From classic, mahogany-filled steakhouses to seafood spots right by the ocean, the US has some seriously upscale restaurants for diners looking to splash out on a special occasion. We’ve scoured the country for the most expensive restaurant in every state worth visiting, based on the priciest main course and excluding places that only offer prix fixe or tasting menus.

Birmingham has a few high-end restaurants (with high prices to match), although Perry’s tops the lot with its 6oz Wagyu Beef Rib-eye or New York Strip, $115 each. Thankfully it’s as mouth-watering as the cost is eye-watering, so it’s worth the splurge for a special occasion. The wagyu has limited availability but there are plenty of other pricey steaks to choose from including the Prime Tomahawk Rib-eye, $99.

An espresso-rubbed Angus rib-eye, served with fingerling potatoes and a bordelaise sauce, is the priciest main dish on the menu at Crow’s Nest, which itself nestles in the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage. It’s priced at $58, though specials such as king crab legs, sold by market price and weight, often cause more wallet damage.

Once again, it’s steak that breaks the bank at this restaurant inside the sleek Fairmont Scottsdale Princess hotel. Bourbon Steak has options from an 8oz hanger steak, $43, right up to the dizzy heights of the 3oz Japanese A5 and 4oz American rib eye, $168. It is a hefty size though, so you may have some leftovers to make the best-ever steak sandwich the following day.

A fillet of Australian wagyu beef goes for $160 at Arthur’s Prime Steakhouse, whose menu focuses on prime meats and seafood. This is definitely a special occasion place with an atmosphere as classy as the food. Tables are tucked in alcoves and corners for a cozy, exclusive feel. The place also offers a swanky surf ’n’ turf with Japanese Kobe and lobster tail, at market price (in other words, if you have to ask).

California is home to some of the most expensive restaurants in the country, including famous Michelin-starred spots like Saison, French Laundry, and Atelier Crenn. Aside from these and others that serve only prix fixe tasting menus, the award for priciest main course goes to Capo, whose Prime Rib Chop costs $89. Other splurge-worthy dishes at this chic Italian eatery include Dover sole for $89. It’s known for its fabulous wine list too – so expect to splash out.

EDGE restaurant is part of Denver’s Four Seasons hotel, so it’s perhaps not that surprising it’s the most expensive around. The menu has a mix of comfort food (such as truffle mac ’n’ cheese), seafood, and fine cuts of beef. While nothing is exactly cheap, the latter is where it gets really pricey – a 6oz Wagyu New York Strip Steak goes for a whopping $195. Perhaps not one for everyday dining then, but the sleekly stylish dining room is a great choice for a special meal.

Another steakhouse, another wagyu steak guaranteed to put a dent in your bank balance. The priciest main at David Burke Prime is the 16oz Boneless Japanese Wagyu Beef Rib-eye, at $250. There are a few other menu items creeping up not far behind, though, including the delightful combination of caviar and tater tots, costing as much as $200.

A dry-aged long-bone ribeye costs $95 at Sullivan’s, and that’s just the meat. Sides, sauces, and other upgrades (like crab-stuffed shrimp) will set you back a little extra, so by the time you’ve added appetizers, desserts, and drinks, the check is likely to be a pretty hefty one. These are top-notch ingredients though, so diners won’t feel short-changed.

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With its stretch of coastline and waterways, Fort Lauderdale is known for some great seafood restaurants. Lobster Bar Sea Grille is among the most exclusive, with its signature main of twin South African cold water lobster tails – lightly fried and served with lemon, butter, and honey-mustard aioli – the most expensive single dish at $76. There are some heftily priced sharing dishes too, like the Shellfish Tower for $110.

The majority of Georgia’s most expensive restaurants exclusively offer fixed menus, although Elizabeth on 37th is an exception. It’s certainly a suitably luxurious setting for a special meal, with a series of classically decorated dining rooms set within a grand Victorian mansion. The menu isn’t prohibitively expensive, with the priciest main a pepper-crusted beef tenderloin in a madeira cream sauce, $54.95. It does occasionally offer a chef’s tasting menu, with seven courses for $115.

Freshly caught seafood, sold according to market price, tends to be the most expensive thing on offer at this classic, long-running spot helmed by Japanese-American chef Roy Yamaguchi. Off the usual menu though, the honor goes to the 14oz open fire grilled rib-eye, with Big Island Boursin cheese and a cabernet demi-glace sauce, $69.

Chandlers specializes in top-quality steaks and seafood, so it’s unsurprising that the menu is on the steep side. Meat doesn’t come much more flavorsome, butter-soft, and expensive than the Bull’s Eye Rib-eye, $110 for 10oz. Add some sides and one of the aptly named ‘over the top’ embellishments like the à la rossini, a sauce made with foie gras, wild mushrooms, and a port reduction, and one plate can easily push past the $200 mark.

Chicago’s renowned dining scene includes some spectacular (and spectacularly expensive) tasting menus, allowing chefs to showcase seasonal ingredients with flair. Beautiful Brindille sticks with classic à la carte options, with fine French cuisine like the boneless rib-eye with hedgehog mushrooms and shallot Bordelaise – the priciest main at $98. It isn’t the most expensive thing on offer here, though. That gilded, diamond-encrusted crown goes to the Beluga Hybrid Reserve Caviar, $275 for just over 1oz.

The history of St Elmo is enough to justify its steep prices. The classic steakhouse has been going since 1902 and many of its dishes, such as the signature shrimp cocktail, have been served here from the very beginning. It’s long-standing for a reason, with even its priciest main – the Tomahawk Rib-eye for $135 – worth a splurge. For the ultimate surf ’n’ turf, you can add lobster tail for an extra $55.

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Splash by name, splash by price tag. The Royal Surf & Turf, combining a tender 8oz fillet steak with lobster tail and Alaskan king crab leg, will set you back $159. Surprisingly, it isn’t the priciest thing on the menu. The colorful restaurant’s Oyster Bar has some real wallet-busters, such as caviar (up to $200) and shellfish platters for $140.

Stylish Story, right on the Kansas-Missouri border and close to Kansas City, isn’t cheap by any means, but it’s good value when you consider the quality of ingredients and cooking. The priciest main is the 6oz Wagyu Rib-eye, served with potato puree, zucchini, and roasted tomato sauce, for a reasonable $48. There’s also a regular special of soft-shell crab, which goes for market price.

Jeff Ruby’s is a small chain with various sites in the region, and the Louisville location is a favorite with people celebrating special occasions and get-togethers. The dining room is suitably glitzy and glamorous, with vintage-style artwork on the walls and sultry low lighting. The prices are anything but low though – a 6oz wagyu filet mignon will set you back $168.

A tomahawk steak is the priciest main at R’evolution at $185 for two, although other choices like the Colorado Rack of Lamb, $56, come pretty close. Like all of the food served at this plush restaurant, the meats are infused with Louisiana Creole flavors, and cooked perfectly. Other decadent dishes include a house-made pasta with black truffle and a range of caviar.

Aside from chef’s tasting menus, restaurant prices in Maine are generally pretty reasonable. UNION Restaurant, a sleek space in the Press Hotel serving seasonal New American cuisine, has a compact menu of dishes made with regional produce. The most expensive main here is the Market Steak, at market price, served with fine herbs and potatoes.

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As suggested by the name, Bygone is inspired by another era: the 1920s. The glamor drips from every inch of decor, while the location, on the top floor of the Four Seasons with views over the city, adds to the sense of occasion. Which is just as well, because the prices on the classic seafood and rotisserie menu are also sky-high. The most expensive main is the Maine Lobster, stuffed with blue crab and drizzled with butter seasoned with Old Bay, at market price.

Even a bowl of pasta can cost you $160 at this slick French spot in Boston. Mind you, that’s a bowl of pasta topped with shavings of Alba truffle. Surprisingly, there’s a pricier main on the menu at Menton: a fillet of wagyu beef with carrots, Yorkshire pudding, and sour cherry sauce, for $200. If you have a little change leftover, there's also caviar on the menu, with prices up to $300 for 1oz.

This swanky, modern spot has suitably swanky prices, with a wagyu strip steak costing a whopping $185 for 6oz. Slightly more affordable is the porterhouse, $155 but hefty enough to share, and the Dover sole, $80. These are quality ingredients impeccably prepared, so nothing is cheap, but there’s a variety of wood-fired meats, raw bar specialties, burgers, and seafood to suit slightly smaller budgets too.

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The Oceanaire Seafood Room specializes (as the name suggests) in seafood, and catch-of-the-day specialties dominate the menu. One of the most expensive is the premium red king crab, served with drawn butter, setting you back $125. Lobster tail, from Australia, is also on the steep side at $119, and there are some hefty steaks available too. The small chain also offers a very posh surf ’n’ turf with filet mignon and lobster tail, $98.

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It’s the steaks that are high once again at BR Prime in Mississippi’s popular coastal area, Biloxi. The restaurant, inside the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino, specializes in top-quality cuts of beef prepared by the in-house butcher, as well as some excellent seafood like lobster tails, oysters, and hand-dived scallops. A bone-in rib-eye will set you back $84, while a 40oz tomahawk rib-eye – enough for two – is $145. You can even top your steak (and top up your check) with some lobster or crab meat.

This elegant restaurant, inside Kansas City’s Union Station, dishes up small plates, seafood dishes, and prime cuts of meat such as the co-called Kansas City Strip, a bone-in rib-eye steak priced at $80. It’s the priciest main dish at Pierpont’s, although steeper still are the seafood towers, costing up to $198 – generous enough to share between at least two.

This plush restaurant, part of the Northern hotel, focuses on regional, seasonal ingredients and flavors for its dinner menu, where the priciest main is the aged rib-eye steak, a hefty $63 (and extra if you want more than one side or an upgrade of king crab legs, scallops, or foie gras). TEN also serves some more unusual creations, such as its lobster risotto, with arborio rice, leeks, tarragon aïoli, and Parmesan.

At old-school steakhouse 801 Chophouse a JPL seafood platter will set you back $280. For that, you do get the best of the best: a 2lb lobster, 12 jumbo shrimp, a 1lb king crab, and 12 delicious oysters. You’ll have to fork out extra for sides though, with choices from scalloped potatoes to lobster mac ’n’ cheese sold separately at this small Midwest chain.

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It’s not surprising that there are many glitzy, high-rolling restaurants tucked within the bright lights of Vegas. Among Michelin-starred spots with tasting menus that require a small mortgage, Jean Georges Steakhouse – in the swanky Aria resort – has the most expensive à la carte menu. This is one of a handful of restaurants in the US certified to sell official Kobe beef, which explains the price: a 3oz steak is $201, and the biggest 9oz option is a whopping $603. Sides, of course, are sold separately.

You do get sides with the prime bone-in rib-eye at Hanover Street Chophouse, which takes some of the sting out of its $71 price tag. It’s the most expensive main on the menu, although a few others – including the $69 Surf and Turf, with filet mignon and lobster tail – come pretty close. Diners with more money to burn might want to start the meal off with a Seafood Tower, $112 for the ‘colossal’ size.

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New Jersey has an impressive number of high-end restaurants to rival New York’s scene, although most of the priciest places exclusively offer tasting menus. Mediterranean fish house Varka bucks the trend with an à la carte menu that requires big bucks. Most of the seafood is sold by weight, with Dover sole the priciest fish at $55 per lb. Given that the average weight is around 3lbs, that’s a pretty hefty price tag before you’ve even looked at the side dishes.

Chef Fernando Olea’s cooking at Sazón is influenced by his Mexico City roots, as is the decor. The warm, off-white paint is brightened by beautiful paintings, sculptures, and ceramics, all of which are for sale. You might be tempted if you have any cash leftover after forking out for impeccably cooked dishes like Popocatepetl, an Angus tenderloin encrusted with spicy black pepper and served with snow peas and jasmine rice. At $55, it’s the most expensive main dish.

New York City is home to some of the world’s most expensive restaurants including Masa, a dizzyingly brilliant Japanese restaurant with equally dizzying prices. Beyond the world of chefs' tasting menus, the spot with the most expensive main course is La Grenouille, a beautiful, flower-filled French restaurant that’s been on the Manhattan scene since 1962. The menu changes according to the seasons, although one of the mainstays is the Classic Sole with Dijon Hollandaise, the priciest choice at $88.

For once, the priciest steak on the menu isn’t wagyu beef, although that will set you back $75 for 3oz. At steakhouse chain Del Frisco’s, it’s the Prime Tomahawk that takes the crown as priciest main dish, costing $130. You can save a little cash by making it a meal for two with side dishes, an extra $20. Although steak dominates the menu here, other dishes include a Colorado Lamb Rack ($77), high-end seafood, and a Roasted Cauliflower Steak ($30).

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North Dakota has a number of expensive steak restaurants, and Cork’ n Cleaver has the priciest main course by a matter of a few dollars. Its Corks Pride, a 14oz center cut taken from the finest part of a sirloin, goes for $44.95. Not too bad, considering it comes with a choice of two sides and warm sourdough bread with whipped honey butter.

The grandeur of the setting makes dinner at Marble Room worth the hefty check. Tables are arranged around marble columns and beneath the original pressed ceiling of a 19th-century former bank building. The food is suitably fine too, with a range of seafood dishes, steaks, and raw bar treats including caviar, an ounce of which will set you back $135. Of the main courses, the Miyazaki Wagyu Strip Loin is the most expensive at $140 for the minimum 4oz serving.

Fancy French restaurant Fait Maison is a go-to for special occasions. If you have plenty of cash to splash, that is. A fillet of wagyu beef, served with a vegetable pot-au-feu and truffle butter, costs $98, while a Maine lobster will set you back $96. Every plate is infused with rich, well-balanced flavors and prettily presented, though, so it feels worth the money.

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Tasting menus are the norm at many of Oregon’s fanciest restaurants, and particularly in Portland. When it comes to a la carte options though, El Gaucho – a beloved regional chain with half a dozen locations – tops the price list. Its most expensive option for a main course is the Steak El Gaucho, a filet mignon with Maine lobster medallions and asparagus, served in a béarnaise sauce. That will whack $89 on your check, or you could share the Chateaubriand, $155 for two people with sides and sauces.

Philly cheesesteak is, of course, the city’s most famous culinary creation, but how about a super-posh take on the fast-food favorite that costs a cool $140? The Barclay Prime Cheesesteak is the priciest main on the menu at this elegant, library-style restaurant in Rittenhouse Square. Mind you, the beef is wagyu rib-eye, the cheese is truffled, and it’s topped with foie gras. For an extra touch of luxury, it comes with half a bottle of Champagne too.

Steaks and seafood dishes infused with regional, seasonal flavors are the focus at Mill’s Tavern, a chic, warmly-lit restaurant that’s particularly popular for special occasions. Its prices are on the special side too, with the 32oz wagyu tomahawk rib-eye steak a whopping $197. By the time you’ve added starters, side dishes, drinks, and maybe desserts, you’re facing a pretty hefty check.

Swanky Halls Chophouse, which has four other locations, serves some incredible cuts of meat – and it’s the quality and preparation that customers pay through the nose for. The priciest is the 16oz Australian ‘Westholme’ New York Strip, as butter-soft and richly flavored as one might expect for $165. Sides from asparagus with hollandaise sauce to mac ’n’ cheese are $14 each, while you’ll also pay extra for sauces.

You can share The Delmonico, a hefty bone-in rib-eye, but at $105 for two people the signature dish isn’t quite the most expensive main course on this popular restaurant's menu. That honor goes to the dry-aged ‘On Green Dolphin Street’ rib-eye, served with peppers, mushrooms, caramelized onions, and a creamy sauce for an eye-watering $76. It does come with soup or salad and a choice of sides, at least. Delmonico Grill also has seafood dishes like the Spice Crusted Ahi Tuna ($43), plus a few vegetarian options.

This stylish Arts District steakhouse (a sister location to Kentucky’s most expensive restaurant) is a favorite special occasion spot thanks to its elegant atmosphere and excellent, hand-crafted steaks. Meat this good doesn’t come cheap, of course. The priciest option for a main course at Jeff Ruby’s is a 6oz wagyu filet, $168. You can always splash out a little more by adding embellishments like red king crab or Louisiana crawfish too.

Texas – and particularly Dallas – has some swanky steakhouses with higher-priced dishes than Nobu, although many of those are enormous steaks meant for two. This byword of upscale dining has a range of small and sharing plates that surpass the $100 mark. So, based on ordering two or three dishes per person, it’s by far the most expensive place to dine in the Lone Star State. The priciest plates are the Bone-in Rib-eye Hoba Yaki with Truffle Amazu Butter Ponzu, $145.

Known for expertly prepared steaks, which are dry-aged in-house for 18-24 days, a process that achieves incomparable flavor and tenderness, The Capital Grille is adored by customers, but is a pricey option. The Grand Plateau will set you back $125 and includes jumbo lump crab, North Atlantic lobster, shrimp cocktail, and oysters on the half shell. Meanwhile, other expensive meat treats are on the menu, such as the double cut lamb rib chops ($60), encrusted with honey, and served with a white wine and shallot jus. 

A fat rib-eye steak will hike your bill up by $60 at Guild Tavern, although it does come with whipped potatoes, broccolini, and béarnaise sauce. The cozy, tavern-style restaurant, with warm lighting and a proper fire, is all about locally sourced produce, from the best-quality meat and seafood to the roasted mushrooms served with gnocchi, which is rolled in house.

Aside from a cluster of Michelin-starred restaurants and fine-dining spots with tasting menus, Virginia’s prices are relatively reasonable. Lemaire, a classy New American restaurant in The Jefferson Hotel, has the priciest main course: the Vintage Grass-Fed Beef Tenderloin, priced at $55. It comes with sides and a sauce, while most of the other mains are between $25-40.

The Met, as it’s known, has a prestigious location inside the 1903 Marion Building in downtown Seattle. The menu is suitably prestigious too, with an emphasis on expensive cuts of meat. The priciest main course is the Olive Beef Filet – 6oz of Japanese A5 beef for $195. A cheaper option is to share the classic, and very delicious, Chateaubriand for two, carved at the table and with sides, $190.

The Charleston outpost of this small (and rather posh) regional chain specializes in top-quality beef such as its filet mignon, the most expensive choice for a main at $64.95 for 11oz. There are slightly pricier steaks that are big enough for two (or as an extra treat for the table), while the classic Beef Wellington – tender steak swaddled in flaky puff pastry with a wild mushroom duxelles and goose liver pâté – will set you back $55.95.

There’s steak, and then there’s steak. Carnevor serves the latter, and diners pay top dollar for it. The priciest on the menu is, unsurprisingly, the Japanese Wagyu A5 Filet Mignon, at a vertiginous $168. And that’s before you’ve added posh sides, sauces, and luxurious toppings like foie gras or king crab. You can also order a dry-aged rib-eye, big enough to share, for $105.

Gun Barrel goes beyond the usual steakhouse fare and instead focuses on game meats. The popular cowboy-themed restaurant has a range of chops, ribs, and sirloin. The specialty – and the most expensive main dish on the menu – is the Mixed Game Grill, priced at $72 for a feast of elk steak, bison prime rib, and a venison bratwurst.

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