Flagler Steakhouse At The Breakers Palm Beach: A Stylish Clubhouse With Serious Steaks

The Breakers in Palm Beach is one of America's leading hotels: It's sumptuous and opulent, exemplifying the height of Gilded Age grandeur mixed with the Roaring Twenties sense of fun. While there are a couple restaurants on the property, including HMF and the Seafood Bar, there are also several restaurants owned by the resort that aren't in the hotel itself, including the Flagler Steakhouse, which is located a short walk from the hotel inside the golf course clubhouse. We had the opportunity to dine there at the invitation of the restaurant, and it definitely lives up to the very high standards set by the hotel.

The second-floor space recently underwent a thorough renovation by renowned designer Adam D. Tihany (along with Peacock + Lewis Architects), and the décor evokes an exclusive social club: dark wood, striped gold and cream wallpaper, and accents in blue and red. There's also a wrap-around terrace for outdoor dining as well as a private dining room that seats 18.

To start, we sampled the French onion soup, which was rich and full of deeply-browned onions, topped with a crust of bread and caramelized Gruyère. Blue crab dumplings with shaved Reggiano, red pepper butter, and truffle oil was an unexpected appetizer for a steakhouse, but were full of crab and seriously addictive. And as stone crabs were in season we had to sample those; they were sweet and super-fresh.

There's a wide variety of non-steak options on the menu, including seafood (pan-roasted branzino with Meyer lemon butter and romesco, seared snapper with English peas and sauce choron, veal Milanese, linguine and clams, veal rib chop, brick-roasted chicken with fontina farrotto), but the centerpiece of any great steakhouse has to be, of course, the steak, and it certainly doesn't get short shrift here. Shipped in from Chicago's Meats by Linz, the grass-fed, corn-finished Prime steaks available include New York strip, T-bone, ribeye, filet in three sizes, steak au poivre, sliced filet with wild mushroom cream, and blackened ribeye with Calabrian chile butter. Dry-aged offerings are aged for 37-40 days (a full 10 days longer than usual), and include a tomahawk rib chop and bone-in New York Strip.

We opted for the bone-in filet and dry-aged New York strip, and couldn't have been happier with our choice. Meat this good doesn't need much help in the flavor department, and it was juicy, tender, and perfectly-cooked. Our server also couldn't have been friendlier or more helpful.

While there are a handful of steakhouses in Palm Beach, only one can offer the level of service and quality The Breakers is renowned for. While it's certainly pricey, it's bound to be a great meal.