The Absolute Best Restaurants For Prime Rib In NYC
With its deep, beefy aroma, richly marbled interior, and juicy presentation, prime rib has long been the centerpiece of holiday tables, celebratory dinners, and classic steakhouses. Many people believe the word "prime" refers to a USDA designation, but in truth, it refers to the location on the cow — the primal section, between the shoulder and the loin — from which the beef is cut. In other words, the prime rib is taken from the middle of a cluster of 13 ribs in the cow's midsection. When served with a side of hearty mashed potatoes, it's hard to beat. But it can also be a bit of a hassle to make at home, including deciding which type of prime rib to buy, such as the luxurious dry-aged prime rib or the standing rib roast.
Amid all this uncertainty, we suggest delegating your prime rib experience to a restaurant that knows what it's doing, and there are certainly plenty of those in New York City. For this reason, we've put together a list of the best restaurants in the city where you can get good prime rib, basing our recommendations on a combination of personal experience, professional and amateur reviews, and the level of care each restaurant puts into its prime rib dishes. We looked at restaurants known for serving great food in general, those with highly skilled chefs who use fine ingredients, and the spots that put a lot of dedicated care into the texture and flavor of their prime rib.
4 Charles Prime Rib
With a name like that, it's no surprise that 4 Charles Prime Rib has made the list of best prime rib joints in the city. While all the options on its menu — steak or otherwise — are delectable, its prime rib takes the proverbial cake. It offers four different cuts of prime rib, including a thinly sliced English cut, a thicker Chicago cut, a bone-in King cut, and the pièce de résistance, the 4 Charles Cut: Gorgonzola-aged prime rib served with horseradish cream and natural beef jus. According to many a Google reviewer, the latter two options in particular have added up to the best prime rib they've ever had.
Not for nothing, the place has received widespread attention from the world's top food intelligentsia. The World's 50 Best Restaurants has given it high praise, it's been featured in the Michelin Guide, and The New York Times often mentions it as a worthy destination. The only drawback, if there is one, is that it may take you a while to get a reservation. It's one of the hardest tables to land in NYC, on account of its small space and the tendency of its patrons to stay awhile.
(212) 561-5992
4 Charles St, New York, NY 10014
Keens Steakhouse
This place is widely praised for its meat in general, but it is especially recommended for its especially large King's Cut prime rib. Many people across social media and within the professional food critics' circles say this 140-year-old restaurant has the best prime rib in town, citing size, marbling, and meat quality. Indeed, Keens is an institution and has been around since 1885. Although the restaurant is also known for its mutton chop, the prime rib is just as, if not more, beloved. And one should expect no less from a restaurant with its own cold-aging room and an executive chef, Bill Rodgers, who worked under Thomas Keller for many years.
Not only that, but you can enjoy the dish in an atmosphere of old-school steakhouse charm complete with excellent martinis, a few dozen oysters on the half shell, and a crackling fire in the bar area. And don't forget that you'd be gracing the same hallowed rooms as a slew of historical figures who patronized the restaurant, including Theodore Roosevelt, a well-known meat lover.
(212) 947-3636
72 W 36th St, New York, NY 10018
The Grill
The spit-roasted prime rib at The Grill is especially tasty. The exterior is rubbed with a Montreal-style rub, then the meat is slow-roasted before being finished off on high heat to lock in its flavor. The prime rib is then carved at the table in two different styles — a practice that is at once performative and practical, as it gives diners the option to choose their preference then and there.
And don't let them walk away without serving you the jus (not that they would, as the service is impeccable). The jus is saturated with drippings from fatty brisket for maximum flavor and mouthfeel and is prepared separately from the prime rib itself. Between all that and the fixings that go with the meat -– which may include horseradish cream and Dijon mustard, and sides like marrow grits -– you would be hard-pressed to find a better meal in the city, prime rib-wise or not.
(212) 254-3000
99 E 52nd St, New York, NY 10022
Smith & Wollensky
Having great prime rib is a must to be included on this list, but so is consistency, and Smith & Wollensky has that in spades. The restaurant keeps its prime rib simple, serving it in its own juices, and when you have good-quality prime rib, there is hardly any need to add bells and whistles. Indeed, Smith & Wollensky's prime rib is one of its most recommended dishes by both Eater and NYMag, with one meat expert even naming it as the last meal they'd like to have on Earth, should it come to that.
What makes this prime rib so special? In brief, Smith & Wollensky sources its beef from high-quality farms. Its meat aging techniques and reputation have allowed it to expand across the U.S. and set up a number of highly successful restaurants. More specifically, the prime rib is huge (26 ounces). It's covered in kosher salt, and after being dry-aged in-house for 18 days, it's roasted for three hours and doused in a jus made with thyme, bay leaves, and stock. For best results, enjoy it with the house hash browns.
(212) 753-1530
797 3rd Ave, New York, NY 10022
Gallaghers
The prime rib at Gallaghers comes highly recommended by Grub Street for its size and funk and by Eater for its color, texture, and mouthfeel. It is especially appreciated for its tenderness, tang around the bone, and the plentiful jus, which can be used to flavor sides. Indeed, the restaurant is so careful about how it prepares its meat that it has its own meat aging locker, which is a legendary fixture of the restaurant and is in full view of the public. The fact that Gallaghers dry-ages the prime rib in house, something most prime rib doesn't undergo anyway, puts this dish a cut above the rest.
That alone should be enough to draw you to Gallaghers for its prime rib, but it's not the only reason the restaurant is popular. The place is an institution, having been around for nearly a century, and it serves up plenty of old-school charm with its generous martinis, red leather seating, and occasional "Godfather" music theme. It's also worth stopping at the bar at Gallaghers, a fully stocked, hoppin' venture that used to be a speakeasy.
(212) 586-5000
228 W 52nd St, New York, NY 10019
La Tête d'Or by Daniel
It's hard to go wrong with a restaurant by Daniel Boulud, a celebrated New York chef with many successful ventures in the city. But it's even harder to go wrong if you order the prime rib at La Tête d'Or by Daniel, a French-style steakhouse. Some even consider it to be the best thing on the menu, and it's easy to see why. The rib — adorned with an herbed crust and decadent fat cap and with meat described as so tender that it melts in your mouth — comes out to your table on a trolley, where it is sliced and served, accompanied by creamy spinach, mashed potatoes, a peppered popover (try saying that last part really fast), and sauces diners rave about on Google.
If those sides don't appeal to you, the restaurant offers a number of other good options, including the fries. You might also want to leave room for dessert, because the restaurant is also known for its thick, velvety ice cream sundaes, which come in some unusual flavors, like cassis or coffee-cardamom.
(212) 597-9155
318 Park Ave S, New York, NY 10010
Quality Meats
Restaurants that toot their own horns in their names don't always live up to expectations, but Quality Meats does, and then some. All the meat at this New York steakhouse staple is quality, and special consideration is given to the prime rib. The double tomahawk dry-aged prime rib with caramelized jus and horseradish is a mouthful in and of itself, and it comes with caramelized onion jus and horseradish cream to boot. Google reviewers have widely described it as tender, flavorful, and cooked to perfection.
If a tomahawk sounds like a big commitment, especially for a price tag of $95, don't worry, because you can expect nothing but quality here, and it serves locally sourced meat. You are also in the hands of the son of the founder of Smith & Wollensky. Enjoy your meal in the designer industrial-chic dining room that firmly establishes Quality Meats as a landmark modern steakhouse that is here to stay.
(212) 371-7777
57 W 58th St, New York, NY 10019
Methodology
After scouring the menus of the New York City's best known steakhouses or meat-forward spots, we zeroed in on the restaurants that offered exceptional prime rib as defined by the quality of the meat used, the tastiness of the sauces and accouterments, the advanced level of cooking techniques, and/or the level of attention dedicated to the dish, made apparent by preparation techniques for the meat, the rub, the accompaniments, or all of the above. Next, we looked at amateur and professional reviews of these restaurants, noting which ones had the most mentions of outstanding prime rib.