The Eddie V’s group now has 14 branches of its three different restaurants (including Wildfish and Roaring Fork), and while its home office is in Arizona, it seems poised to take over Texas. The atmosphere is dark—overly so—and clubby, with curvy banquettes, live piano, and Jazz Age-style artwork, with a generic newness to it all. The slightly more informal bar area’s more comfortable than the tricked-out and often comically fussy dining room, and sitting here with happy-hour-priced appetizers and decent $5 martinis is a guilty pleasure.

The menu, as well as the atmosphere, caters to a certain income bracket—one that perhaps doesn’t mind that the $15 lump crab cakes are pretty unremarkable, or that a pound of broiled from-frozen lobster tail costs twice what it would if culled fresh from a Chinese seafood tank. Likewise, Chilean sea bass, steamed and served in a delicious soy and sherry broth, is much cheaper at Japanese and Chinese places serving it just as flaky, buttery, and sweet. Prime steaks are juicy and cooked appropriately to temperature (creamed spinach almondine is a good side), but if you want steak, why not choose the dry-aged version at a similarly pricey and clubby steakhouse?

The wine list’s only discernible guiding principle is ripping off people who like wines with “cake” implications. There are simply better seafood, steak, wine, and upscale options in whatever city Eddie V’s is in.