Are These NOLA's 'Ultimate' Steakhouses?

It's been a sad winter for food reviews without Times-Pic critic Brett Anderson launching the beans at unsuspecting restaurants, but the head beanie baby is finally back in action after a break for new-fatherhood. On top of recently lambasting the JBFAs and unleashing his top 10 dishes of early 2015, today Anderson debuts his ultimate guide to steakhouses in New Orleans.

New Orleans, Anderson reports, is 'one of America's great steakhouse towns' and the offerings have never been better.  Making the 'ultimate' guide are longtime 'blue-collar' operations like Charlie's and Crescent City Steaks,  alongside hometown super chain Ruth's Chris and newer spots including La Boca.  Here's what Anderson has to say about the thirteen steakhouses that made the cut.

Besh Steak: "Besh Steak is a good value" and "has benefited from talented staffs."

Charlie's Steakhouse: "Still carries the torch for the blue-collar New Orleans steakhouse tradition

Chophouse: "The food and service puts this at the very top of the local steakhouse class."

Crescent City Steaks: "To offer a bare-bones menu of butter-sizzled steaks in a tile-lined dining room— has yet to go out of style."

Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse: "If Galatoire's swallowed Morton's."

Doris Metropolitan: "A chic restaurant whose state-of-the-art kitchen is never better than when it's fussing over red meat."

Keith Young's Steakhouse: "Cut-to-order steaks are flavorful and well cooked."

La Boca: "The flank, hanger and skirt steaks here amount to some of the most flavorful beef found in New Orleans."

Mr. John's Steakhouse: "Few local kitchens get steaks as perfectly right as consistently as this one."

Ruth's Chris: "Cherished by local steak-lovers for good reason... steaks served on hot, butter-spitting plates."

The Steakhouse: Steaks are cut to order at this "intimate, storefront restaurant with exposed brick walls is a steakhouse with the heart of a mom-and-pop café" in Hammond.

The Steak Knife: "Bridges the chasm between neighborhood joints and the expense account places."

Young's: The steaks "rival the best in the city, and the beef and seafood mash-up of its menu is timelessly southeast Louisiana."

Are these the ultimate steakhouses in New Orleans? Leave a comment and tell us what you think.