Indy’s Great Steakhouses: Bynum’s Steakhouse

At the entrance to this rambling beef house south of downtown, three life-size cow statues stand sentinel inside a fake-grass corral, like the Mister Bendos of the bovine world. Inside Bynum’s Steakhouse, dark wood paneling covers every surface, with inspirational sayings like “Ability is a poor man’s wealth” stenciled on the walls in Old World lettering. It would be easy to dismiss the family-owned establishment as a kitschy item on a hipster’s bucket list if the place didn’t hold its steak dinners to such high standards.

The biggest draw at this landmark eatery is its 32-ounce bone-in prime rib, a meltingly tender slab of beef rimmed in fat, served by a staff as sweet as the housemade blackberry cobbler. Nightly specials show some finesse—like filets topped with sauteed onions and bleu-cheese cream sauce, bourbon-chipotle glaze, or perhaps mushrooms with red-wine reduction. But you are more likely to see carnivores digging into hulking hand-cut New York strips, bone-in ribeyes that explode with flavor, and massive porterhouses aged for 21 days to the proper cowboy-grade robustness.

Dinners include a cup of Bynum’s onion soup—salty and loaded with cheese, as it should be—as well as a salad and potato. (A la carte options would seem too stuffy in a dining room where people roll up their sleeves before diving in.) Thankfully, after ordering a side of breaded jumbo shrimp or a little more garlic butter to enhance the marbling of your bone-in filet for two, you probably don’t have to worry about spotting your cardiologist in the next booth. 3850 S. Meridian St., 317-784-9880, bynumssteakhouse.com

Price per ounce of the small filet: $4.57

Largest steak on the menu: 32-ounce bone-in prime rib

Wines by the bottle/glass: 26/18

Most-famous customer: A.J. Foyt

We love steak, any way you slice it. In Indianapolis, there’s a steakhouse to cater to every occasion and level of sophistication, and after months of dining like wealthy cavemen, we present them to you here, in juicy detail. A la cartes include a primer on the king cuts (for those who don’t know a porterhouse from a portobello), tips on the best cheap chops in town, a cattle call of beefy terms, and a stab at defining that common condition among steak-lovers—the meat sweats. You want a piece of this? Dig in.