We are looking for a fabulous steak house in Naples. We have been to Cloyde's which we hated(steak was of inferior quality) and to Andre's which had no ambiance but great porterhouse. We made a reservation for Shula's but we have heard mixed reviews. We want AMAZING thick cut beef..atmosphere and appetizer and side dishes are not important. Please let us know. Thanks!

I'm with you. I'd never set food in Cloyde's again, and Andre's had too much attitude for the tacky place they are. I also will pass on Shula's which is primarily the place for the Hilton businessmen to entertain guests. I was not impressed with my steak either.

My favorite is probably Preston's, a tiny spot on 41 just about two blocks north of Fifth Avenue. It is a quiet little, pretty place which is comfortable and you can actually hear each other talk. The steaks are amazing.

Stoney's is also very good. And to be honest, you can't get a better steak than the huge strip sirloin at St. George and the Dragon, which has been here forever. Beatiful nautical interior, but oldfashioned in that they still bring you a side salad, choice of potato, etc. But you can't beat their steaks. Start with a conch chowder.

mypyr, I cannot comment on Naples specifically but your best bet would be to find a place that serves USDA Prime steaks. Big quality difference.

USDA Grades:

· Prime grade - is produced from young, well-fed beef cattle. It has abundant marbling and is generally sold in restaurants and hotels. Prime roasts and steaks are excellent for dry-heat cooking (i.e., roasting, broiling, and grilling).

· Choice grade - is high quality, but has less marbling than Prime. Choice roasts and steaks from the loin and rib will be very tender, juicy, and flavorful and are, like Prime, suited to dry-heat cooking. Many of the less tender cuts, such as those from the rump, round, and blade chuck, can also be cooked with dry heat, but be careful not to overcook them. Using a meat thermometer takes the guesswork out of cooking and assures a safe internal temperature: 145 ° F is medium rare; 160 ° F, medium; and 170 ° F, well done.

· Select grade - is very uniform in quality and normally leaner than the higher grades. It is fairly tender, but, because it has less marbling, it may lack some of the juiciness and flavor of the higher grades. Only the tender cuts (loin, rib, sirloin) should be cooked with dry heat. Other cuts should be marinated before cooking or cooked with moisture to obtain maximum tenderness and flavor.

· Standard and Commercial grades – frequently are sold as ungraded or as "store brand" meat.

· Utility, Cutter, and Canner grades - are seldom, if ever, sold at retail but are used instead to make ground beef and processed products.

Yield grades: Range from "1" to "5" and indicate the amount of usable meat from a carcass. Yield grade 1 is the highest grade and denotes the greatest ratio of lean to fat; yield grade 5 is the lowest yield ratio. Yield grade is most useful when purchasing a side or carcass of beef for the freezer.

Thanks for all your replies. I forgot to mention that we will be will our very well behaved 6 year old daughter, ( but still 6!)so I'm not sure which of Prestons, Stoneys or St. George and the Dragon would be kid friendly. Also, I couldnt find Stoney's on the web. Is it Stoney's Inn or does it have a different name?
Thanks!

I'd think St. George would be the most appealing to a 6 year old -- the interior is filled with things to look at, and friendly waitresses rather than "aloof" waiters -- not that they are unfriendly at Preston's or Stoneys.

No, Stoney's Inn is something else entirely. I'm not sure they have a website, but I was shocked to enter "Stoney's Steakhouse, Naples" in Google and find my name "Fodorite Patrick says. . . " in the third hit. It's an article from Fodors that started from my complaint a couple years ago when they put placards on the table giving you a time limit. Read it and click if you want a good laugh.

By the way, Stoney's was developed by Cloyde Pate -- owner of Cloyde's. I'm not sure why the steaks are so good at Stoney's but not so good at Cloyde's.

Oh, by the way. St. George and the Dragon does not take reservations, but it is a large place and generally not much of a wait. If you want to eat in the main dining room, men must wear a jacket (see, I said it was old-fashioned), but the other rooms are nice as well.

Thanks Patrick for all your info..I did see that thread about your "timed" experience at Stoney's..glad that's changed! We will be heading for St. George's..I just hope there isnt too much of a wait if we go next week during the Christmas holiday!

Patrick, I was just perusing the Naples News dining reviews and saw that Flemings Prime Steakhouse opened up in Sept-October. Have you been or heard anything about it? It sounds pretty good!

A good friend of mine left his long time job as a server at Pazzo's to open Flemings. He worked there about a week and left, returning to his old job at Pazzo. Flemings is a chain, started by Paul Fleming (P.F. Chang's). General reports are that it is good, but not in the class of the real steakhouses -- whatever that means.

A superb steakhouse in Naples?

A Christmas wish at best....


Flemings is a notch above Ruth Chris, a nice experience, very nice wine selection (about 100 wines by glass), wine flights, cigar bar, a la carte menu, VERY expensive.

Umfortunately I have to live with similar choices in Sarasota.


GoTravel,

USDA is very acceptable, but if you want the finest beef in the world, find a place that serves "Kobe" beef. It's very expensive, farmed to very high standards, a Japanese import, but there are "Kobe" beef farms franchized here in US.

Melts in your mouth when it's raw.....

Life is good!


Happy Holidays!

More info on Kobe beef -

What is Kobe Beef?
Kobe beef is considered the most exclusive beef in the world.

Technically speaking, there's no such thing as Kobe beef, it is merely the shipping point for beef from elsewhere in Japan.

What is called "Kobe beef" comes from the ancient province of Tajima, now named Hyogo Prefecture, of which Kobe is the capital.

Real beef connoisseurs, however, still refer to it as Tajima beef. This beef comes from an ancient stock of cattle called "kuroge Wagyu" (black haired Japanese cattle).

Today they are raised on only 262 small farms, most of which pasture fewer than five cows, and the largest of which run only 10 to 15 animals.

Each animal is pampered like a spoiled child. Their diets are strictly controlled and during the final fattening process, cattle are fed hefty quantities of sake and beer mash.

Each animal gets a daily massage. The theory is that mellow, relaxed cows make good beef.

Allen Brothers, a major U.S. distributor of USDA Prime beef and other high-end meats, has seen an eight-fold increase in demand for its U.S.-raised Kobe beef, which sells for as much as $100 per pound, PRNewswire reports. Known for its rich and juicy flavor and extraordinary tenderness and texture, Kobe beef originated in Japan, where it is produced under traditional conditions, including massages and a beer diet, from the Wagyu breed of cattle.

“It's been said that more vegetarians have gone back to eating meat after tasting Kobe beef than for any other reason,” Todd Hatoff, Allen Brothers' executive vice president, was quoted. Allen Brothers' Kobe/Wagyu beef is raised exclusively for the company, in Texas and Iowa, from one of the largest herds of pure Japanese cattle in the United States, with a lineage that can be traced back hundreds of years.

Allen supplies Kobe sirloin strip steaks, filets, ribeye steaks, porterhouse steaks, and tenderloin roast for chateaubriand. Allen Brothers introduced its Kobe beef last summer. “Sales have exceeded our most optimistic expectations, going from 5,000 pounds a week in August to as much as 40,000 pounds in recent weeks,” Hatoff said. "All Kobe beef is not alike. There are degrees of quality and the process of producing the very best can't be rushed. Like fine wine, the finest Kobe beef is not ready before its time. And the supply is almost always limited.”

There is so much distinctive marbling spread throughout Kobe beef, it is often referred to as "white steak." Marbling is the essence of great beef and Kobe beef's ratio of marbled fat to meat is higher by far (as much as 10 times higher) than any other beef, infusing it with unmatched taste and giving it remarkable tenderness. No other breed has such a high content of oleaginous, unsaturated fat.

“The good news is that Kobe is both higher in marbling and lower in saturated fat than any other beef,” Hatoff added. “Our Kobe beef regularly grades 9 or more for marbling on the Japanese grading chart, while USDA Prime, the very best American beef, grades between 4 and 5.”

Sake mash is fed to Wagyu cattle in Japan to keep them on feed and as a source of protein and energy. The diet for the Allen Brothers American Wagyu herd includes beer and liquor mashes, byproducts of the brewing and distilling industries and formulated by cattle nutritionists.

And what about those fabled massages supposedly given to cattle in Japan? Following an age-old tradition, a few Japanese farmers, mostly on small family farms, still do massage their Wagyu on the belief that it will somehow add to the quality of the beef. However, science has conclusively proved otherwise and the practice is rapidly fading. “There are no massages given to U.S.-bred Wagyu,” Hatoff said.

I'll be enjoying Kobe beef next month in Bangkok. Life is good!


Happy Holidays!

I may be in a vast minority, but I don't fully appreciate Kobe beef. And I've tried it twice. The main problem was it was just too tender. I guess what I like about a steak is chewing into it. But for that matter, I've never liked a filet nearly as well as a sirloin, either -- probably for that same reason. I will say it was fine, but not as great and satisfying to me as a wonderfully well aged and well marbled prime US steak. Sorry, just my opinion.

I'm very familiar with it but not tried Kobe Beef however, it seems odd that they get the cattle drunk, message it, then slaughter the cattle.