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Why Sexy Steak made the SteakMap list

Ignore the name. The steak section of this menu is called Il Macellaio — the butcher — and it is one of the few rooms in Detroit that dry-ages beef in house and runs imported Australian wagyu alongside it.

It is also, and this matters in this city, a fine-dining steakhouse where all protein is available halal upon request. Metro Detroit has one of the largest Arab American populations in the country and remarkably few upscale steakhouses that take halal seriously. This one does.

The dry-aged cuts

Two cuts are dry-aged on premises, both USDA Prime. The 22oz bone-in New York strip is the more conventional order. The 32oz Bistecca alla Fiorentina is a bone-in porterhouse cut in the Tuscan style — traditionally grilled hard over wood and served rare and sliced, for at least two people.

The wagyu

Imported Australian wagyu comes as a 30oz tomahawk or a 16oz ribeye. Australian wagyu is generally crossbred rather than full blood, which gives it heavy marbling without the near-unmanageable richness of top-grade Japanese A5 — the right call for a steak you actually intend to finish.

The rest of the board

The remaining USDA Prime cuts are a 16oz boneless ribeye, a 10oz filet mignon, a 12oz veal chop, and an 8oz ribeye cap. The cap — the spinalis, the crescent of muscle wrapped around the outside of a ribeye — is the single best-eating piece of the animal, and serving it on its own is a choice only confident kitchens make.

The kitchen bills itself as an Italian steakhouse, and the pasta is house-made: carbone, pappardelle bolognese, pasta del bosco. There is Chicken Valdostana and Dover sole for the table that did not come for beef.

Prices

Sexy Steak does not publish prices on its online menu, so SteakMap has no verified figures to quote. The grades, weights, in-house aging and wagyu origin are all stated.

See every dry-aged steakhouse in Michigan, every wagyu steakhouse in Michigan, or read the guide to the best steakhouses in Michigan.