Peter Luger's

Situated just over the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn, Peter Luger's Steak House has long been the holy grail for meat lovers. The restaurant has been named the best steakhouse in New York City by Zagat Survey for twenty-four years in a row. The only payment options at the restaurant are cash or the Peter Luger credit card. The menu is surprisingly sparse to first time diners, with the only entrees being porterhouse steak for one to four, lamb and salmon. Their most famous supplementary dishes are shrimp cocktail, beefsteak tomato and onion salad (served with their famous steak sauce), German fries, creamed spinach, and pecan pie. Steaks are served pre-sliced on an inclined plate so that the juices run down. Further, the edges of the plates are heated to approximately 400 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing diners to cook their steak further if they so choose. Peter Luger also serves hamburgers, which are only available for lunch.

Nobu

Nobu New York, the flagship restaurant of Chef Nobu Matsuhisa, has been a pioneer for Japanese cuisine since its opening in 1994. The inspiration for Nobu is drawn from both classical training at sushi bars in Tokyo and Chef Matsuhisa's life abroad in Peru, Argentina, and around the world to create a whole new trend in Japanese cuisine. The resulting dishes, including the famed Yellowtail with Jalapeno, Squid Pasta, and Black Cod with Miso, make Nobu the restaurant innovator of new style Japanese food. The restaurant's design evokes the beauty of the Japanese countryside with its natural textures, birch trees, wood floors and a wall made of river stones. The restaurant's perennial popularity and devoted following are a tribute to Chef Matsuhisa's putting his own spin on traditional Japanese cooking.