Bob's Steak and Chop House

Description:

• Consistently ranked one of the top steakhouses in the country, Bob's -- back up and running after a recent fire -- has the requisite masculine look down: dark and clubby with mahogany booths and crisp white table linens. But its steaks set it apart. Bob Sambol serves monster portions of wet-aged (a difference that steak connoisseurs will recognize), corn-fed Midwestern prime beef and sirloin filets. And they come accompanied by "smashed" potatoes, heavy on butter, bits of chopped onion, and a honey-glazed whole carrot. That adds up to a ton of food. The porterhouse weighs in at 28 ounces; the signature, though, is a 20-ounce, bone-in prime rib broiled like a steak. Other entrees worth considering include a perfect rack of lamb, veal chop, and lobster. And the chophouse salad -- mixed greens with cucumber, tomato, bell pepper, onion, bacon, and hearts of palm -- is splendid. Bob's is a bit homier than other big-time steakhouses; even though it gets plenty of businessmen in suits and boots, if you're not wearing a jacket, you won't feel out of place -- especially in the back room, where diners don denim. Serious cigar smokers are in luck, especially if they catch one of Bob's cigar dinners in which every course is served with a different cigar. Popular outposts of Bob's are now located in Plano (North Dallas) and even -- heaven forbid! -- San Francisco.

• © Frommer's 2013

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Highly Recommended 2010