50 highest grossing restaurants in America

50. Beauty & Essex
Location: New York City, NY
Annual sales: $16,308,810
Avg. check: $85
Meals served annually: 191,505
This quirky place on Manhattan's trendy Lower East Side is a functioning pawn shop up front, filled with merchandise for sale — some of it genuinely pawned, some of it chosen second-hand by curator Lauren Kaminsky.

49. Le Diplomate
Location: Washington, DC
Annual sales: $16,377,232
Avg. check: $58
Meals served annually: 306,708
A skillfully recreated Parisian-style brasserie with a skylit terrace, this popular D.C. restaurant is part of the Philadelphia-based Starr Group, which operates 37 restaurants in New York, New Jersey, Florida, and Paris, as well as in the nation's capital and its hometown.

48. Grand Central Oyster Bar
Location: New York, NY
Annual sales: $16,400,000 (est.)
Avg. check: $54 (est.)
Meals served annually: 310,000

A New York classic for more than a century, the Oyster Bar on the lower level of iconic Grand Central Station is a major destination for seafood-lovers. Oysters, of course, are the big draw.

47. Quality Italian
Location: New York, NY
Annual sales: $16,529,915
Avg. check: $90
Meals served annually: 171,713
Part of the Quality Branded group -- which has eight restaurants in New York City, one in Miami Beach, and a second Quality Italian in Denver -- Quality Italian serves modern Italian-American food.

46. Taste of Texas
Location: Houston, TX
Annual sales: $16,720,966
Avg. check: $55
Meals served annually: 363,715
Opened in 1977, Taste of Texas is a landmark Houston steakhouse with a menu that includes eight cuts of steak -- all Certified Angus Beef -- seafood, and other steakhouse staples, as well as a range of appetizers, such as Texas quail bites and jalapeño stuffed shrimp.

45. Prime Steakhouse
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Annual sales: $16,800,000 (est.)
Avg. check: $158 (est.)
Meals served annually: 112,675
Located in the Bellagio Hotel, this is one of two Las Vegas steakhouses run by Alsatian-born celebrity chef-restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten. In all, he is responsible for 23 establishments around the U.S. and 16 overseas.

44. Aria Cafe
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Annual sales: $16,800,000 (est.)
Avg. check: $24 (est.)
Meals served annually: 700,000
Open daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., this casual café in the Aria Resort & Casino, with its terrazzo floors and sloping glass walls, offers diners everything from huevos rancheros to fish and chips, from a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato dipping sauce to a "secret sushi" menu.

43. ParcLocation: Philadelphia, PA
Annual sales: $16,921,459
Avg. check: $56
Meals served annually: 423,619
One of 37 Starr Group restaurants around the country (and in Paris), Parc is a French-style bistro/brasserie transported to Philadelphia.

42. Guy's American Kitchen & Bar
Location: New York, NY
Annual sales: $17,000,000 (est.)
Avg. check: $43 (est.)
Meals served annually: 406,000
Guy's — the guy in question being TV star and chef-restaurateur Guy Fieri — opened in late 2012 and was greeted with a now-legendary review by New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells.

41. Shaw’s Crab House
Location: Chicago, IL
Annual sales: $17,100,000 (est.)
Avg. check: $65 (est.)
Meals served annually: 265,000
Inspired by old-school seafood houses in Maryland and Detroit, Shaw’s was opened in 1984 by the massive Lettuce Entertain You food service empire, which runs 120+ restaurants in nine states and counting.

40. Tavern on the Green
Location: New York, NY
Annual sales: $17,200,000 (est.)
Avg. check: $70 (est.)
Meals served annually: 260,000
This beautifully located Central Park landmark started life in the 1880s as a sheep barn, designed by the celebrated English architect and landscape designer Calvert Vaux.

39. Mon Ami Gabi
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Annual sales: $17,200,000 (est.)
Avg. check: $66 (est.)
Meals served annually: 300,000
The Sin City outpost of this friendly French bistro, with locations also in the Chicago and Washington D.C. areas, is part of the Chicago-based Lettuce Entertain You group.

38. Chicago Cut Steakhouse
Location: Chicago, IL
Annual sales: $17,200,000 (est.)
Avg. check: $85 (est.)
Meals served annually: 210,000
Steakhouse veterans David Flom and Matthew Moore opened this busy steakhouse in 2010.

37. Founding Farmers
Location: Washington, DC
Annual sales: $17,243,194
Avg. check: $35
Meals served annually: 571,078
This unique LEED Gold Certified establishment, which opened in 2008, is one of five restaurants -- four in the D.C. area, one in Pennsylvania -- owned primarily by more than 47,000 family farmers belonging to the North Dakota Farmers Union.

36. Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse
Location: Rosemont, IL
Annual sales: $17,442,193
Avg. check: $71
Meals served annually: 258,249
This is one of two suburban locations of the popular downtown Chicago steakhouse of the same name.

35. The Smith (Midtown)
Location: New York, NY f/c
Annual sales: $17,450,000
Avg. check: $44
Meals served annually: 395,911
Two locations of this "jack-of-all-trades" restaurant (as their website calls it) — out of four Smiths in New York City and two in Washington, D.C. — made this list (see No. 27).

34. Abe & Louie's
Location: Boston, MA
Annual sales: $17,463,196
Avg. check: $85
Meals served annually: 222,599
Abe & Louie's is an "add lobster tail to any entrée for $25" kind of place, as specified on the menu, heavy on corn-fed Midwestern prime steaks, chops, and seafood.

33. Blue Fin
Location: New York, NY
Annual sales: $17,500,000 (est.)
Avg. check: $72 (est.)
Meals served annually: 243,000
The recently remodeled Blue Fin in the Times Square W Hotel proposes an extensive menu of sushi and other seafood, plus a couple of steaks and a New York State of Mind burger, made with all New York State ingredients.

32. Del Posto
Location: New York, NY
Annual sales: $17,800,000 (est.)
Avg. check: $162 (est.)
Meals served annually: 110,000
This elegant, justifiably pricey Italian restaurant is described on its website as a “creation of Joe Bastianich, Lidia Bastianich and Executive Chef Melissa Rodriguez.”

31. Acme Feed & Seed
Location: Nashville, TN
Avg. check: $16
Meals served annually: 611,454
Built in 1890, the building now occupied by Acme Feed & Seed has housed a grocery store, a flour company, and a wholesale drug firm, among other tenants, and from 1943 to 1999 it was home to the business that became known as Acme Farm Supply.

30. Bob Chinn’s Crab House
Location: Wheeling, IL
Annual sales: $17,990,990
Avg. check: $37
Meals served annually: 483,111
Opened by veteran Chinese-American restaurateur Bob Chinn in 1982, this seafood house about 30 miles northwest of Chicago takes pride in its quick service, noting that almost every item can be prepared in 15 minutes or less.

29. Quality Meats
Location: New York, NY
Annual sales: $18,003,504
Avg. check: $100
Meals served annually: 178,297
The second Quality Branded restaurant on this list (see No. 47), Quality Meats is a clubby-looking steakhouse with a raw bar, a charcuterie selection, and what is provocatively called a “smoking section.”

28. Sparks Steak House
Location: New York, NY
Annual sales: $18,150,000 (est.)
Avg. check: $90 (est.)
Meals served annually: 210,000
"Little but the prices has changed at Sparks since it opened in 1966, and patrons like it that way," according to Restaurant Business.

27. The Smith (Lincoln Square)
Location: New York, NY
Annual sales: $18,950,000
Avg. check: $43
Meals served annually: 530,802
Situated for success across the street from Lincoln Center, this branch of The Smith offers a menu that is almost identical to that at the Midtown version (see No. 5).

26. Primehouse
Location: Chicago, IL
Annual sales: $19,200,000 (est.)
Avg. check: $98 (est.)
Meals served annually: 200,000
From the time it was founded in 2006 until last year, this Chicago steakhouse — famous for its dry-aged beef in a city where wet-aging is more prevalent — was called David Burke's Primehouse.

25. SW Steakhouse
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Annual sales: $19,900,000 (est.)
Avg. check: $130 (est.)
Meals served annually: 151,000
This waterside meat emporium, which offers views of the nightly Wynn Hotel’s Lake of Dreams shows — featuring music, lights, holographics, and puppetry — is the preserve of chef David Walzog, a veteran of several New York City steakhouses.

24. Bazaar Meat by José Andrés
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Annual sales: $20,200,000 (est.)
Avg. check: $105 (est.)
Meals served annually: 192,000
José Andrés is a phenomenon, a tireless champion of Spanish food, both traditional and avant-garde, and a globe-trotting food activist who has spearheaded hunger relief efforts in places like Haiti and Puerto Rico and was named one of Time magazine's most influential people for 2018.

23. Carnevino Italian Steakhouse
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Annual sales: $20,400,000 (est.)
Avg. check: $182 (est.)
Meals served annually: 112,000
Carnevino was part of the mostly-Italian restaurant group founded by Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich. It was known for its wide range of pastas and its veal, beef, lamb, and pork dishes.

22. Angus Barn
Location: Raleigh, NC
Annual sales: $20,402,068
Avg. check: $68
Meals served annually: 298,960
This family-owned meat mecca in a huge barn-like building near the Raleigh-Durham airport opened in 1960.

21. Buddakan
Location: New York, NY
Annual sales: $20,555,460
Avg. check: $84
Meals served annually: 250,416
Another establishment owned by Philadelphia’s Starr Group, which has 36 eating places around America as well as one in Paris, Buddakan has been hailed as one of the most beautifully designed restaurants in New York City.

20. Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab
Location: Chicago, IL
Annual sales: $21,200,000 (est.)
Avg. check: $80 (est.)
Meals served annually: 265,000
The owners of Joe's Stone Crab, a Miami Beach institution dating from 1913, entered into a partnership with Richard Melman, founder of Chicago's Lettuce Entertain You restaurant group, in 2000 to open this popular Chicago extension of the original concept.

19. St. Elmo Steak House
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Annual sales: $21,308,565
Avg. check: $90
Meals served annually: 239,725
The oldest Indianapolis steakhouse still in its original location, St. Elmo — named for the patron saint of sailors — opened as a tavern in 1902.

18. Bottega Louie
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Annual sales: $21,720,463
Avg. check: $35
Meals served annually: 729,612
This 255-seat restaurant in downtown Los Angeles has a gourmet market, patisserie, and café attached.

17. Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Annual sales: $21,800,000 (est.)
Avg. check: $85 (est.)
Meals served annually: 260,000
This spinoff has a menu that's almost identical to that at the Chicago original, but with prices slightly higher.

16. The Hamilton
Location: Washington, DC
Annual sales: $21,978,322
Avg. check: $34
Meals served annually: 759,970
The Hamilton (not to be confused with the Hamilton Hotel) is owned and operated by the Clyde’s Restaurant Group, whose holdings include more than a dozen restaurants and music venues in the D.C. area, including the historic Old Ebbitt Grill (see No. 5).

15. Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab
Location: Washington, DC
Annual sales: $23,000,000 (est.)
Avg. check: $80 (est.)
Meals served annually: 288,000
Prices at this outpost of Joe's in the nation's capital are slightly lower in many cases than at the parent restaurant in Chicago, but the menu is otherwise identical.

14. Tao Uptown
Location: New York, NY
Annual sales: $23,089,638
Avg. check: $85
Meals served annually: 282,827
One of two Taos in New York City (Tao Downtown is listed at No. 3) — others are in L.A., Chicago, and Las Vegas (see No. 1) — this Asian-themed mega-restaurant occupies a building that was a Vanderbilt family stable in the 19th century and later a movie theatre.

13. Prime 112
Location: Miami Beach, FL
Annual sales: $23,100,000
Avg. check: $120
Meals served annually: 193,000
Miami Beach-based Myles Restaurant Group operates four restaurants and a boutique hotel within a one-block radius in trendy South Beach.

12. Vandal
Location: New York, NY
Annual sales: $23,680,917
Avg. check: $80
Meals served annually: 215,483
Another oversized restaurant complex from the Tao Group (see No. 50, No. 14, No. 7, No. 3, and No. 1), which has been majority-owned by the Madison Square Garden Co. since last year, Vandal eschews the Asian ambiance of the Tao restaurants themselves to feature what its website styles as "the art, architecture, and food of global culture."

11. Junior's (Times Square)
Location: New York, NY
Annual sales: $23,972,978
Avg. check: $24
Meals served annually: 950,000
Since the original was opened in 1950 in Brooklyn, Junior's has been famous for its New York-style cheesecake.

10. Gibsons Bar & Steakhouse
Location: Chicago, IL
Annual sales: $24,700,825 Avg. check: $75 Meals served annually: 363,301
The suburban Rosemount extension of this old-style steakhouse made this list at No. 36, but this is the Near North Side Chicago original.

9. Bryant Park Grill & Cafe
Location: New York, NY
Annual sales: $25,400,000
Avg. check: $50 (est.)
Meals served annually: 420,000
In the early 1980s, Manhattan’s centrally located Bryant Park, behind the New York Public Library’s main branch, was an unkempt no-go landscape where dope dealers and other disreputable types plied their trades.

8. Smith & Wollensky
Location: New York, NY
Annual sales: $25,961,337
Avg. check: $100
Meals served annually: 296,723
Born in 1977, this classic steakhouse was named totally at random, with "Smith" and "Wollensky" chosen from a New York City phone book.

7. Lavo New York • Location: New York, NY • Annual sales: $26,822,655 • Avg. check: $85 • Meals served annually: 200,000 The Tao Group (see No. 50, No. 14, No. 3, and No. 1) turns to Italy for inspiration for this restaurant and nightclub. Antique mirrors, reclaimed subway tiles, and old factory bricks frame the dining room. The menu offers a few surprises, but covers such basics as baked clams oreganato, Maine lobster cocktail, "The Meatball," an assortment of pizzas and pastas, chicken Marsala, and grilled red snapper with panzanella salad. The subterranean herringbone-tiled nightclub boasts a sunken dancefloor, raised VIP sections, and a multitude of LED screens. ALSO READ: Hardest Colleges to Get Into in Every State

5. Old Ebbitt Grill
Location: Washington, DC
Annual sales: $32,662,051 Avg. check: $39
Meals served annually: 1,072,293
This historic Washington establishment was founded as a boarding house in 1856. It evolved into a saloon and then an eating place, occupying numerous locations over the decades.

4. Carmine’s (New York)
Location: New York, NY
Annual sales: $33,147,017
Avg. check: $33
Meals served annually: 396,871
A 1990 uptown evocation of an old-school New York Italian-American family restaurant, Carmine’s — which subsequently spawned branches in Times Square and in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and the Bahamas — is famous for its gargantuan family-style portions and generously poured cocktails.

3. Tao Downtown
Location: New York, NY
Annual sales: $33,401,819
Avg. check: $95
Meals served annually: 311,945
The dramatic decor in this downtown sibling of Tao Uptown (see No. 14) includes a gigantic reclining Buddha, a 24-armed standing Quan Yin Buddha, 3D animated projections of flowing waterfalls and growing moss, and mixed-media murals by British urban artist HUSH.

2. Joe's Stone Crab
Location: Miami Beach, FL
Annual sales: $37,243,159
Avg. check: $80
Meals served annually: 316,000
Joe's founder Joe Weiss "discovered" stone crabs. He and his wife had opened a lunch stand in Miami Beach in 1913.