Beef prices are on the rise—and so is the cost of steak on your plate.

The price of beef is up 14.7 percent in 2025 compared to 2024, while overall food costs have increased by just 3.1 percent year over year, according to data from the Consumer Price Index. That ballooning figure has caused U.S. restaurants to increase the price of steak on their menus, The New York Times reported.

The price of USDA choice boneless steak, for example, has gone up by 20 percent this year, with the price per pound sitting at $14.13, the Bureau of labor Statistics reported. Most fine-dining restaurants have not received many complaints about burdening costs, according to the NYT, though that doesn’t stop them from worrying about feedback.

“We had to raise prices or we weren’t going to be able to cover costs,” Tommy Hall, owner of Halls Chophouse, a high-end steakhouse chain dotted across South Carolina and Tennessee, told the publication. “Every time we do a price increase, I have butterflies in my stomach wondering how customers will take it.” Hall’s restaurants recently increased the price of its eight-ounce filet mignon to $61, while a rib-eye went from $82 to $85.

At the family-owned Jess & Jim’s Steakhouse in Kansas City, Mo., they’ve been reluctant to raise prices but have had to of late and manager Debbie Van Noy has noticed a few customers changing their ordering habits. “Now, they’re sometimes getting the chicken or the pork chops,” she said told The Times. “They’re limiting their steak purchases a little bit.”

One of the biggest contributors to those rising costs is a lack of cattle. The U.S. is dealing with its lowest cattle inventory since 1951, with severe droughts affecting supply, according to CNBC. Americans’ craving for beef hasn’t waned, either, with customers expected to enjoy an average of 58.5 pounds of beef in 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted in August. That high demand, in addition to rising costs overall for farmers, creates a perfect price-increasing storm.

Recently, President Trump assembled a group of his top advisors to figure out ways to combat the soaring beef prices, The Wall Street Journal reported. This task force formed on the heels of the announcement of the government’s $12 billion aid package to farmers, which is expected to land in February. A VP of the National Farmers Union said that the payout “is just a lifeline, not a long-term solution,” according to Reuters, with government officials saying that the package is meant to be a stopgap until the effects of Trump’s spending bill passed this July come to fruition.