Key Takeaways

1. At a fine dining Italian steakhouse, beef occupies one section of the menu. Whole fish, house-made pasta, wood-fired chicken, a raw bar, and a full vegetable program occupy the rest.
2. The Italian half of the name is the useful half. An Italian steakhouse carries an entire second cuisine, which is precisely why the format works for a table where not everyone wants the same thing.
3. Order by what you actually want, not by what the restaurant is called. The kitchen that dry-ages its own beef is applying the same standards to its fish, its pasta, and its chicken.

The Situation

Someone else booked. It's a steakhouse. You don't eat beef, or you do but not tonight, and now you're scanning a menu wondering whether you're about to have a mediocre evening while everyone else has a good one.

At a chain steakhouse, that worry is often justified — the non-beef options exist to prevent complaints rather than to be ordered.

At a fine dining Italian steakhouse, the situation is different, and the difference is structural. Italian cooking is a complete cuisine that happens to be sitting on the same menu. The pasta section isn't an accommodation. Neither is the seafood.

What follows is a set of paths through the menu depending on what you're actually after.

If You Eat Seafood

This is the strongest position to be in, because the seafood at a serious Italian steakhouse tends to be as good as the beef.

The Whole Fish

Three wild-caught options — Red Snapper from Florida, Black Sea Bass from the Atlantic, Branzino from Greece — each grilled or livornese style.

Ordering fish on the bone is the move here. Bone and skin hold moisture and add flavor a bare fillet loses, which our whole fish guide covers in full. It's also the most impressive plate on the non-beef side of the menu, so if part of the annoyance is watching a Porterhouse land across the table, a whole snapper evens the scales.

The Simpler Seafood Plates

If you want fish without the shell work:

• Mediterranean Branzino — filleted, oven-roasted, with seasonal vegetables. The easy, elegant default.
• Faroe Island Salmon — grilled, with squash noodles, sundried tomatoes, goat cheese, sunflower seeds.
• Colossal Shrimp Veneziana — scampi style, with parmigiano crostini.
• Canadian Lobster — 1.5 lbs and up, steamed, broiled, angry, or cognac. Our lobster guide breaks down which preparation suits which appetite.

Start at the Raw Bar

Oysters, little neck clams, shrimp cocktail, lobster cocktail, or a seafood tower for the table. Cold, briny, and the best possible opening to a meal — our oyster guide covers how to order across the varieties.

Caviar service sits here too, if the evening warrants it.

If You Want Pasta

The pasta section at a fine dining Italian steakhouse is not a consolation prize. It's the other half of the restaurant's identity.

Eight dishes run from a simple Spaghetti al Pomodoro with imported Vesuvius tomatoes to Pappardelle with filet mignon and porcini ragout. The kitchen makes it in house, which changes the texture and the way sauce clings — the mechanics are in our house-made pasta guide.

A few paths:

• Lightest — Spaghetti al Pomodoro, or Linguine Vongole with manila clams in white wine and garlic
• Richest — Fettuccine with rock shrimp, mushroom, and black truffle
• Spiciest — Lobster Spicy Rigatoni, with Calabrian chili in a vodka sauce
• Most elegant — Ravioli al Limone, whipped ricotta and lemon in a creamy lemon sauce

One Note on Portions

In the Italian tradition, pasta is the primo — a middle course, not the centerpiece. Ordering a pasta as your main is entirely normal in an American context, but ordering one to share and following it with fish or chicken gives you the fuller arc of the meal.

If You Want Chicken

Four preparations, all Giannone farm.

Chicken is the order most people assume is the safe, boring choice. At a kitchen with a wood-burning oven, it's often the sleeper.

• Pollo al Limone — wood-fired marinated half organic chicken. Radiant heat crisps the skin while the meat cooks through, which is the version of roast chicken most kitchens can't produce. Our wood-fired oven piece explains why.
• Chicken Milanese — pounded and breaded, with an arugula, tomato, onion, and parmigiano salad on top.
• Chicken Paillard — grilled breast with sautéed onions and mushrooms, or milanese style.
• Chicken Parmigiana — the classic, with tomato sauce, parmigiano, and mozzarella.

Order the Pollo al Limone if you want to know what the kitchen can really do.

If You're Vegetarian

Honest assessment: a steakhouse is not built around vegetarian dining, and there's no vegetarian entrée section. But an Italian one gives you considerably more to work with than a traditional American steakhouse.

Build From Starters and Sides

The most satisfying vegetarian approach here is a composed meal of smaller plates rather than a single entrée.

Starters: Eggplant Rollatini (baked eggplant rolls with cheese and basil mousse, broiled with tomato sauce), Mozzarella di Bufala with roasted peppers, Italian Long Peppers, or French Onion Soup.

Sides — order two or three: charred brussels sprouts, broccolini, seasonal mushrooms, asparagus and parmigiano, heirloom cauliflower, sautéed spinach, shishito peppers with chickpea hummus.

Salads: Insalata Centocolori (baby kale, frisée, buffalo mozzarella, radicchio, avocado, tomato, olives), Insalata di Barbabietole (beets, goat cheese, frisée, espresso dust), or a classic chopped.

Pasta: Spaghetti al Pomodoro and Rigatoni al Cacio e Pepe are both meat-free as written.

Say Something When You Book

Any kitchen with a real pantry can compose a vegetarian plate given notice. Mentioning it at reservation is the difference between improvising off the sides menu and being cooked for.

If You Just Want Something Lighter

Not a dietary question — an appetite question. Some nights a 14 oz strip is more dinner than anyone wants.

• Raw bar and a salad. A half dozen oysters, a Sofia salad with grilled shrimp and crab, done.
• Soup and a starter. French Onion Soup, then Polipo Arrosto — charred octopus with escarole and chili.
• A pasta, shared. Split one across the table and skip the main entirely.
• At lunch, a pizza. Four wood-fired options on the lunch menu, which is a completely reasonable dinner-sized decision at midday.

If You Have Dietary Restrictions

Two things worth knowing.

Pasta: gluten-free, whole grain, red lentil, and zucchini pasta are all available, which means the pasta section stays open to people who otherwise skip it.

Dessert: three items are marked gluten free on the menu — the Spumoni di Banana, the Chocolate Soufflé, and the Panna Cotta — so the last course isn't a write-off either.

Mention restrictions at booking. A kitchen given notice performs considerably better than one told at the table.

The Underlying Point

The reason any of this works is that the standards don't change between sections.

A kitchen that dry-ages its own beef and cooks it over live fire is applying comparable care to the fish it flies in daily, the pasta it makes in house, and the chicken it sources from a named farm. The seriousness is the constant; beef is just one expression of it.

Which is the actual answer to the original problem. At a genuine fine dining Italian steakhouse, ordering something other than steak isn't settling — it's using the rest of the menu.

Quick Questions

What can you order at a steakhouse if you don't eat beef? 

At a fine dining Italian steakhouse, the non-beef menu is substantial — whole wild-caught fish, lobster and seafood, house-made pasta, wood-fired chicken, a raw bar with oysters and caviar, and a full range of salads and vegetable sides.

Is there vegetarian food at a steakhouse? 

Italian steakhouses generally offer more vegetarian options than traditional American ones. At Sofia in Englewood, vegetarians can build a meal from starters like eggplant rollatini and mozzarella di bufala, meat-free pastas such as spaghetti al pomodoro and rigatoni al cacio e pepe, salads, and seven vegetable sides. Mentioning it when booking helps the kitchen prepare.

What's the best non-steak dish at an Italian steakhouse? 

The whole wild-caught fish is usually the strongest non-beef order — cooked on the bone with the skin on, it's the most impressive plate outside the steak section. Wood-fired chicken is the sleeper choice, and a good test of a kitchen.

Does Sofia have gluten-free options? 

Yes. Sofia in Englewood offers gluten-free, whole grain, red lentil, and zucchini pasta, and marks three desserts as gluten free: the Spumoni di Banana, the Chocolate Soufflé, and the Panna Cotta.

Can you eat well at a steakhouse as a pescatarian? 

Very well. A fine dining Italian steakhouse typically carries a raw bar, whole fish, lobster, shrimp, salmon, and multiple seafood pastas — often as strong a selection as the beef program.

Should I order pasta as a main course? 

You can, though in the Italian tradition pasta is a middle course rather than the centerpiece. Ordering one pasta to share and following it with fish or chicken gives you the fuller shape of an Italian meal.

About Sofia Englewood

Sofia is a fine dining Italian steakhouse in downtown Englewood, NJ, recognized by NJ Digest for "timeless elegance coupled with modern culinary excellence." Beyond the wood-fired USDA Prime dry-aged steaks, the menu carries wild-caught whole fish, lobster and seafood, eight house-made pastas with gluten-free and alternative options, Giannone farm chicken, a raw bar with oysters and caviar service, and a full range of salads and vegetable sides.

For reservations and private events, call (201) 541-8530 or book online. Full menus and hours and location are on the site.