If you love a perfect steak, New York City is the place for you. Long famous for classic steakhouses serving the highest quality U.S.-raised beef in tasteful surroundings, New York is home to some of the most highly regarded steak restaurants in the United States.

Whether you’ve booked a short or long stay in New York City, you’ll enjoy the experience of eating at a proper steakhouse. Though they have some points in common — they all use USDA prime meat, and offer a tantalising array of appetisers and desserts to bookend your meal — these steakhouses each have their own unique hooks that keep customers happy, satiated and coming back for more. It’s not unusual to hear of families of New Yorkers who have been dining at the same steakhouses for generations.

The only question is, which steakhouse should you enjoy on your holiday? Let’s look at some of the restaurants that get top reviews from steak lovers.

Keens Steakhouse

Keens Steakhouse is a city institution and not only for its meat. Founded in the 1880s, this place has become famous for its huge collection of smoking pipes — they have about 50,000. That’s not to say that the food at this restaurant is lacking. Serving lunch and dinner on weekdays and dinner on weekends, as well as offering pub food for those not wishing to splash out quite so much, Keens has enough variety to keep everyone in your party happy, even if they prefer chicken or seafood to steak. The steaks served are cut from USDA prime meat and dry aged on the premises. In price, mains range from $50 to $60 per person.

Keens is located on West 36th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.

The Knickerbocker Bar and Grill

For live music and steak in a neighbourhood standard, the Knickerbocker Bar and Grill in Greenwich Village gets top marks from locals who love the atmosphere and food and appreciate the affordable pricing. The Knickerbocker puts on live jazz performances on Friday and Saturday nights (reservations recommended) and that, coupled with cosy wood panelling and understated decorations, make this restaurant a place you’ll want to come back to on your next trip to New York. The Knickerbocker serves lunch, brunch and dinner, with prices for mains ranging from $20 to $50 per person.

The Palm

One of the oldest steakhouses in the city, the Palm is a family-owned restaurant with four New York City locations as well as a few dozen across the USA and even in other countries. To get the real New York experience, visit their busy flagship restaurant, still at the original address on Second Avenue. Here, lunch is served from Monday to Friday and dinner from Monday to Saturday. Prices for mains are not published on the restaurant’s website, but expect to pay $30 to $60.

Peter Luger Steak House

While in Brooklyn, find time for a meal at the understated but undeniably good Peter Luger Steak House. This is the type of steakhouse that relies on doing just a few things and doing them well. Founded 125 years ago, it keeps to older traditions of cooking steak. The dinner menu, for example, offers only porterhouse steak, lamb chops or fish — and if you are dining with a group, you choose a steak large enough to be divided among the people present. The lunch menu is also spare and offers daily specials with an alternate static choice of steaks, lamb, burger or fish. Get a glimpse of the menu on the restaurant’s website. There is also a Peter Luger Steak House in Great Neck, Long Island.

The Strip House

With two locations in New York and several others across the country, the Strip House has built an enthusiastic following of diners who rave over the signature New York Strip and rib-eye steak and enjoy the upmarket, red decor. At the restaurant’s East 12th Street location, the Strip House offers dinner only, seven days a week, while at the West 44th Street (Midtown) location dinner is served daily and lunch on weekdays. The Midtown location offers a prix-fixe lunch menu for $39, while both locations offer dinner mains between $40 to $60.

If you loathe the idea of a meal without a good piece of beef — if you balk at those veg-heads who think soy can replace finely grilled meat — you won’t go hungry in New York City.