III Forks Prime Steakhouse

The Chicago location of this national chain anchors “Village Market,” a 105,000-square-foot complex in Lakeshore East whose grand scale and futuristic aesthetic are reminiscent of NYC’s Battery Park City. The restaurant seats hundreds of people, a good portion of them in a large, busy bar area. If you’re wondering whether III Forks makes a decent Manhattan, the answer is yes. And though it fumbles in other departments—wet crab cake, sub-par Caesar salad—the restaurant can indeed cook every identifiable bit of a 16-ounce USDA Prime New York strip to a perfect medium-rare. If that’s all you care about, Village Market welcomes you.