‘I don’t think we saw it at its best’: South Brisbane’s new steakhouse

In a sea of steak restaurants, this new Brisbane offering promised to stand out from the pack with something new. But it left our reviewer a little underwhelmed.

Argentinian restaurant Calida at South Bank serves up a variety of beef.

Steak, steak and more steak, Brisbane seems to be teeming with steakhouses. Now there’s another at South Bank, Calida’s point of difference being its Argentinian inspiration, with empanadas to start and perhaps a malbec to sip while your cut of beef sizzles on a traditional parilla grill.

The 180-seat restaurant which opened in June is from experienced operators in the area, the Alemré Hospitality Group, which also owns Ole and Vici Italian in the same precinct and Mucho Mexicano and Downtown Istanbul in Hawthorne.

Inside Calida restaurant at South Bank.

The dining room at Calida restaurant at South Bank.

The sizeable street corner location means there are outdoor tables on Grey St, stools pulled up to a ledge along the thin outdoor strip beside Ernest St, while the largest al fresco area with heaters and backed by the attention-grabbing bar, is on Little Stanley St. Inside, there’s also a multitude of sturdy, wooden tables topped with water glasses, cutlery and paper napkins, comfortable woven-backed chairs and an appealing brick and black colour scheme accented by judiciously placed potplants.

We start with the cheese empanadas ($15 for two) the pastry stuffed with a pleasant mix of ricotta, mozzarella, corn, spinach and chilli and there’s a beef version for those who want to stay strictly on theme.

Other carnivorous starters include beef jus with bread, beef tartare and lamb rump skewers, but we opt for the chorizo ($21) topped with a thick sherry and shallot jus and a couple of slices of grilled bread for mopping up, but there’s also octopus or salmon ceviche for a lighter touch.

Main courses are, as you’d expect, very meat heavy, with a “signature” mixed grill for two ($125), beef short ribs, and five steaks ($37-$65) supplemented by a beef of the day list, which on our visit includes another five ($39-$120 for a 1.1kg tomahawk).

Meat avoidance is possible by ordering barramundi, a salad, or delving into the sides which run to the likes of burnt-end carrots, battered onion rings and roasted mushrooms.

The beef is mostly from S. Kidman & Co, the large, historic brand now partly owned by Gina Rinehart.

Sirloin steak at Calida.

The beef of the day page does, however, include a couple of Stanbroke Sanchoku wagyu options and a Diamantina Classic Beef tomahawk. All are served with Australian red gum smoked salt and chimichurri sauce.

The 300g S. Kidman 120-day, grain-fed sirloin ($37) arrives rested and sliced and medium as requested but takes a bit of chewing while the 250g Sanchoku 350-day grain fed F1 wagyu picanha, ($59), at medium rare is as buttery soft and luscious as you might expect from meat with a marble score of 8-9.

A spread of food at Calida.

Potatoes come four ways: shoestring fries, mashed potato, new potatoes roasted in beef tallow and hand-cut thick fries ($14), which manage to be piping hot and disappointingly flabby at the same time.

Drinks include pisco sours, sangria, Argentina’s much-consumed concoction of the spirit Fernet Branca and Coke, and the country’s Quilmes makes the beer selection.

Reds out-muscle the whites on a clipped couple of pages of global choices, with five malbecs from Argentina’s Mendoza region but disappointingly, neither of the by-the-glass options is available.

There are a lot of staff on and while service is fine it’s reasonably perfunctory, but everything arrives at reasonable intervals.

We share a dulce de leche sandwich cookie ($6) – shortbread-style biscuits filled with the caramel sauce – from a four-strong dessert list that includes a promising sounding dulce de leche lava cake for sweet tooths.

The dulce de leche sandwich cookie.

Like the rest of our dinner it’s fine but unremarkable (you’re not included in that, Sanchoku picanha) but for such an approachable, easy-going restaurant based around a fine repertoire of steaks from quality brands, I don’t think we saw it at its best.

Calida Argentinian Steak & Bar

164C Grey St, South Brisbane

calidarestaurant.com.au

Open

11.30am-9pm, seven days

Must try

Sanchoku picanha

Verdict – Scores out of 5

Food 3

Ambience 3.5

Service 3

Value 3.5

Overall 3.5