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Shrimp remoulade.

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Restaurant Ratings

The ratings are based mostly on the degree to which the food excites us, and a little on environment, service, and other considerations. I rate restaurants relative to all other restaurants in the New Orleans area. Here's what the stars mean to me:

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Among the best locally.

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Excellent and ambitious.

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Worth crossing town for.

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Recommended.

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Acceptable.

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Cost Ratings
Each dollar sign indicates a ten-dollar range, including a normal meal for the restaurant (dinner, if they serve other meals), not including drinks, or tips. So, for example. . .

1$--$5-15
2$--$15-25
3$--$25-35

. . . and so on, with no upper limit. While this scheme may suggest mathematical precision, know that perception of price varies from diner to diner as much as the star ratings do. So consider this an estimate.

All reviews are based entirely on meals I have personally taken at the restaurant and paid for from my own pocket. I don't take free review meals, nor am I reimbursed by anybody for my restaurant expenditures.

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Keith Young’s Steak House

Steak.
Madisonville: 165 LA. 21. 985-845-9940. Map.
Lunch Wednesday-Friday. Dinner Tuesday-Saturday.brunch.
Nice Casual.
AE DC DS MC V
Website

WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
By quite a margin the leading steakhouse in West St. Tammany Parish, this handsome restaurant has expanded its premises and its menu to become one of the best white-tablecloth eateries of any kind on the North Shore. The steaks have always been terrific. Lately, however, a slab of beef is not the automatic order here. Too many other dishes beckon. Lunches are an almost absurd bargain, with appetite-destroying portions of first-class food.

WHY IT'S GOOD
Walk into the kitchen and you'll see the secret of this restaurant's goodness. The man standing in front of the grill, guiding a dozen or two steaks to a turn, is Keith Young himself. He also hand-selects the beef (which is why he doesn't quote a USDA grade; eyeballing is a more reliable way to choose the best beef) and cuts it off the loin fresh to order. The cooking is straightforward but deftly accomplished. The deep-fried crab cake, for example, is much better than most pan-sauteed jobs. Finally, the prices here are a couple of shades lower than you're used to paying for steaks of this quality.

BACKSTORY
Keith Young's family opened a hamburger and steak restaurant in Slidell in the late 1960s. Young's grew into one of the most popular restaurants in that town, and one of the best steakhouses in the area. (It still is.) In early 2005, Keith left the family business to open his own restaurant in Madisonville. It had essentially the same menu and style as the older place, but as time goes on the repertoire has grown.

DINING ROOM
The main dining rooms are conservative, elegant parlors with about a dozen tables each. The front room has windows looking into the woods that surround the restaurant. The bar, much expanded recently, is as pleasant as the dining rooms now. The wine room is a striking and comfortable private dining room, The service staff is obliging and happy.

ESSENTIAL DISHES
Seared scallops.
Crab cake.
Shrimp or oysters remoulade.
Escargots bourguignonne.
Hamburger (lunch only).
Pork tenderloin with sweet potatoes (lunch only).
Wedge or Caesar salad.
House-cut (14-oz.) filet mignon.
Sirloin strip.
Veal chop.
Lamb chop.
Pan-seared duck breasts with chutney.
Grilled fish of the day.
Soft-shell crabs.
Crabmeat au gratin.
Potatoes au gratin.
Bread pudding.

FOR BEST RESULTS
You must have a reservation for weekend dinner here. The best tables are in the room just past the bar. Lunches are busier than they used to b, but tables are still usually easy to come by. If they're running oysters Bienville as a special, don't miss them. The recipe is from my cookbook.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
I think every steak house in the New Orleans area ought to at least offer sizzling butter with its steaks. The standard service here is sauceless, so ask.

FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.

SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES

ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS
This Wednesday begins this year's shorter-than-average Mardi Gras season, which brings one thing to my mind: steak. Carnival means "farewell to beef," so we must follow the tradition by going to steakhouses as much as possible.

Even with the tremendous increase in premium steakhouses here in recent years, it's hard to find a better place to indulge in this most substantial of dishes. Unlike the chains, which have to follow corporate standards that might not make sense here, Keith Young buys local, and his menu reads like that of a thoroughly Louisiana restaurant. And his dining room is busy enough to attract the better servers on the North Shore to his staff.

This review was updated with new information on 12/22/2009.

 

A list of all 300 full, current reviews is here.