For those of you who haven’t been paying attention over the last few decades, Phil Ruffin has been a fixture on the Las Vegas scene and a sometimes colorful one at that.

The 72-year-old Ruffin is a bit of a recluse, despite his often very public role as a Vegas impresario. Details of his past are sketchy at best but his company owns everything from hotels to real estate to dog tracks and a hand-truck company.

He made the bulk of his fortune after purchasing the Frontier in 1999. At the time, the once headlining property had fallen into disrepair mostly due to a decade long labor strike. The omnipresent picket lines didn’t stop everyone from entering but they stopped enough and the hotel suffered because of it.

Ruffin settled the strike almost immediately and began to spruce things up a bit, but most of his energy went into trying to come up with the cash to tear the place down and build something else. Over the years he floated various grand ideas including a San Francisco themed resort complete with a replica of the Golden Gate bridge; a jazz themed resort named after the Swiss town of Montreux ; and a near-luxury all-suite resort with no theme at all.

Along the way he made a series of strategic deals, the biggest being with Donald Trump, turning over a corner of what had been the Frontier’s parking lot to build the Trump International condo/hotel tower, which opened last year.

In 2007, Ruffin became a lot richer by selling The Frontier to Elad Properties for a record $1.2 billion. The Israeli based company had planned to tear down the hotel (which they did) and build a Vegas version of the famed New York Plaza Hotel, which they also own. That last part hasn’t happened yet.

Ruffin used his spoils to buy Treasure Island from MGM Mirage late last year. It was a good year for him – he got a new hotel to play with and a 26-year-old Ukrainian supermodel and beauty queen as a wife. And no, I’m not making that up.

Ruffin has said he has no immediate plans to make any drastic changes to the hotel, which has gotten a makeover in the last few years including newly remodeled rooms, new restaurants and bars, and more.

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Well, now you’re talking my language there partner! I’m a big fan of steak and while I have not eaten at every single steakhouse in town – that would take years I think – I have eaten at a lot of them and I have some pretty strong opinions about who does their steak well and who leaves me feeling rare.

I promise that will be the last meat pun in this story. Unless I think of another good one.

So I decided to put together a list of the places where I found the best steaks in Las Vegas. Mind you, this is not about the restaurant as a whole, rather about the steak itself trying to leave all the other things that make up a full dining out experience complete.

I can’t rank these steaks because they are all so different and wonderful in their own ways, so I’ll merely list them in alphabetical order by restaurant.

Austins Steakhouse
Long one of my favorite overall restaurants in town, Austins at Texas Station has two cuts of meat that are near the top of any list I can make involving steak. One is their filet, so tender that you can cut it with a fork, and the other is the 24-ounce rib eye. Both are simply fantastic.

Delmonico
The bone-in rib eye steak is one of the priciest things on Emeril Lagasse’s steakhouse at The Venetian, but the Creole seasonings do in fact kick this up enough of a notch that it is totally worth it.

Fix
This Bellagio restaurant is not a traditional steakhouse, but they have some of the best steaks in town all cooked over a cherry wood flame that gives them a unique and delicious flavor.

Hugo’s Cellar
The ten ounce filet at this Four Queens restaurant is served with a béarnaise sauce that is out of this world, and I’m not usually a fan of béarnaise so that’s saying a lot.

The Steakhouse
This long-time favorite at Circus Circus doesn’t do a lot of fancy tricks with its filet, but their traditional preparation is what makes it special in its own way with a smoky, wood-fire flavor that will make you polish your plate.

Strip House
The cheeky bordello/stripper theme at this Planet Hollywood restaurant is fun, but it’s their 14 ounce filet, so peppery that the exterior almost crunches, that made me want to go back again and again.

Texas de Brazil
I’m going off the reservation for this last one by talking about non-traditional steak. But just because it’s done Brazilian style, served on a skewer by gaucho wearing waiters, doesn’t change the fact that the bacon-wrapped filet is one of the best cuts of meat I’ve had anywhere in town.

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