Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecôte

The recipe for this Parisian steak-and-frites chain’s famous butter-and-cream-based sauce might be as closely guarded as the one for Coca Cola (the key, according to Le Monde, is an infusion of chicken-liver essence), and as every fan of this quirky establishment knows, is almost as ruinously addictive. Non-addicts might notice that the salad (“with walnuts”) that arrives prior to your platter of less-than-prime-quality beef is a little scraggly, that the cheese plate appears to have been bought at the Food Emporium, and that the bread hoisted to the table by your possibly non-French waitress is dry. But hopeless junkies (like me) won’t care. The dizzying fatty richness makes dessert superfluous (although the profiteroles aren’t half bad) and at $29.95 for a steak, salad, and all the frites and sauce you can stuff down your craw, the prices can’t be beat.