A steakhouse in Chicago was just named among the best steak restaurants in the world — and No. 1 in North America, according to a new list.
Asador Bastian, at 214 W. Erie St. in River North, was named to the 2025 list of “101 World’s Best Steak Restaurants,” a London-based organization that ranks global chophouses based on a number of factors, including quality of meat; marbling, cut and preparation; selection and variety of meat; expertise in meat and description of cuts on the menu.
According to editors, experienced reviewers made up of food journalists, chefs, and certified Wagyu masters known as “Steak Ambassadors” visit restaurants across North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia “incognito” before a final decision and tasting.
As part of the ranking, the Basque steakhouse, which opened in 2023 inside the Chicago’s iconic “Flair House” originally built in 1883, came in No. 13 on the global list of 101 restaurants. Nationally, it ranked in the No. 1 spot out of 50, the list showed.
“Unlike the grand, clubby Chicago steakhouses of old, Asador Bastian brings a more intimate, curated approach to fire-led dining,” the steakhouse’s entry reads. “The centrepiece is the txuletón – thick, bone-in ribeye from old dairy cows, aged with care and grilled over live embers in the traditional Basque style. The result is bold, deeply flavoured beef with complex marbling and an earthy depth that speaks of both animal and fire.”
According to the list, much of the beef is either imported from Galicia, Spain, or “specially raised in the US to mimic the qualities of Spanish old cow.” It is dry-aged and grilled in an open kitchen, editors said.
In Chicago, Bavette’s Bar & Boeuf, Swift & Sons, Gibson’s Italia and Gibson’s Bar & Steakhouse also made the the ranking for best steakhouses in North America, the list showed.
Asador Bastian also made the list in 2024, and has landed on the New York Times’s rankings of the “Best Restaurants in America.”
