University Chophouse, Greenville

Cuisine Type: Steaks, Pasta and Seafood
Established: 2007
Reservations: Recommended
Handicap Accessible: Yes
Number of Tables: 25–50
Parking: Parking lot
Most popular offering: Steak
Kid-friendly: Yes
Alcohol: Full bar
Delivery / Take-out Available: Takeout Only
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Pro Tip: Coziest seats are the booths in the bar area. Outside atrium [is] great when the weather is nice.

Though University Chophouse's lunch and dinner menus are packed with a mix of fine dining and traditional southern cuisine, the restaurant's owner admits that if he were "a bad boy and had my final meal in prison," the Mediterranean scallops would be his order. This dish—which combines the savory mollusks with linguini, spinach, tomato, and a white-wine sauce—demonstrates how this isn't your average steak house, though the grass-fed Angus steaks are hard to pass up. Aged for a minimum of 28 days, these delicacies are cooked in a 1,800-degree broiler and added to dishes such as the filet oscar, which comes topped with lump crab, asparagus, and hollandaise. And as the wait staff ferries plates throughout the neutral-toned dining room, a picture window reveals an outdoor courtyard large enough to seat more than 70 guests.