Welcome to Cha Cha Char at Eagle Street Pier in the Brisbane CBD, spiritual home of the power lunch for business elites. But wait. This time we were dining at night and the tables were full of Japanese tourists. Like us, they had probably come in search of the Australian beef recently judged the best in the world.

My second mistake that evening was being too inquisitive.

When I asked where the Argentinian Picanha (it’s pronounced pee-con-ya) came from, our ebullient waiter performed a pirouette, bent over and slapped his rump. The only thing worse than an inattentive waiter is an overattentive one.

He returned soon after and thrust a tray of eviscerated cow under our noses in an act of Bear Grylls’ Man v Wild vulgarity.

Suffice to say, the meat doesn’t come from Argentina, but from Jack’s Creek near Tamworth in NSW and was judged the world’s best steak in London recently. The wagyu-angus cross beat 70 other steaks from 10 countries, including Japan, the US and, yes, Argentina.

The Picanha ($66) radiated intense beef flavours with extensive marbling ensuring the meat was well lubricated on the grill. It came with a confusing garnish of white bean salsa, blackened corn niblets, parsnip puree, radish and coriander.

My guest chose grass-fed eye fillet ($46, pictured), with gentler flavours – another dish to make a carnivore swoon. They certainly know how to charge, adding $10 for vegetables and $5 for bearnaise sauce, which lacked the necessary acidity, and $5 for mushroom sauce – outstanding!

It must be an assembly line out the back. Our entrees arrived quickly.

I began my feast with a decent enough chilled asparagus and watercress soup with crab ($21). However, I thought it was amped up a little too much with the truffle oil and charred corn.

My companion’s prawn and avocado tian ($24) was a joy, made tastier with a sprinkling of salmon “pearls” and a lovely lemon gel. At the end, we shared a deconstructed blueberry brulee ($19) – an overworked pud that looked like a flower pot. Why do chefs mess with classics?

Cha Cha Char remains an industrial-strength steakhouse and has an extensive wine list.

Nevertheless, I do not think it enjoys the intimacy of Black Hide at Paddington or the romance of Moo Moo The Wine Bar + Grill, other leading steak restaurants.

And the city’s beef wars may be about to hot up with the Char’s executive chef Sam Roberts, decamping to The Brass Barrel at Rosalie, replaced by Richard Brown, who was head chef at Moo Moo.

Perhaps it is now time for Brown to push some boundaries at Char.

How about the occasional grilled ox heart or crispy pig’s cheek? What about some kidneys, livers and brains so prized in the steakhouses of Europe? Or what about the enduring British monument to carnivorousness, the pig’s head and potato pie? That would be something.

Originally published on couriermail.com.au