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Bisteccheria Sammarco

4 Front St. E., sammarco.ca

1 For their latest project, the team behind Giulietta and Osteria Giulia borrows American chophouse bones—prime cuts, tableside touches, stiff martinis—but swaps the usual dishes for ones rooted in Italian tradition. Out goes the caesar, in comes gem and bibb lettuces in a yogurt-herb vinaigrette. Carne cruda topped with Cantabrian anchovy replaces tartare, and patate al formaggio stands in for potatoes au gratin.

Instead of a laundry list of cuts from a dozen farms, chef Rob Rossi keeps his menu focused: four cuts, all from Cumbrae’s, aged in-house for at least 60 days, trimmed, seasoned simply with salt, pepper and olive oil, and charbroiled. And five pages of the wine menu are devoted to standout Niagara producers. After all, you won’t find a restaurant in Tuscany sourcing its supplies from overseas.

As for the space, it blends chophouse structure with Italian warmth. Oxblood leather booths and dark wood are softened by terrazzo flooring that unintentionally mimics cobbled streets. Overhead, a glowing orb anchors a ceiling that fans out like a Tuscan sunset.

But Sammarco provides old-school steakhouse service through and through, with tablecloths ironed before service and servers in pressed white shirts and black ties. The martini cart plays its part, but the negronis, mixed tableside to order, are pure Italian theatre.

Linny’s

176 Ossington Ave., linnysrestaurant.com

2 At Linny’s, nostalgia isn’t a gimmick; it’s the foundation. Co-owner David Schwartz—best known for his Chinese cooking at Sunnys and Mimi—shifts gears here, returning to the eastern European flavours of his childhood. Linny’s is named for his late mother, Linda, whose presence is felt in subtle details including her hand-written recipes, framed and hanging on the walls.

The menu zigzags from golden, salty fries to challah with fresh cheese and jam, honouring the history of both steakhouses and delis without getting stuck in either tradition. Chicken skin adds crunch to the caesar salad, and the crisp schnitzel is made not from chicken, pork or veal but from tripe.

Canada-sourced steaks are seared in an overfired broiler and brushed with pastrami tallow butter. But it’s the pastrami itself—hand-cut, brined, smoked for 12-plus hours and sliced thick to order—that steals the show. The drinks keep pace with the food: there’s a perfect martini and a boozy borscht milk punch made with aquavit, vodka, organic beet juice, strained kefir, raspberry and rose syrups, and a sprig of dill. And who needs cheesecake when there’s chocolate babka crowned with a scoop of vanilla ice cream?

The dining room channels mid-century cool with terrazzo floors, soft lighting and corduroy banquettes. Like the food, it strikes a balance between memory and modernity. It’s steakhouse glamour with deli soul.

Jacobs and Co. Steakhouse

81 Bay St., 4th floor, jacobssteakhouse.com

3 After 17 years on Brant Street, Jacobs and Co.—easily one of the world’s best steakhouses—has abandoned its dark, moody macho aesthetic for a gleaming, almost spa-like 14,000-square-foot space in CIBC Square.

The move gave Jacobs room to expand conceptually as well as physically. The restaurant’s revered dry-aging program, which sources beef from the best farms in Canada, Australia, Japan and beyond, now extends to seafood. Executive chef Danny ­McCallum and his team have added a raw bar and a room dedicated to fish, with in-house butchers aging tuna, swordfish and organic salmon in temperature-­controlled conditions. Freshly shucked oysters, lobster tails, seafood towers (of both the chilled and warm varieties) and caviar service make up the raw bar’s luxurious offerings. Surf no longer swims in turf’s shadow.

Related: “How I went from being a vegan activist to chef at one of the world’s best steakhouses”

Still, the core of Jacobs remains intact. Meals begin with warm cheddar popovers, caesar salads are still tossed tableside on a custom-built cart, and the side dishes—like duck-fat fries and potato gratin—are as decadent as ever. And with a wine list 6,500 bottles long, there’s something for every oenophile. It’s still Jacobs—just with more glass, more gloss and more gills.

Harbour 60

60 Harbour St., harbour60.com

4 Since opening in 1999, Harbour 60 has been a magnet for celebrities, pro athletes and deep-­pocketed power brokers. A recent multimillion-dollar renovation dialled up the opulence: silver-leaf ceilings, velvet seating, and an abundance of marble, polished brass and leather add a heightened sense of grandeur to the space.

In the kitchen, chef Solomon Mason (whose resumé includes Michelin-starred Alo) delivers a menu that raises the bar on traditional steakhouse fare. The already solid steak program has been refined with an eye toward top-tier sourcing and includes cuts from Canadian Prime and Australian Wagyu. Harbour 60 is also one of the only Toronto restaurants officially certified to serve Kobe beef.

The sides and extras are textbook chophouse: crisp wedge salad with Bleu d’Avergne, black tiger shrimp cocktail, burgers made with ground rib-eye, gruyère-­laced mac and cheese.

The cocktails are classic too, but with an emphasis on top-shelf spirits, like an old fashioned made with Michter’s Sour Mash. And the 21,000-bottle wine cellar ensures there’s a bottle for any dish, mood or milestone. Harbour 60 didn’t reinvent the steakhouse—it just reminds us how good one can be.

Animl

420 Wellington St. W., unit A, animlsteakhouse.com

5 Charles Khabouth’s Animl feels like the funky spawn of Peter Luger and Studio 54. It channels the unapologetic flash of the ’70s with gold-leaf ceilings, animal prints and an upside-down mirrored bull hanging over the 50-seat dining room like a disco ball fever dream.

Executive chef Marc Cheng turns out dishes that are just as showy. There’s a rainbow caviar dip layered with salmon, sturgeon and flying fish roe that’s as much an art piece as it is an hors d’œuvre. And the pastrami is made with richly marbled Wagyu. Even the fries are festooned with a small fortune’s worth of black truffle shavings. But the award for the most extra menu item goes to a $999 surf-and-turf platter, which includes a Wagyu tomahawk with a choice of two sauces (veal jus, chimichurri, bourbon au poivre) plus a lobster tail so big it should have its own seat at the table.