Keens Steakhouse

Order the mutton chop, 26 ounces of year-old lamb two inches thick, broiled at 1,000 degrees so the outside cracks.2 It costs $73 and arrives with mint jelly and escarole.1 Keens opened here in 1885 and 45,000 clay pipes still hang off the ceiling.1

Why go

Keens sold in late 2024. Tilman Fertitta paid $30 million for it.1 Two years on, Zoe Becker reports the same staff, the same general manager, the same food and the same pipes. The other reason to come is the bar, which takes walk-ins only and keeps a rack of hard-boiled eggs out for free.2 The clock on that wall runs about ten minutes slow.

The house started as part of the Lambs Club, a private theatrical society, until the theatre producer Albert Keen took it over in 1885 and ran it as a restaurant of his own.8 It stayed men-only until Lillie Langtry sued in 1905 and won; the upstairs room carries her name.8 And the chop has been lamb, not mutton, for at least twenty years. Frank Bruni put that in the Times in 2005 and it is why the meat tastes of lamb rather than sheep.4

Order this / avoid

Order: the mutton chop. If 26 ounces beats you, the specials board carries a Taste of Mutton at appetizer size.2
Order at the bar: a Martini or something off the two hundred-odd single malts, which sit under an oil painting of a reclining nude with the eggs beside them.7
Order: the prime rib hash, which lives on the pub menu and not the dining room card. It is caramelized potato studded with prime rib under a runny fried egg.2
Order: creamed spinach at $17 and a martini. Becker rates the martini the true measure of a steakhouse and says Keens passes.1
Avoid: counting on the king's cut of prime rib. Becker calls the $89 slab a good bet1 and The Infatuation found it unpredictably seasoned and unevenly cooked and sends you to the salt-crusted porterhouse.2 Two reviewers, one plate, no agreement.

What locals & experts say

Zoe Becker, Eater NY, 5 August 2026: the mutton chop is my favorite meat dish in the whole city. It has a super-crusty exterior and is gloriously juicy inside.1
Molly Fitzpatrick, The Infatuation, 6 March 2025, rating it 9.0: you're sitting in the same seat, biting into the same two-inch-thick piece of well-marbled mutton—the kind of dish you'd be hard-pressed to find elsewhere in our current century.2
Frank Bruni, reviewing it for The New York Times in December 2005, on the chop after he had established it was lamb: it can wear whatever label it pleases, because it provides about as much pleasure as a carnivore could want.4
The Infatuation's steakhouse guide, on where Keens sits in the field: Keens has been around since 1885, but unlike some legacy steakhouses, the food at this Midtown spot is actually good.6
Ligaya Mishan, keeping it on the paper's hundred best in May 2026 at two stars, on the detail to look for: the bow-tied waiters who point out the mouse hidden in the painting of the noble tiger (can you find it?).5
PUNCH, on the ceiling: the pipes belonged to the Pipe Club, and the named ones include Teddy Roosevelt's and Einstein's.7 Gothamist adds Babe Ruth and J.P. Morgan to the membership.9

Good to know

Booking: book the dining room. Becker reports it full nearly every night.1
Walk-ins: the bar takes them, and most of the pub menu comes with it.2
Souvenir: a Keens churchwarden pipe costs $45 at the restaurant.1

Jeff's take (his words)

Note: "An institution"

Verdict

must-visit — Ask what is upstairs when you book, because the Bullmoose, the Lambs and the Lincoln are rooms rather than one dining floor. At the bar, order in the direction of a Manhattan or an Old-Fashioned.

Keens Steakhouse.