Prime Steakhouse | Best Beef | Aiken, SC

Best Beef for Miles Around

To be included in the first edition of our book Roadfood, a restaurant had to serve a meal that cost under $5. Times have changed! The dollar isn’t what it used to be. And Roadfood has broadened its qualifications to include some restaurants that are not cheap by any measure, but are nevertheless unique and detour-worthy… All of which is a bit of throat-clearing to let you know that Prime Steakhouse digs deep into your pocketbook. A single meal, even without drinks, easily can cost more than ten times the original Roadfood limit. But if you seek the best beef within 100 — 500? — 1000? — miles, Prime Steakhouse demands attention. Here you find great steak and first-class accompaniments, sophistication without a whiff of snootiness.

Steaks & Beyond

Prime offers filet mignon, strip steak, ribeye, and a great big porterhouse to split with another person. Weekend prime rib, velvet-soft and as marbled as a hunk of beef can be, is ultimate opulence. Also in the meat department is a fabulous “filet mignon meatloaf” smothered with mushroom demi-glace. Most meat dishes come with two or three big, crunchy, sweet-centered onion rings. Beyond the best beef for miles around, you can choose lamb chops or pork chops. Roast duck, shrimp & scallop scampi, twin lobster tails, and whole Maine lobsters round out the everyday repertoire. Everything comes with a basket of good French bread and an impeccably fresh salad accompanied by a ramekin of blue cheese. (A wedge salad, which adds bacon, is a great alternative.)

Short on Funds?

By the way, if money is an issue and you crave steak hereabouts, you will find one of the area’s dandy bargain meals at Bruce’s Bar down the road to Augusta. Go on Monday night — steak night — and $15 buys a full ribeye dinner. As for ambience, Bruce’s is a deliciously divey tavern — very friendly if a little raffish– far, far from the easy savoir faire of Prime Steakhouse.