It’s Good to the Bone

It’s the invasion of the steakhouses--first Balboa on Sunset Strip, now this second branch of a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based restaurant called Mastro’s Steakhouse.

After Texas businessman Grady Sanders spent lavishly turning the old Bistro space on Canon Drive in Beverly Hills into a newly minted but very short-lived version of Chasen’s, now comes this brash newcomer. The space was gutted yet again, this time to turn it into the vision of a fat-cat Scottsdale steakhouse.

The ceilings are high. The chairs are roomy. Everything about this place is larger than life, including the beef, which comes sizzling in butter on oval plates too hot to touch.

What’s interesting is that almost every cut of meat comes with the bone. The prime bone-in rib-eye is sumptuous.

There’s a flavorful bone-in Kansas City strip as well as a veal version of the same cut, the first I’ve ever seen.

And for the truly hungry, the menu offers a 40-ounce double Porterhouse that I hope is meant for two. The chef’s special on the night I dined at Mastro’s was bone-in filet. That’s a new one, too.

Fish lovers weren’t left out of the bone fest either. They could order a bone-in ahi filet.

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First courses, however, are pretty pedestrian, except for the theatrical gesture of serving shrimp cocktail in a dish bubbling over with dry ice.

Sides are definitely family-size servings, so don’t get carried away and order too many.

At the front, at least a dozen managers, waiters and assorted staff members are on hand to greet diners arriving in limos and SUVs.

I couldn’t help but notice that a good many of the guests headed straight upstairs. Sure enough, that was the source of the lounge music, a lone musician with a laptop, a mike, a saxophone and an electric guitar singing up-tempo standards. Behind him is the huge smiling face of a bon vivant hoisting a glass of wine, a photo portrait on glass. Who’s that? Mr. Mastro, of course.

Meanwhile, the bar is thronged. A private party is ensconced in the wine room. (Maybe that’s why it took our server more than 20 minutes to find the bottle of wine we ordered, one of the few affordable choices on the list.) On the balcony, smokers savor a puff, while diners at table after table saw at their meat with gusto.

Where’s the beef? Right here.

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Mastro’s Steakhouse, 246 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills; (310)888-8782; fax (310) 858-7036; https://www.mastrosteakhouse.com. Open daily for dinner. Appetizers $7 to $100 (for beluga caviar); main courses $22 to $60. Valet parking.