Turner’s Cut Takes Steakhouse Opulence to New Levels in Houston’s Autry Park — What to Order at Ben Berg’s Gilded Retreat

There’s no denying it. Houston-based restaurateur Benjamin Berg, founder of the hospitality group that bears his name, has a taste for steak. Or at least he recognizes that plenty of Texans do. Nearly 15 years ago, after his most recent stint with Smith & Wollensky, the Cornell Hospitality school grad opened his first restaurant in the Bayou City — the old school steakhouse B&B Butchers Restaurant — and gained an instant following. Earlier this year, he opened the industrial-chic Prime 131, a live-fire steak joint with Japanese flair inspired by the gritty Meatpacking District in Lower Manhattan. And over this summer, Berg and company rolled out their most opulent steak-based restaurant yet — Turner’s Cut in the Autry Park development.

It appears Berg spared no expense either. Setting Turner’s Cut apart from the others is its sophisticated setting, created with collaborator Gail McCleese of the design firm Sensitori, which calls to mind the grand façades built during New York’s Gilded Age.

Diners enter through a sparkling Venetian glass awning to the foyer, where New Orleans artist Willie Berch’s portrait of a chef and his trusty knife towers over the space. Inside the main dining room, white plaster-adorned walls and pearlized white leather channeled banquettes are punctuated with rich, dark hues. The room, expansive in both height and length, is magnified further by antiqued mirrors, while upstairs, dinner is served to the accompaniment of a baby grand piano.

White-glove service, under the direction of COO Franck Savoy (son of renowned Michelin-starred French chef Guy Savoy), is as polished as it gets. Tableside options abound, from a martini cart designed to shake or stir your preferred tincture to a raw bar cart proffering oysters, lobster, king crab and caviar selections and a carving cart for slicing bone-in prime rib. Then there are the made-to-order dishes finished at your table, from a Caesar salad with tender spears of baby gem lettuce and fresh anchovy ($18) to a truffle and wild mushroom risotto topped with a perfect egg and pea tendrils ($31, $45 with shaved Australian black truffles).

Making all this possible in the back of the house are a trio of talents: senior corporate chef Eric Damidot, regional culinary director Pablo Peñalosa and executive chef Chelsea Cummings.

Turner’s Cut Keeps It a Step Above

Further distinguishing Turner’s Cut from your typical steakhouse are the composed dishes, as well as tasting menus with prix-fixe options (six courses for $195, nine courses for $275) that deftly showcase the skill in the kitchen.

However, unlike other places, when you order a steak from the grill, you’ll get more than a slab cooked to order on a naked sizzling plate. Turner’s Cut is one of the largest purveyors of rare cuts of American and Japanese Kobe, Wagyu and A5 meats in Texas. You’ll find such cuts as Kobe ribeye (four ounces for $230), American Wagyu filet (eight ounces for $85), and prime dry-aged New York strip loin (14 ounces for $76), as well as USDA prime wet-aged cuts such as a bone-in filet (12 ounces for $81).

A la carte starters include a smoked heirloom tomato salad on a bed of piquillo pepper purée with crisp pearls of quinoa and crunchy puffs of sorghum atop a balsamic glaze ($18) and a kampachi crudo composed like a rose with a pickled daikon as its stamen, resting in a shallow pool of passion fruit, orange and ginger chilled broth ($20). Veer from a steak-centered entrée to a composed dish such as beef short rib Wellington for two, the pâté, mushroom duxelles and puff pastry-wrapped meat topped with a demi-glace alongside carrot purée and cippolini onions ($128) or a double lobster tail napped with lobster bisque and yuzu-spiked fennel purée ($86).

Staying true to one longstanding steakhouse tradition, Turner’s Cut offers indulgent sides, from mac and cheese studded with chunks of Alaskan king crab and bacon ($48) to the laborious-to-prepare pommes soufflées — crisp yet light twice-fried potatoes puffed in the center that taste like a cross between a French fry and potato chip ($19). And don’t miss the potato mochi, inspired by the Japanese treat, each orb crunchy on the outside yet tender and chewy within ($15).

Sommelier Royston Remick oversees a wine list of 3,000 bottles (and growing) with vintages that go as far back as 1947 and include domains in France, Italy and Spain, as well as New World varietals. Remick has also worked directly with a number of producers to curate the Turner’s Cut Collection, which he expects to grow to 25 different varieties. Cocktails, spirited and otherwise, include classic sours, gimlets, as well as ancestral variations on the old fashioned. I adored my drink dubbed Sophia’s Bubbly Punch, a pink-hued elixir created with Aperol, St-Germain and brut champagne served in a coupe glass chilled with a rose-shaped ice cube ($24).

 A meal at Turner’s Cut ends with a sartorial splash, especially if you order corporate pastry chef Ruchit Harneja’s showstopping Turner’s Cut Opera, a classic French layered cake composed in a cylindrical fashion, brought to the table beneath a cloche of a different sort: a Macallan bottle that emits a coffee-scented smoke as it’s lifted to reveal the pastry inside ($19). Playing with the concept of trompe l’oeil, the crème fraiche cheesecake is dressed as a cut mandarin, with orange-colored citrus segments ($17), and the mango looks like the tropical fruit but is actually a white chocolate shell painted like the exterior of a sweet Alphonso mango, filled with mango mousse, atop a bed of crispy hazelnut crumble ($17).

Turner’s Cut is located at 811 Buffalo Park Drive, Suite 160. It is open Tuesdays through Thursdays from 5 pm to 10 pm and Fridays and Saturdays from 5 pm to 11 pm. It is closed Sundays and Mondays.