It’s high steaks in the Australian restaurant scene right now, with glamorous grills flying in the face of cost-of-living frugality to offer eager diners a dose of some old-world opulence.
An unexpected category of restaurant has been firing on all cylinders of late, with sleek grills and brasseries popping up from coast to coast.
From caviar menus to epic steaks (with epic price tags), our appetite for silver-service grills may seem at odds with the current economic climate. In reality, the ABS has tracked a steady increase in household spending on eating out over the past three years, in a move that money.com.au recently dubbed ‘COLD dining’ – cost-of-living denial dining.
Dining out is now a luxury indulged in as an act of self- reward. Into this context swaggers the grill, offering a don-your-best-duds experience that makes a meal out feel special again. Perched off Perth’s Cottesloe Beach, everything about Gibney shouts “occasion”. Within just a few months, this beachfront beauty has become one of WA’s most-lauded eateries.
Founder George Kailis has transplanted a “six-star” Parisian steakhouse into this most Australian of settings. The grandeur of the Gibney is designed to do justice to its setting. Not only is it the first new restaurant to grace this famed foreshore in 25 years, it’s the first ever in South Cottesloe. “So we felt we really needed to take it up a notch with the whole product and offer,” Kailis says.
And take it up a notch they did, with chef James Cole Bowen lending antipodean flavour to brasserie classics with top WA produce like western rock lobster and Stirling Ranges beef, while sommelier Nina Throsby’s encyclopaedic wine list overflows with Champagnes.
Just opened by sommelier Nick Hildebrandt and chef Brent Savage in a former bank in Sydney, Eleven Barrack may channel the grand steakhouses and grills of New York, Paris or London, but Hildebrandt insists there’s no intimidation factor at play. “We’re blending luxury with approachability,” he says.
“It’s designed for everyone. Guests can enjoy a full meal or relax with a beer and burger in the bar – making every experience special, no matter the occasion.”
So far, however, their biggest sellers haven’t been burgers, but showier serves, like the flamed-seared whole squid on a bed of squid ink rice – big enough to feed four – and the $130 650g Riverine MB2 rib eye straight off the custom grill.
It’s not the only steakhouse to have fired up in Sydney lately, with the relaunch of The Cut Bar & Grill in The Rocks and the impressive debut of The Grill at The International. And competition will really spark in September, when Lucas Restaurants brings its signature Melbourne brasserie Grill Americano to Sydney.
From the shiny new flagship Black Hide at Queen’s Wharf in Brisbane to the Good Gilbert crew’s foray into fiery territory in Adelaide with Gilbert’s Wine & Grill, this is one trend that only looks to be heating up.
Related story: Grill Americano is coming to Sydney
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