Northwoods Steakhouse East Tawas Michigan

Why Northwoods made the SteakMap list

East Tawas sits on Lake Huron on the Sunrise Side, a stretch of Michigan where the summer population multiplies and the winter one does not. Northwoods is the steakhouse that stays serious through both.

The board is short and unpretentious — a New York strip, a ribeye, a filet mignon and slow-roasted hand-carved prime rib — and every one arrives with the day’s vegetable and a choice of baked or garlic mashed potato. No a la carte arithmetic, no thirty dollars of sides appearing at the end.

The lake shows up on the plate

What makes this a Lake Huron steakhouse rather than a generic one is how the seafood is handled. Cold-water lobster tail is offered as a single-tail dinner, a twin-tail dinner with drawn butter and lemon, and as a $35 addition to any beef entrée.

The filet mignon and lobster combination is the order this room is built for — and at a price that would buy you a steak alone in most metro Detroit dining rooms.

What to expect

Prime rib is slow roasted and hand carved, which means it runs out when it runs out. Sides are simple and cheap: a baked stuffed potato, sautéed mushrooms and onions, buttered broccoli, sweet potato or waffle fries, all five dollars.

This is a straightforward, honest northern Michigan steakhouse, and it is on this list because it does a small number of things properly rather than a large number adequately.

Menu prices

As published on Northwoods’ own menu, August 2026: filet mignon and lobster $77, twin cold-water lobster tail dinner $75, roast prime rib $42, filet mignon $42, ribeye steak $42, New York strip steak $40 and a single lobster tail dinner $40. Adding a lobster tail to any beef entrée is $35, and sides are $5.

Read the guide to the best steakhouses in Michigan.