Sam Sifton, responding to a reader’s request for reasonably-priced steakhouses in Manhattan, reminds us why, romantic celebrations aside, good restaurants are often more agreeable than fantastic ones.

The easy answer is Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecôte , on Lexington Avenue and 52nd Street, where there’s an inexpensive prix-fixe steak-frites dinner available that is hardly top-tier but that certainly fulfills the mandate for a good steak dinner. It’s like eating in a Paris designed by the people who were behind Horn & Hardart. Another option, though, is to voyage south to the financial district, where you can reliably find a good steak dinner at Harry’s in the basement of the old India House on Hanover Square, and another at the blue-collar financial services tavern that is Bobby Van’s on Broad Street. These aren’t cheap restaurants, but they’re fairly priced and enjoyable ones in which you can have a good steak and a better conversation with your family. That is sometimes the whole and complete point of going out to dinner.

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
This entry was posted on Friday, September 24th, 2010 at 10:30 am.