Brisbane restaurants: SK Steak and Oyster review, Fortitude Valley

Restaurant reviewer Tony Harper has dished out his top score of 2020 to this high-end eatery in Fortitude Valley. And with a surprisingly well priced lobster menu, he reckons it hits all the right notes.

Remember Elliott Gould in Ocean’s 11? He plays Reuben Tishkoff – a wealthy, displaced casino owner.

The scene with Brad Pitt and George Clooney trying to secure his backing is set poolside in this luxe, low-set Californian residence. Gould does the whole thing in a bathrobe, giant sunglasses and four kilos of bling around his neck. Priceless.

That’s the vibe at SK Steak and Oyster – high-end California cool.

SK Steak and Oyster in the Calile Hotel precinct.

Much of which comes from the pared-back, simple quality of the Calile Hotel and its peripheries, of which SK is a part. But the steakhouse has played on the retro feel of the building, reinventing the best of the 1970s and early ’80s food scenes and popping them smack bang into its glorious, busy, burgher-filled setting.

There’s a lobster menu on the day I visit – of course there is – and it’s $85 per person.

That seems ridiculously underpriced to me.

We start with a lobster cocktail served in a coupe glass, just like Milano’s would have served 30 years ago, but with a fat lobster tail instead of prawns and a very good cocktail sauce. Then, tartare laden with fennel; risotto (unexpectedly, the best dish of the day); and a grilled half-crustacean.

All of it comes out at an exact pace. It’s enough to satisfy hunger but also plied with sufficient lobster meat to validate the whole idea and neuter any guesswork as to why lobster is so prized. This is good produce, well handled.

SK Steak & Oyster chef/co-owner Kelvin Andrews shows off some of the prized lobster on the menu. Picture: Adam Head

A smashing bottle of Beru chablis ($165) and an even better trocken riesling from Kuhling Gillot ($170) are our mid-range picks from a rather comprehensive wine list.

We try a steak, just to do our homework – 350g rib, plus fries, a salad, condiments and a bowl of mashed potato complete with (you guessed it) chunks of lobster and a decadent bisque. Goodness.

Steaks can run to a lot of money at SK (more, it seems, than lobster), thanks to a prominently displayed dry-ageing cabinet hung with all sorts of cuts.

It’s $200 for half a kilo of Kiwami wagyu sirloin and the same for a kilo (you’d need six people, surely?) of black angus T-bone aged for 35 days.

The SK Sirloin steak with Moreton Bay bug mash potato, sauteed mixed mushrooms and SK signature wedge salad. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

Our steak is terrific, the fries less so. Which brings me to the fly in the ointment.

So much effort has gone into the setting, the impeccable service (which never falters), the expansive wine list and the lavish menu.

Why then are the fries merely OK? Reuben Tishkoff would throw them in the pool.

In a lesser setting I would forgive, perhaps not even notice, this blip.

Somewhere in the suburbs perhaps, or somewhere aiming far lower.

But two days later I’m in a subterranean French restaurant with fries that scintillate. And

I can’t help but compare.

In the end it simply comes down to numbers and how to please most of the people most of the time. Which SK can do with its eyes closed.

Partly because it’s in the right place, partly the impeccable service, but mostly because it’s a restaurant, with a theme, done incredibly well.

SCORES OUT OF 10

Food: 8

Drinks: 9

Vibe: 9.5

Service: 9.5

SK Steak and Oyster

48 James St,

Fortitude Valley

Ph: 3252 1857