Charles Barkley used to order his steak well-done. Now, he’s opening a steakhouse and cigar lounge in KOP.

What makes a great steakhouse? Ask Charles Barkley, and he’ll tell you it’s one with a menu powered by an inventive chef — with help from a former basketball player.

With his first steakhouse venture on the horizon, steak is on the NBA legend’s mind. Sitting in his Narberth condo, Barkley admitted he used to order his steak well done, but these days he’s leveling up to medium-well.

“Apparently I’m an animal — people think I’m crazy [for well-done steak],” he said. “I’m not big on all that red stuff in the center, but I’m trying to get better. I don’t want to go out there eating no hockey puck.”

Ensuring the success of his upcoming steakhouse and cigar lounge at Valley Forge Casino & Resort means having a solid menu and quality cigars. So, when the King of Prussia casino’s team reached out to Barkley, a frequent visitor, about the concept, “I said we got to make sure that it’s a great place to eat and a great place to hang out,” he said.

The former 76er loves to gamble at the casino, the closest to his home, when he’s in Philly. Over the last four to five years, he became friends with the people who work there, going out for drinks with them.

“What’s crazy is I’ve had a hundred opportunities to open a bar, restaurant, whatever, and I’ve always said no,” he said. “[But then] they were like, ‘Why don’t we open up a place where we can stay in the building and have drinks and smoke cigars?’ I was like, ‘I’m open to it.’ And the rest is history.”

While the former power forward isn’t part of the chef-selection process, he does have thoughts about what should be on the menu.

According to Barkley, a good steakhouse needs a variety of dishes that are affordable to appeal to all diners. There should be a couple of fish options, like a Dover sole or a branzino — two of his favorites — and “a play on sides” like macaroni and cheese, a variety of potatoes (mashed, baked, scalloped), crab cocktail, “great” soup lineup, and “of course” cheesesteak egg rolls. He’s hoping to have his favorite desserts, key lime pie and carrot cake, on the menu, too.

“[The casino team] ask me a couple of things here and there, but that’s not my specialty — I’ve never designed a restaurant or a cigar bar,” he said. “They’ve got to make it quality, which, that’s my only thing. I know they wanted it to be successful.”

The steakhouse and cigar lounge doesn’t yet have a name or opening date as it is under development, according to Abby Kleman, account executive at Cashman & Associates, the agency representing the casino. The concept is part of the casino’s push to secure its place as one of Pennsylvania’s most popular gaming destinations, The Inquirer reported. The vision is a sleek, luxury dining and smoking experience decorated with personal memorabilia from Barkley’s career and a walk-in humidor in the lounge.

A frequent diner at the King of Prussia locations of Morton’s The Steakhouse and Creed’s Seafood & Steaks, Barkley is looking forward to creating his niche in the Philly suburbs’ dining scene.

“People ask me all the time why I live in Philly, [and] I just think Philly is a tremendous city,” he said. “If you want a good meal in Philly, you can find it — this place has spectacular Italian food, and the steaks at Morton’s and Creed’s are good.“

But that doesn’t include beef cheesesteaks. Barkley isn’t the biggest fan of Philly’s most iconic sandwich. ”I’m a clean fanatic; everything has to be immaculate in my life all the time,” he said. “And when I got drafted by the 76ers, they said, ‘You got to have a cheesesteak.’ I cannot stand wet bread, that drives me literally crazy. So I had one cheesesteak in 1984, ′85, and it was so messy. I can’t do it.”

A chicken iteration, on the other hand, he loves — “the bread never gets wet with chicken cheesesteaks,” he said — especially from Chubby’s Steaks in Roxborough.

The Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer is unabashed with his food takes, just as he is with his sports analysis. It’s the blunt honesty Philadelphians can expect at his steakhouse — including his disapproval for any diner who eats their steak with ketchup.

“You cannot eat ketchup with a steak. No, you cannot,” he said. “There will be no ketchup on steaks at this steakhouse, I can promise you that.”