Keens Steakhouse NYC Review — Our Honest Take on a Historic New York Icon
Keens Steakhouse NYC is one of the most iconic restaurants in New York, known for its historic mutton chop, clay pipe collection, and old-school Manhattan atmosphere. In this FHK Fries review, we visited Keens Steakhouse NYC to see whether the fries — and the whole experience — live up to the legend.
A Midtown Time Capsule in the Middle of Manhattan
Keens still looks and feels like old New York. When you sit down, you’re surrounded by:
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dark wood everywhere
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low ceilings that feel like an old backstage hallway
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thousands of clay pipes hanging overhead
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portraits and artifacts staring back at you
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the warm glow of amber lights
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waiters in jackets who look like they’ve seen a few things
It feels like Gilded Age Manhattan somehow dodged the remodel — and you get to sit inside it and eat fries.
Keens Steakhouse NYC isn’t just old — it’s layered in wild stories.
History That Hits Different at Keens Steakhouse
This place doesn’t just feel old — it is old. But more than that, Keens is loaded with stories: presidents, authors, actors, artifacts, and even some wild pieces of American history. Here’s a quick look at what makes this steakhouse a living museum.
1. The Pipe Collection (50,000 + Clay Pipes)
Keens has the largest private collection of clay pipes in the world — more than 50,000 of them. Everyone from Albert Einstein to Teddy Roosevelt to Mark Twain to Babe Ruth had a pipe stored here back in the day. You can literally look up and see names from every era hanging over the dining rooms, all part of the restaurant’s incredible pipe collection history.
2. Teddy Roosevelt Connection
Keens isn’t just a place presidents visited — Teddy Roosevelt actually kept an office in the building. Imagine walking in for a steak and thinking, “Yeah, the President used to sit right up there writing letters while I’m here eating fries with Frank and Pauly.” It’s one of those wild New York overlap moments where history and your dinner share the same space.
3. The Abraham Lincoln Playbill
One of the craziest pieces of history at Keen’s is tucked away in the private Lincoln Room: an original Ford’s Theatre playbill from the night Abraham Lincoln was assassinated — complete with preserved blood stains. You’re sitting there eating fries with Frank and Pauly while a piece of literal American history is hanging a few feet away. Only in New York.
Inside this room, the walls feel heavy in the best way — like the past is still watching.
If you want to dive deeper into this moment in history, here’s where it connects:
4. Born Out of the Lambs Club
Before Keens was a steakhouse, it was the dining room for The Lambs Club, the oldest theatrical organization in the United States. Back in the late 1800s, actors, writers, and performers came through here every night, eating, drinking, arguing, rehearsing, and building the New York arts scene from scratch. Frank and Pauly walked into the same space — just 140 years later — looking for fries instead of scripts.
It’s one of those “if these walls could talk” rooms where you can feel the old Broadway energy. And when you know the history, it hits different while you’re sitting there with a plate of hot fries.
If you want to learn more about the original group behind the restaurant, here’s the direct link:
The Lambs Club
FHK Fries Review: How Good Are the Fries at Keens Steakhouse NYC?
Now, for the whole reason Frank (FHK) and Pauly walked into this time capsule: the fries. This is the official FHK Fries review of Keens Steakhouse NYC—and the potatoes came to play.
You can watch the full FHK Fries Keens Steakhouse fry review on YouTube here.
Crispness:
These things come out hot and they stay hot. Crunch on the outside, soft in the middle — old-school steakhouse fries done the right way. No tricks, no fluff, just solid fry execution.
Taste:
You get that real steakhouse flavor without even trying. They cook everything in beef tallow back there, and the fries pick it up naturally. It’s simple, it’s old New York, it just works.
Presentation:
The fries show up exactly how they should at a place like this. No decorations, no fancy stacking, no gimmicks. Just a straightforward plate of hot fries that feels honest and old-school.
New York is packed with iconic steakhouses — Peter Luger, Smith & Wollensky, STK, and more — but we came to Keens to see how their fries hold up against the legends.
Keens is right in the middle of Manhattan, so you feel the New York energy the second you walk in — but the moment you sit down, the room slows down and it becomes all about the food and the history. That’s why we came: to see how the fries hold up in a place that’s been around since the 1800s.
Final Word
If you’re visiting New York City and want a meal that has history, character, and that old-school Manhattan feel, Keens delivers. The fries are the reason Frank and Pauly showed up, and they came out strong. Simple, hot, and done right. It’s the kind of place where the room is doing half the talking for you — and the food does the rest.
Keens has been here since the 1800s, but the fry review is all ours. If you want to see exactly how the plate looked and what we scored it, check out the video below.
Keens Steakhouse NYC is one of those places where the history and the food hit at the same time — and that’s exactly why we reviewed it.
FHK Fries YouTube Review — Keens Steakhouse (NYC)
You can watch our full FHK Fries review of Keen’s Steakhouse right here.
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Watch here: Fries Review – The Old Fashioned – Madison, WI - Peter Luger (NYC) — “A Surprising Fry from a Legendary Steakhouse”
The fry review nobody expected from a New York icon.
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If you love NYC and you love New York history, you’re gonna what to see this one!
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Watch here: https://youtu.be/zZiTSbT01sI?si=kVpaZAKOxEqiVJJe
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