This amusingly named steakhouse on Beacon Hill is actually every bit as luxurious as the building that hosts it—the XV Beacon Hotel. The menu at Mooo features over a dozen steaks a la carte, with steakhouse sides like decadent Maine Lobster Mac & Cheese. You might mark the night with a 12-ounce Greater Omaha Bone-In Filet Mignon, an 18-ounce Creekstone Farms Prime Bone-In Dry Aged Ribeye, or really indulge in a 6-ounce Japanese A5 Wagyu Sirloin sourced from Kagoshima Prefecture. Any selection can be further spruced up with a puck of Pan Seared Hudson Valley Foie Gras, or surf-and-turf style with Jumbo Gulf Shrimp. We suggest you save room for dessert, though—specifically, the generous plate of five still-warm chocolate chip cookies served with a white chocolate-vanilla bean milkshake.

Boston Chops, two area steakhouses from chef Chris Coombs of Deuxave fame, bring a younger energy to the old-school dining experience. In the South End, the setting is relaxed exposed brick with a dark wood bar. The more dramatic Downtown Crossing restaurant returns to form with floor-to-ceiling marble walls and stunning vaulted ceilings. The menu is a mix of steakhouse classics and chef-driven creations. While you can certainly go over-the-top with choices like an 18-ounce Bone-In Dry-Aged New York Strip or a 20-ounce Chateaubriand, Boston Chops also offers 8-ounce steak frites in four different cuts with a mountain of fries. Whatever direction a meal here takes you, don’t miss out on a basket of freshly baked popovers with plenty of butter.

With white jacket-clad servers, tapestries hanging from its walls, and an entire second floor dedicated to private dining, Grill 23 & Bar is as tony as it gets. Not that the independently owned steakhouse has anything to prove: It’s one of just 100 restaurants in the country to receive a Grand Award from Wine Spectator on behalf of its wine list, and it sources hormone-free, vegetarian-fed steaks from Brandt Beef in California. A visit to Grill 23 might begin with a glass of grower Champagne and an appetizer like American Kobe Steak Tartare with a quail egg and salt and vinegar chips, before slicing into a 10-ounce Filet Mignon or splitting a 32-ounce Prime Porterhouse with a fellow carnivore. No matter what’s on the table, it’s always a special experience.

Accessible only by reservation and cloaked behind a curtain in JM Curley marked “Adults Only,” Bogie’s Place is a pocket-sized “speakeasy steakhouse” hidden between the Downtown Crossing bar and grill and its stylish new cocktail bar, The Wig Shop. Once at Bogie’s Place, you’ll be treated to old-school service and a Rat Pack soundtrack as you peruse a petite cocktail menu of spirit-forward classics and robust Old World wine lists. Cuts of steak range from an 8-ounce Filet Mignon to a 22-ounce Bone-In Ribeye, with accoutrements like herb butter and demi-glace. Should you wish to beef up the meal, you can add sides like Mac & Cheese topped by Ritz cracker crumbs or Pomme Purée. 

Whether or not you hit the casino floor before or after dinner, Rare Steakhouse is a sure bet to impress any lover of the genre. The high-rolling restaurant at Encore Boston Harbor deals in elegance and exclusivity, offering cuts of Japanese Kobe beef not available anywhere else around Boston—at $78 per ounce. The comfortable, contemporary dining room is inviting with sumptuous, white leather armchairs (with matching stools for handbags), but Rare isn’t simply showy. The food and wine selection is worthy of the splurge, from impressive seafood towers with crisp flutes of Champagne, to rich wagyu beef from Idaho, dry-aged in-house and best enjoyed with a custom-barrel splash of bourbon. Though your wallet will tell you otherwise, you’ll feel like you hit the jackpot.

Updated by Jacqueline Cain