One taste of a well-marbled, well-grilled, and adequately cooked steak may alter your outlook on meat for the rest of your life, as anybody who has indulged in a particularly decadent piece of rib-eye will attest. After that encounter, which is best had with copious amounts of fine red wine, all other meat seems inferior.
Every carnivore should have this experience at least once on their culinary travels, so we scoured Sydney to bring you the most excellent cuts the city has to offer, prepared by people that prioritise the business of raising meat. Obviously, medium-rare.
1. The Cut
Run Down: While The Cut discreetly strives to reimagine the traditional image of the classic steakhouse, Neil Perry’s Rockpool receives praise for its cuts.
With a stocked cocktail bar and a high-end, elegant bistro ambience presenting a selected menu of meats, fresh seafood, sandwiches, and sides in heritage basements in The Rocks, head chef Nikhil Bhanot has chosen to reinvent the traditional eating experience. Of course, the wine list is equally impressive.
Must-try: There are several cuts available on The Cut’s revamped menu, but you’d be giving yourself an injustice if you skipped their prime rib. It is completed on the grill after being slow-roasted for a few hours in a mustard sauce and served with copious amounts of Veal Jus.
2. Hunter & Barrel
Run Down: A pleasantly rustic twist on inner-city eating, Hunter & Barrel is perched above Darling Harbour’s Cockle Bay dock. Its cuisine is dominated by fire-grilled meats, prepared seasonal vegetables, and ethically sourced products. The chefs even scavenge for native Australian species to include in the meal throughout Sydney.
Must-try: The new menu centres on each of the four aspects, with fire being the centrepiece of the meat-based specialty of Hunter & Barrel: coal-roasted skewers of rump cap with a spice rub, lemon, and rosemary. But there is also a tonne of steak choices available.
3. 6 Head
Run Down: A brand-new restaurant that aims to reinvent the city’s view of the steakhouse has recently joined Sydney Harbour’s prestigious eating scene. At six head, the emphasis is on serving Australia’s highest-quality meat. They deal almost exclusively in Black Angus and Wagyu steaks, which are supplied by three of the country’s top meat suppliers and are expertly dry-aged by head chef Sean Hall.
Must-try: The Collinson’s & Co. steaks are among the fanciest in Australia; they are grass-fed, served with dry-aged and bone for 280 days.
4. BLACK Bar & Grill
Run Down: BLACK, tucked away inside The Star adds a dash of high-life casino living to the traditional grilling experience. Dany Karam’s eatery has differentiated itself as one of the most excellent eating establishments in a district that is notable for housing Momofuku and Sokyo by concentrating on seasonal ingredients that enrich a primary steakhouse menu.
Must-try: Grab a few buddies and enjoy the Wagyu tasting plate, which is made entirely of MBS9+, whole-blood beef from David Blackmore.
5. Firedoor
Run Down: One of the icons of Surry Hills’ haute cuisine revolution is the enormous, roaring fire that now flames inside Firedoor. And with good cause. The restaurant’s approach is straightforward: if everything tastes well when cooked with fire — and steak nearly always does — they’ll devise a creative method to serve it to you.
Must-try: You’d be doing yourself an injustice if you went there and skipped the finest Lennox Hastie will have to offer because the chef’s menu usually always contains some form of steak choice. Wagyu beef with jalapeño and radish is currently available.
6. Rockpool Bar & Grill
Run Down: You believed we’d exclude Rockpool? Sydney locals love Neil Perry’s restaurant. It invented the concept of a high-end steakhouse. Also unique is the dining room’s gaping art deco design.
Must-try: Try Rockpool’s trademark 36-month rib-eye on the bone with ababio potatoes roasted in Wagyu beef fat. Rockpool has traditionally relied on Tasmania’s Cape Grim as the foundation of its steak offering.
7. Vic’s Meat Market
Run Down: It is widely regarded as Sydney’s must-have meat experience, with good reason. Vic’s, perhaps Sydney’s most famous butcher, has long offered a respite to fish market patrons yearning for something a bit redder, and the Grill and Smokehouse that just opened is now regarded as one of Sydney’s best. You may also buy anything you want to take home.
Must-try: Basically, it doesn’t matter what you enjoy. You just choose the steak that looks the best and pay by the 100g at this joint butcher/grill.
8. Bopp and Tone
Run Down: You know those culinary demonstrations from the Mediterranean when everything is prepared over a fire in a pasture with a breathtaking view of the surrounding countryside? Bopp & Tone is the place to go if you’ve ever wondered what it tastes like since they cook everything in a coal oven and the steak on a 900-kilogram wood-burning grill.
Must-try: Choose the wagyu striploin from Jacks Creek in NSW, which is grain-fed and has marble scores of 7+.
9. Bistecca
Run Down: La bistecca alla Fiorentina, the renowned steak cut from Tuscany, inspired the name of this Sydney restaurant, which is destined to become a landmark.
Three rooms make up the premises, which have an authentically Italian enoteca and ristorante vibe. You’d be hard to find a restaurant with a more fine steak than one that brandishes the exact name, especially one with a wide selection of the same calibre as its well-cooked meat.
Must-try: The bistecca alla Fiorentina is the only steak on the menu; all you have to do is ask for the weight you like and wait for the ironbark and coal steak to arrive.
10. Bennelong
Run Down: What is more Australian than a well-cooked steak? Bennelong is tucked in one of the Sydney Opera House’s famous sails, and its food is just as Australian as its iconic settings.
Peter Gilmore, the executive chef, ensures that only the best Australian ingredients, including the best Wagyu steak in the area, are used in the Bennelong kitchen.
Must-try: There is just one steak on the menu, the Wagyu beef fillet, served with sautéed cipollini pepper and a wasabi emulsion.
11. Felix
Run Down: Felix will instantly transport you to the “City Of Love” with its opulent, dimly lit decor, attentive service, traditional and unassuming french cuisine prepared by executive chef Mike Flood, and perfectly paired wines chosen by Merivale’s master sommelier, Franck Moreau. Felix mimics the quintessential Parisian bistro with its cobblestone alley location.
Must-try: Do you need to know? The Steak Frites!
12. Mimi’s
Run down: Although its coastal setting and oceanic vista may be more conducive to seafood — and it most definitely is, boasting the juiciest finds the market has to offer, from steamed lobster to mud crab doe- boasting for fine takes on other components of cuisine. Its executive chef, Jordan Toft, has created a well-rounded, Mediterranean-inspired menu.
Must-try: Mimi’s heritage wagyu steak with beef garum, olive oil, and lemon may be pricey, but it has won the eatery just as many admirers as her caviar bumps.
13. LP’s Quality Meats
Run down: Although you may be more familiar with LP’s Quality Meats as a deli, grocer or for its nearly unrivalled sandwiches, you can’t help but have faith in the establishment when the name of the eatery is translated as “quality meats.”
Must-try: If you’re going to a restaurant specialising in meat, you must go all out and order the aged rib eye.
14. Macelleria
Run down: Macelleria, which means “butcher” in Italian, allows you to choose your own ethically sourced steak that will be prepared to your preferences and brought to your table. This is another instance of a restaurant’s name conjuring up hopes for a high-quality steak.
Must-try: Regardless of the cut, prepare it whatever you like!
15. Restaurant Hubert
Run down: Restaurant Hubert, like the abovementioned Felix, captures the French capital so well that you nearly believe you are at a smokey jazz bar in Le Marais. And it’s not only the atmosphere; the excellent cuisine and the unlimited champagne are also quite persuasive.
Must-try: Take a dining companion, and you may enjoy the Côte de Boeuf, a 1-kilogram Rangers Valley rib eye steak with Bearnaise saucer.
16. Porteño
Run down: Even though Central Station is only a few feet away, entering Porteo will make you feel like you’ve travelled directly to Argentina. Under the direction of Ben Milgate and Sergio Abrahanowicz, the restaurant only prepares its meat using traditional techniques, such as la parilla (barbeque) and Asado (over the fire).
Must-try: If you want to eat at an Argentinian restaurant, you should immediately focus your attention on any meat offered with chimichurri, such as the Entrana, as well as eggplant escabeche.
17. Ho Jiak
Run down: If you’re looking for a delicious steak given the Penang street food treatment, you should go to Ho Jiak. This contemporary Malaysian eatery generously dishes out spice and favour.
Must-try: The GQ team unanimously recommended ordering Ho Jiak’s 200-gram Darling Downs Wagyu beef steak, and they were not disappointed.
Bottom Line
The Gidley, Porteno, and Bistro Rex serve some of Sydney’s best-reviewed steaks. One of Sydney’s most reasonably priced and delectable steaks is served at Bistro Rex. Steaks served at upscale restaurants are often sourced from cattle in Victoria, South Australia, and New South Wales.
There are several top-notch butchers in Sydney if you want to attempt cooking steak at home. Some of these include Vic’s Meat and The Fairlight Butcher on the Northern Beaches, close to Sydney Fish Market.