Best Steak House 2015

Best Steak House winners of Vancouver Magazine’s 26th Annual Restaurant Awards

• Gold: Hy’s Encore
• Silver: Gotham
• Bronze: The Roof at Black + Blue
• Honourable Mentions: The Keg, Hamilton Street Grill

 This category produced a top-to-bottom replay of last year’s champions, underlining the notion that steak houses are an invention for which adherence to tradition is expected and rewarded. Hy’s Encore (Gold) is so traditional, seemingly nothing within its dark-wood-panelled walls has changed since the ’60s. Young or old, everyone comes here for what they always have: Prime Grade beef, wedge salad, good wine, supremely deferential service, and—praise the heavens!—a quiet room. Think of Gotham (Silver) as the swaggering younger brother of Hy’s: a modern iteration of its forebear that hits many of the same decadent notes. Yes, the porterhouse is $70; no, this is neither the time nor place to care. (Plus, it’s huge.) The Roof at Black + Blue (Bronze) liberates the steak house from its acrophobic heritage, transporting it from a red-velvet bunker to a high-flying penthouse party. Yet while its look and feel (and newfangled appetizers like mac-and-cheese sticks) might scream sacrilege, your New York strip has been prepared with decidedly old-fashioned reverence. Honourable Mentions: The Keg, Hamilton Street Grill