What is the difference between a Boneless Top Sirloin and a Sirloin Tip Steak?

Boneless top sirloin and sirloin tip steaks are very similar, but slightly different. What's the difference? Well, they are both boneless, despite their names. 

The top sirloin comes from the sirloin of the beef and is more tender. 

The sirloin tip, however, comes from the round and is a little tougher and leaner in its marbling.

Additionally, there is a ridge of fat that runs along the top of the boneless top sirloin steak. While you might not enjoy eating fat straight like this (or maybe you do!), it adds more flavor and nutrition as it breaks down and cooks into the steak. 

The sirloin tip steak does not have a ridge of fat on it.

Both cuts lend themselves well to a marinade and are a lovely, tender cut when cooked correctly. 

Top sirloin is a little better for grilling, because it's naturally more tender than the sirloin tip. As always, don't overcook these steaks! The longer you cook them, the less tender they will be. 

The recommended cook temperature is 145 degrees. We strongly recommend using meat thermometers to ensure you don't overcook them! Meat still cooks after you take it off the pan for a few minutes and will rise a few more degrees in temperature.

We like to slice sirloin steak thinly and cook it in stroganoff, fajitas, etc.

Watch as we take a closer look and cook them both side by side.

Leave us questions below. Thanks!

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Top Sirloin vs. Sirloin Tip Steak

Video Transcript

(Anastasia) Hi everyone, it’s Anastasia from Riemer Family Farm here, I’m about to make some lunch, and I just wanted to share something with you quickly.

So these are sirloin steaks, we’ve got the two different ones here, this is a Top Sirloin, we call it a boneless sirloin. It’s got this ridge of fat along the top and it’s got this nice marbling in between. And this is a sirloin tip steak, and it doesn’t have that ridge of fat on it, but it also has some nice marbling here. So both of these steaks come from the sirloin, it’s a leaner cut of the beef, which is why we marinated them overnight, just a little bit of oil and vinegar, some garlic salt and pepper to make it a little more flavorful and tender. We’ll throw them in a skillet here, sear them on both sides. We don’t want to overcook them, so we’ll cook them to about medium, medium-well. And that’s about 145 degrees (F) minimum on beef. If you have our temperature cook card to refer to, that’s on there. We’ll slice them up and throw them on a salad and call that lunch. It’s a nice hot summer day, so this’ll be a nice cool, enjoyable lunch.

I wish you could smell this, it’s so good. We used balsamic vinegar and it’s really flavorful. When I lifted the steaks out of the pan they kind of started to fall apart, making them nice and tender.

We just finished cutting up these two steaks, the sirloin tip we kind of overcooked a little bit, but the top sirloin is very nicely cooked. Some nice pink in there, that’s what we love to see. So, I just wanted to point out that if you’re not a fan of fat: having this extra ridge of fat on top [of the top sirloin] makes it a little bit juicer, gives it some more fat to break down as you’re cooking and kind of incorporate into the meat. This is going to be really tender, it was really nice to cut apart. But if you’re a little squeamish about fat, because this ridge is just on the top, once the steak is cooked and finished, it’s really easy to go ahead and just cut the fat off. Go ahead and just snip that right off. If you don’t want to eat that, give it to your dog or somebody who does want to eat it. It’s really easy, and it adds a lot of flavor and nutrition to the steaks. Because our beef is grass fed, there are a lot of delicious Omega-3 fatty-acids in here that are good for your brain and your heart. So don’t be afraid of fat, fat is good.