delicious.100: Where to get the best steak in Melbourne
FLAWLESSLY cooked and meltingly tender with a charred crust and blushing centre, steak in Melbourne is among the best in the world. Whether you prefer wagyu or Cape Grim, here’s where to go for a masterfully cooked steak.
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YOU’RE probably here for the beef, dry-aged wagyu or Cape Grim sirloin. Or maybe it’s the fillet, rump or rib-eye from the woodfired grill.
Whatever the cut, it’ll be flawlessly cooked and meltingly tender with a charred crust and blushing centre that are usually worth the price tag.
We’ve selected the best eateries for a really great steak from the delicious.100, the only food guide to rank Victoria’s top 100 restaurants.
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ROCKPOOL BAR & GRILL
Crown complex, Southbank.
03 8648 1900
Long lunches, late suppers, zero birthdays, the boss busting out the corporate credit card — life is good at Rockpool.
Neil Perry’s flagship Melbourne restaurant remains a jewel in the casino’s crown, this sure bet seating a day and night procession of diners who’ll admire the open kitchen with its flurry of flames and small army of chefs on their way to their table.
The menu is long and lovely, championing steak and seafood that’s lovingly sourced and expertly treated.
King prawns are simply split down the middle and grilled, while local scallops swimming in herb and garlic butter are gently torched to coax maximum flavour.
But you’re probably here for the beef, dry-aged wagyu or Cape Grim sirloin, fillet, rump and rib-eye from the woodfired grill. Whatever the cut, it’ll be flawlessly cooked and meltingly tender with a charred crust and blushing centre that are usually worth the price tag, which can reach $125.
Side dishes also star, like the heart-stoppingly good speck-laced mac and cheese and the potato and cabbage gratin.
If you have any change left, finish with a coffee ($6.50!) and dessert, perhaps passionfruit pav or a squat chocolate doughnut with raspberry ice cream, or petit fours, such as a tray of intense after-dinner mints.
Service is spot on, from breaking down the tome of a wine list and explaining the steaks to making a fuss of anyone celebrating a milestone.
The room has had a slight refresh, but remains low on lighting and high on class. Bargains won’t be found here, but this is special-occasion dining, or for those fabulous times when you’re not responsible for the bill.
Must eat dish: Cape Grim dry-aged steak
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chefs: Neil Perry, Zac Nicholson
Price: $$$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch Sun-Fri., Dinner daily
Instagram: @rockpooldininggroup
THE MAYFAIR
Sofitel forecourt, 45 Collins St, Melbourne
03 9654 8545
With its thickly draped tables, crystalware sparkling in the candlelight and a backlit bar twinkling with promise, The Mayfair is Melbourne’s newest late-night supper club, not to mention the city’s most romantic dining room.
Channelling NYC 1930s glam to a soundtrack of jazz, clinking classes and cocktail shakers, and all the good cheer they bring forth, The Mayfair delivers a dining experience that’s one part elegant, two parts louche.
And with dapper co-owner Joe Jones making serious — and seriously good — liquid classics it might be easy to be led astray in the dark and moody bar. But eating’s no afterthought, thanks to an equally classic bistro menu executed with aplomb.
A made-to-order crumpet, at once airy and crunchy, comes topped with chunky spanner crab that’s outrageously good, while the red gum-fuelled grill is put to excellent use on a range of artfully charred steaks.
Cloaked in butter and capers and served whole on the bone, the dory is an affirmation of simple is best that’s backed up by a textbook brulee that’s all tooth-sticking toffee and voluptuous custard class.
A separate late night menu — think scrambled eggs, steak frites and sausage rolls — is the type of fare that goes down at any hour, especially after a Mayfair Swizzle (cachaca, Manzanilla sherry, lime and honey) or three.
With an eye on the future by channelling the past, The Mayfair's cosy decadence means you had better plan a late night.
Must eat dish: Crab crumpet
Cuisine: French
Chef: Ron O’Bryan
Price $$
Bookings: Yes
Open Mon-Sat 5pm-1am; Fri. noon-late
Instagram @themayfairrestaurant
PURE SOUTH DINING
River Level, Southgate Precinct, 3 Southgate Ave, Southbank
03 9699 4600
Long before MONA helped mainlanders discover the joys of the Apple Isle, Philip Kennedy and Peter Leary were over-delivering the best produce of that little land down at Pure South.
Early this year the pair reopened their now 13-year-old Southgate restaurant and added another level, literally and metaphorically.
The space at river level, P.S. Bar & Kitchen, is dedicated to all-day eating and casual drinking, while upstairs is to showcase their fine-dining game.
In the handsome, glass-panelled eyrie of a dining room that enjoys prime views across the city and beyond, chef David Hall transforms Tasmania’s best into approachable, clever dishes.
Start with stunning, freshly flown in Lease 65 oysters from St Helens, perfect with house-baked rye spread with hand-churned butter from Pyengana dairy and a glass of crisp riesling from the Tas-centric list.
Follow with an artful tartare of King Island beef, and then perhaps fillets of Flinders Island wallaby seared blushing and paired with sticky beetroot and sharp red cabbage.
Then, to end, a wobbly pannacotta made from the buttermilk of the Pyengana butter to start, bringing the meal to a full-circle close.
Service is young and keen and prices fair.
Look past the buskers and map-toting dawdlers, for Pure South is no tourist trap. It is, rather, a pure celebration of the south.
Must-eat dish: Flinders Island Wallaby
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chef: David Hall
Price: $$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Lunch & dinner daily (except Sat lunch)
Instagram: @puresouthdining
FITZROY TOWN HALL HOTEL
166 Johnston St, Fitzroy
03 9416 5055
Buying the joint in early 2015, Sean Donovan declared he wanted to make the Fitzroy Town Hall Hotel “more of a fair dinkum pub”. He has succeeded.
This historic watering hole is once again a place where you can prop at the public bar with a craft beer and a schnitzel and watch the game, or take a seat in the cosy dining room for some gastro-pub fare.
While this is a definitively Aussie venue, just as he did at Footscray’s Station Hotel and the Wayside Inn in South Melbourne, Donovan has brought robust Euro fare to the fore.
In the front bar, you can order crispy snapper wings or house-made haggis, maybe even an Eton Mess; while the midnight blue dining room, moodily lit and warmed by a log fire, is the perfect place to savour premium cuts of beef and seafood expertly handled.
Sherry-splashed king prawns, sizzling Toulouse sausages and charcoal-dark Angus rib eye all comes hot off the Town Hall's red-gum fired barbecue.
A lovely surprise from Donovan, whose cooking is deeply reassuring, is an excellent Sardinian fish stew. No other pub in town comes near to surpassing this fair dinkum bountiful blend of mussels and clams, cuttlefish and snapper fillet in a saffron-scented broth.
Must-eat dish: Sardinian fish stew
Cuisine Contemporary Chef Sean Donovan
Price $ Bookings yes
Open: Daily noon-late
Instagram: @fitzroytownhallhotel
LAMARO’S
273-279 Cecil St, South Melbourne
03 9690 3737
Going back to the future has never tasted so good. Lamaro’s, one of the inner city’s best ‘old pubs’, is the setting for some culinary nostalgia with Geoff Lindsay taking over this year as co-owner and executive chef.
The menu is a roll call of pub classics and signature dishes from his 30 something-year career, such as his Pearl-era steak tartare and red duck curry.
Delve deeper and more delights await, from the surf-and-turf finery of creamy wood-seared scallops shellmates with bits of roasted pork belly in a gutsy citrus dressing; to supple tiles of raw kingfish dressed with coconut cream, finger lime and pomegranate seeds for zest and zing.
Mains might have you tucking into a plate-spanning veal ‘schnitty’ with creamy slaw, or roast free-range chicken salad with pancetta and pine nuts. Finish sweet with the rose petal and Turkish delight ice cream crowned with fairy floss.
More than ever, Lamaro’s provides a happy place for diners, drinkers and in-betweeners.
While the comfortable dining room pushes serious food and wines, the horseshoe-shaped public bar plies suits, locals and adjourning long-lunchers with craft beers and bites from bao to sliders for a double act of pub panache.
Must-eat dish: Scallops with pork belly
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chefs: Geoff Lindsay, Jay Sinclair
Price: $$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Daily noon-late
Instagram: @lamaroshotel
FRENCH SALOON
Level 1, 46 Hardware Lane, Melbourne
03 9600 2142
France is not so far away when you ascend some narrow stairs above Kirk's and Kirk's wine bar in Hardware Lane and step into the French Saloon. Here, under a pinot red ceiling, you can fully indulge your Francophile instincts: starting with Saloon Caviar and a Lillet Blanc, or a plate of smoked tongue pimped with soured cream and onion that might better suit a Loire valley vouvray.
The wine list is predominantly French, the menu as Gallic as it comes. You could almost be in Paris as you tread the French Saloon's unvarnished boards, settle into a bentwood chair and tear into warm baguette bread.
The illusion is enhanced by something as simple, and precisely plated, as steak frites with Roquefort butter. But you wouldn’t want to miss the half-roasted chicken here, a marvellous bird bursting with sweet, funky juice; or the darkly handsome roasted duck breast.
French Saloon’s kitchen sends it out with a luxuriously rich cassoulet where the beans are allowed to shine.
Hand-cut chips have plenty of salty snap, while a gem lettuce salad is dressed down with buttermilk.
To finish? A brittle fruit tart, perhaps. Or salted caramel madeleines hot out of the oven. “Please allow 12 minutes”, our waiter advises. We’d wait an hour, they’re that good.
Must eat dish: Roasted duck confit with cassoulet
Cuisine: French
Chefs: Ian Curley, Todd Moses
Price: $$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Mon-Fri. noon-late
Instagram: @frenchsaloon
BELLOTA
181 Bank St, South Melbourne
03 9078 8381
With everything that makes a wine lover’s heart beat fast: cured meat meats and oozy cheeses, classy bistro fare, and a glorious world of wine for the drinking thanks to the adjoining Prince Wine Store, Bellota has been wooing South Melbourne for almost five years.
But with Nicky Riemer (ex-Union Diner in Richmond) now in the kitchen cooking her flavour-first Euro-leaning fare, this classy wine bar has been given new life.
Spots at the bar are still filled with couples dropping by for a sip and easy bite on the way home — perhaps shucked oysters and fried olives or a salumi board to snack, while further back, tables are set with the linen, hefty cutlery and elegant glassware that complement a wine list that celebrates the best from around the world.
Ask one of the switched-on staff for advice, or head next door to plunder the retail store, where for $15 corkage opens up the options.
It all makes the perfect backdrop for Riemer’s easy, delicious, eating. Whether a sublime plate of spaghettini tossed through smoked eel and covered in garlicky pangrattato, or an expertly treated flatiron steak, sliced and topped with a pan of thyme-laden, cream-spiked mushrooms, this is true comfort food of the highest order.
Bellota brings a touch of Europe’s bar culture to Melbourne, so you can leave your passport at home.
Must-eat dish: Flat iron steak with mushrooms
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chef: Nicky Riemer
Price: $$
Bookings: Yes
Open: Tues.-Sat 11am-11pm
Instagram: @bellotawinebar
ESTELLE BISTRO
243 High St, Northcote
03 9489 4609
While little sister venue ESP next door has a way of stealing the limelight, Estelle Bistro remains quietly charming. Scott Pickett’s northside diner is eminently approachable for any occasion, whether it be for an after-work catch up over Clair de Lune oysters and a Brooklyn Lager, or a full-blown five course Chef's Menu with matching wines.
However you decide to approach Estelle Bistro, make sure it involves Pickett’s snacks. His boudin noir croquettes with pea puree, and goat's cheese churros with truffle honey are diminutive in size but big on flavour.
Visiting in early spring, we loved a delicate Estelle entree that interlaced spanner crab with finger lime and sea vegetables, but Pickett’s chefs also have a way with meat, bedding pink slabs of sirloin down on celeriac, and sinking lamb shoulder into a medley of peas, lardons and cos.
Flavours really sing here and dessert delivers a crescendo. A frothy mandarin sponge is zingy with the sweet citrus, while botrytis-soaked fruit lend dark Christmas pudding notes to a luxurious chocolate pave.
Northcote has gone from being the next big thing to the big thing and we thank Scott Pickett and Estelle Bistro for driving that change.
Must have dish: Chocolate pave
Cuisine: Contemporary
Chef: Scott Pickett
Price: $$ Bookings yes
Open: Fri.-Sun noon-3pm, Daily 6pm-late
Instagram: @estellebistro
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