Best steak tips in Boston

The LaCascia family owns the Burlington location, they sold the Medford location about twenty years ago, but both are still affiliated. I've been going there for years and worked at the Burlington location for a few years in high school and college.

bobs is legit

to take a really nice prime-grade steak and cook it well-done. Had to do that with some lovely ribeyes for dinner guests once. I gritted my teeth and gave them what they wanted, but it stung. Next time they come over, they'll get choice London broil. I don't mind grilling that stuff till it's gray.

steak tips on the menu. They just don't cut it into smaller pieces, and they call it by the French butcher's name for flap: bavette.

Example: Grafton Street's $24 bavette steak with bordelaise, buttermilk whipped potatoes, baby arugula, cremini, radish, shaved parmesan and truffle oil. I'd have them hold that awful last ingredient, but that steak is likely worth the tariff, being prime-grade from Brandt Farms, a boutique ranch that also supplies places like Grill 23. That producer raises some of the most delicious beef you can get in a Boston restaurant.

while it's not the bargain it used to be, and although I miss the long-gone smoke-filled atmosphere (where even the junior-high kids seemed to be smoking), I think those tips hold up well to my youthful memories of them. (That doesn't always happen with those old-school places. Either they go downhill or my tastes change. But the overdressed iceberg lettuce salads with the cherry tomatoes and cukes were just how I remembered them.)

I also concur with earlier posters on Silvertone and Bob's in Medford. I bought K&8th tips all summer for grilling at home. Steak tips on top of a big salad are a standby of mine at J.J. Foley's Cafe (South End), too, though I'm not sure they're worth a special trip.

Some other relatively cheap, chewy, flavorful steaks I like include Korean grill-table "BBQ" (had short ribs and ribeye at New Jang Su in Burlington recently), Brazilian "BBQ" (I rarely have the appetite for rodizio -- Tudo Na Brasa in Woburn is one weigh-your-plate place I like), lomo saltado at Peruvian joints like Rincon Limeño in Eastie and Nazca Cafe in Chelsea, and the bargain prime-grade steak-frites at Grill 23 (skirt) and Boston Chops (hanger, skirt, or flat iron).