The Financial District has more steakhouse history than any other part of the city, and three rooms that are still worth the booking. All of them are within about a ten minute walk of us on John Street, which means you can have a martini and a ribeye and be back in your suite in the time it takes most people to find a cab in Midtown.
A word on timing, because it's the thing that catches people out. These rooms are built around the Wall Street workday. Tuesday through Thursday between 6 and 8pm they're full and loud with people expensing dinner. Monday is quieter. Friday empties out early. And on a Saturday the neighborhood belongs to visitors rather than bankers, which is our favorite time to eat down here.
We've named three. There are other places downtown that serve a steak, but these are the ones we'd put our own name behind, and each one is for something different.
What to book, and when
Call or book online a few days ahead for a weeknight. For a Saturday you can often walk in, though Delmonico's is the exception year-round. If you're bringing a group, ask about the private rooms rather than trying to squeeze a table of ten into a dining room built in the nineteenth century.
If you'd rather cook the steak yourself
Worth saying, because a lot of our guests do it: your suite has a full kitchen, so a good steak and a pan is a real alternative to a $70 entree. It's the kind of week-two move that makes a long stay feel less like living out of a restaurant.
Getting there
Everything on this list is walkable from John Street, and none of it needs a subway. Beaver, William, Broad and Hanover are the old crooked streets south of Wall Street, so your phone will be more use than your sense of direction for the last two blocks. Give yourself fifteen minutes rather than ten if you haven't walked it before.