Rhode Island in 1990 under Ned Grace, and Darden Restaurants acquired it in 2007.

Davio's is at 75 Arlington Street, and it is the one room here that files itself as Northern Italian. Its own description leads with "Davio's signature Northern Italian steaks, veal chops and handmade pasta creations" — steaks first, and that ordering is why the room is on this page and a bistro with a good steak is not.

The Seaport and Fort Point

Five rooms across the channel, four of them on the water.

Mooo Seaport is at 49 Melcher Street, with private rooms it calls the Hearth, the Study and the Library. Del Frisco's Double Eagle is at 250 Northern Avenue, on the second floor above the harbor, and it runs a 45-day dry-aged prime strip and a 45-day dry-aged prime ribeye, according to the restaurant's own menu, alongside Japanese A5 and Snake River Farms wagyu.

Ocean Prime is at 140 Seaport Boulevard in the 100 Pier 4 building, with a main dining room, a lounge, three private rooms and a seasonal terrace; dry-aged New York strip and bone-in ribeye are the two cuts it singles out. Mastro's Ocean Club is further out at 25 Fan Pier Boulevard, by the Institute of Contemporary Art, working bone-in ribeye, porterhouse and Japanese A5 wagyu from Miyazaki.

Smith & Wollensky is the one that moves the cluster count. It is not in Back Bay: the operator's own restaurant page puts it at 294 Congress Street in Atlantic Wharf, a brick corner building with green awnings in Fort Point, five dining rooms behind a European-style exposition kitchen, and a bar and patio over the Fort Point Channel. USDA Prime steaks, and no aging duration the house is willing to print.

Beacon Hill and Downtown Crossing

Three rooms, and two of them are hard to find from the street.

Mooo…. is the original, in the XV Beacon hotel at 15 Beacon Street on Beacon Hill, with a wine cellar, a parlor suite and a rooftop deck behind the dining room. The group runs a third restaurant in Burlington, outside the city and outside this page.

Bogie's Place is at 25 Temple Place in Downtown Crossing, and you reach it by walking through jm Curley and behind a curtain — the operator's own words are "make your way through the hustle and bustle of jm Curley". No ticket, no admission, no separate event: a reader can walk in and dine on the room's own terms, which is the whole test for a steakhouse inside a larger venue. White tablecloths, leather seats and caviar service, and the operator calls it a speakeasy steakhouse.

Ruth's Chris is at 45 School Street, inside Old City Hall — built between 1862 and 1865 to designs by Gridley J. F. Bryant and Arthur Gilman, one of the first French Second Empire buildings in the country, and a National Historic Landmark since its 1970 designation. The chain itself started as Chris' Steak House in New Orleans in February 1927 under Chris Matulich; Ruth Fertel bought it in 1965 and it took her name in 1976.

Frequently asked questions

Why is Back Bay four rooms and not five?
Because Smith & Wollensky is not in Back Bay. The survey that scoped this page had it at 101 Arlington Street; the operator's own restaurant page puts it at 294 Congress Street in Atlantic Wharf, which is Fort Point, on the far side of the channel and a short walk from the Seaport. The room did not change, the address on the page did, and the cluster count follows the address.
What makes a room a steakhouse on this page?
Steak has to be the menu's center of gravity, plus the beef-centric genres — churrascaria, Argentine parrilla, Japanese wagyu counter, Korean-style beef room. That line does real work in Boston at exactly one address: Davio's is a Northern Italian kitchen with veal chops and handmade pasta on the same menu, and it is here because its own lead sentence puts the steaks first and the pasta after. A brasserie or a bistro with a famous steak is not on this page, and casual national chains are not either.
Is Bogie's Place really a separate restaurant?
Yes, on the test this survey uses: a room inside a larger venue counts if a reader can walk in and dine on its own terms, without a ticket, an admission or entry to a separate event. Bogie's Place sits behind jm Curley at 25 Temple Place and takes its own reservations, with its own menu and its own dining room. Sharing a doorway with its host is not disqualifying — a stadium gate would be.
How many Mooo rooms are in Boston?
Two: the original at 15 Beacon Street in the XV Beacon hotel on Beacon Hill, and the Seaport room at 49 Melcher Street. The group runs a third in Burlington, outside the city limits this page measures inside.
Why are the Seaport rooms all recent?
Because the neighborhood is. Four of the twelve stand on land that was parking lots and port apron within living memory, and the buildings they occupy — 100 Pier 4, Fan Pier, the Melcher Street blocks — went up around them. Boston's older steak addresses are the Back Bay ones and Old City Hall on School Street, which has been a building since the 1860s and a steakhouse only lately.
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