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I am eating a lot of steak tartare, and usually making it from the tenderloin (called filet in some countries). But the tenderloin is expensive. I've made it from beef round once and it was fine too, and I read its also being made from sirloin.

Are there any other cuts of beef which would be suitable for steak tartare, especially focusing on the more inexpensive ones?

What makes a cut suitable for steak tartare or not?

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What makes them suitable - You'd want to focus on cuts that are especially lean, without a lot of connective tissue or fat, marbled or otherwise. Raw fat is probably unappealing, flavor-wise, and that's what often causes meat to go rancid, so focusing on cuts with just muscle tissue, and minimal marbling is what makes it good (and safe) for tartare, I'd think.

Cheaper cuts that are good for stews or slow-cooking often have a good bit of connective tissue in them, which would make them poor choices. Unless you like a gristly tatare. :D

Probably round or rump, and sirloin - all already mentioned by you - would be decent choices for those reason. I'm not sure you'd need to look further. Of those, sirloin has the reputation for having more "beefy" flavor, but round and rump are often among the cheapest cuts.

EDIT - UK and USA cuts by the same name are not, apparently, identical cuts. Please see the comments to this answer.

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  • US Sirloin would be good, in the UK Sirloin is a different cut which wouldn't be great for Tartare. Rump, silverside or topside would be good UK choices.
    – GdD
    Jan 6, 2017 at 16:08
  • @GdD - I was not aware of that. Good comment!
    – PoloHoleSet
    Jan 6, 2017 at 16:50
  • Why would raw fat be unappealing? People have taste receptors for fat, its taste is an inborn preference (as opposed to acquired tastes like tannins), raw vegetable fat is appealing, mostly-uncooked fat like raw bacon is appealing... It wouldn't be as "magnetic" as some cooked-fat foods like fried bacon, but I think it would be still plenty appealing, and likely to make the whole thing taste better.
    – rumtscho ♦
    Jan 6, 2017 at 17:00
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    Raw fat vs cooked is very, very different taste and certainly a very different texture. Tartare beef will go bad much faster with higher fat content, as well, as noted. The meat for tartare is, by definition, very lean. You may think it would/could be tasty, but it would not be tartare. You may think that serving Mexican/Southwestern rice in a roll of seaweed would be delicious, but it would no longer be sushi if you did.
    – PoloHoleSet
    Jan 6, 2017 at 17:35
  • I don't have a US cuts picture to compare to, but the UK & French ones are at cooking.stackexchange.com/q/34597/67
    – Joe
    Jan 6, 2017 at 20:36

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