Friday night and Steve had made a 9pm reservation. We arrived on time and the place was buzzing and fairly loud - all quite trendy but not that personal. We were shown to our table and I admired my cow bone cutlery rest. Slightly bemused at the array of knives, forks and chopsticks but I guess all had a purpose.
When she took our initial drinks order and we tried to order our wine, she said she'd sent the sommelier but he never appeared but she was pretty intent that this should happen and all but refused to let us tell her what we wanted!
I don't doubt it was a busy night but our appetisers didn't arrive until 9:55pm and all we received was a frantic and stressed out "I'm sorry" from our busy waitress and the sommelier had still failed to show. So we ended up just flagging down another waiter and asking for the bottle of wine we wanted.
When she took our initial drinks order and we tried to order our wine, she said she'd sent the sommelier but he never appeared but she was pretty intent that this should happen and all but refused to let us tell her what we wanted!
I don't doubt it was a busy night but our appetisers didn't arrive until 9:55pm and all we received was a frantic and stressed out "I'm sorry" from our busy waitress and the sommelier had still failed to show. So we ended up just flagging down another waiter and asking for the bottle of wine we wanted.
Appetisers finally arrived:
The oysters looked appealing and I started with the Au Naturel first. I found the vinegar dressing very salty and there was shell in my oyster. Strike 1. Second oyster was the Kyoto Style and all I could taste was salt and an after effect of oil in the mouth from the Kewpie mayo and shell again. Strike 2. Third time lucky? Well I enjoyed the Gazpacho version the most as there was no shell and the balance of flavour was better and I could actually pick out the sweetness of the oyster against the spiced tomato whereas the first two I could only pick out salt with no oyster sweetness.
Maybe this was just me as Steve said he enjoyed the saltiness of the Kyoto style...and maybe I was just unlucky with the shell.
- Sher Full Blood Wagyu Rump Cap Tataki
- Oysters Gazpacho - Tomato gazpacho/olive oil/coriander/cumin
- Kyoto Style Pickled Oysters - Tobiko/kewpie/konbu dipping sauce
- Oysters Au Naturel - Shallot vinegar
The oysters looked appealing and I started with the Au Naturel first. I found the vinegar dressing very salty and there was shell in my oyster. Strike 1. Second oyster was the Kyoto Style and all I could taste was salt and an after effect of oil in the mouth from the Kewpie mayo and shell again. Strike 2. Third time lucky? Well I enjoyed the Gazpacho version the most as there was no shell and the balance of flavour was better and I could actually pick out the sweetness of the oyster against the spiced tomato whereas the first two I could only pick out salt with no oyster sweetness.
Maybe this was just me as Steve said he enjoyed the saltiness of the Kyoto style...and maybe I was just unlucky with the shell.
Lucky we didn't have to wait an hour for our main courses and these arrived pretty soon after along with our chose bottle of Heathcote Shiraz. We'd gone for:
•FI=Flavour Intensity
And for our accompaniments a Caesar Salad and a totem pole of onion rings. Before we could tuck in though our waitress came by with a huge tray of mustards and condiments. And it's always typical that when you have one customer who is generally dissatisfied, things go wrong even more...yep, there was a fiasco. She pretty much emptied all the little ramekins (at least 12 of them) in our direction getting mustard on Steve's jeans and onion jam on my legs! I went from being pretty annoyed at the place to feeling incredibly sorry for her as she looked like she was about to burst into tears.
Anyway with the help of her colleagues we moved to another table and were comped some of our drinks and finally we could eat.
The beef was excellent. We both preferred the Darling Downs and felt it had a cleaner and lighter taste to it. Nothing to complain about the O'Connor though. The onion rings were good although the batter could be lighter in my opinion but Steve liked the doughy batter.
The Caesar Salad was adequate - no more better or special than any Melbourne cafe's attempt and no real anchovies. Our coddled egg served separately, although good in principle was no better than a good poached egg. I felt the egg was slightly undercooked as there was some soft jelly egg white clinging onto the leaves which is unappetising. The croutons were good though!
- Darling Downs F1 Wagyu 400+ Days Fed Dry Aged Porterhouse FI-7 250g (‘BMS’7)
- O’Connor Black Angus / Hereford Premium Hand Select Dry Aged Scotch Fillet FI-6 300g (‘BMS’5)
•FI=Flavour Intensity
And for our accompaniments a Caesar Salad and a totem pole of onion rings. Before we could tuck in though our waitress came by with a huge tray of mustards and condiments. And it's always typical that when you have one customer who is generally dissatisfied, things go wrong even more...yep, there was a fiasco. She pretty much emptied all the little ramekins (at least 12 of them) in our direction getting mustard on Steve's jeans and onion jam on my legs! I went from being pretty annoyed at the place to feeling incredibly sorry for her as she looked like she was about to burst into tears.
Anyway with the help of her colleagues we moved to another table and were comped some of our drinks and finally we could eat.
The beef was excellent. We both preferred the Darling Downs and felt it had a cleaner and lighter taste to it. Nothing to complain about the O'Connor though. The onion rings were good although the batter could be lighter in my opinion but Steve liked the doughy batter.
The Caesar Salad was adequate - no more better or special than any Melbourne cafe's attempt and no real anchovies. Our coddled egg served separately, although good in principle was no better than a good poached egg. I felt the egg was slightly undercooked as there was some soft jelly egg white clinging onto the leaves which is unappetising. The croutons were good though!
Bone marrow came with the steak and I have to say this was the first time for both of us to try. It was covered in a herby crust. My reaction to bone marrow - urgh! Like a slippery globule of unseasoned meaty fat to me although Steve says he quite enjoyed it! Nice idea and great for those who like bone marrow.
We decided to stick around for dessert and went for the Steer’s Donut Custard, Chocolate Cream, Raspberry Jelly which came attractively presented in a Kilner jar.
It was a pretty light and creamy dessert with all the flavours mentioned in its name. More trifle like than donut as the donut were more like crumbs. There was definitely a donut taste in the mouth but none of the satisfaction of biting into a plump fried piece of sugared dough.
Steer sadly was a bit of a comedy of errors for us and in our opinion not worthy of it's one hat. If friends suggest we go again, I'd gently suggest trying somewhere else for steak. For somewhere tried and tested I'd head to the Station Hotel in Footscray - less trendy but food wise much stronger and better value for money. For the money we spent, I reckon we could have done a pared back version at Rockpool. Or there are other steakhouses we haven't tried. We just feel that there's got to be better out there.
It was a pretty light and creamy dessert with all the flavours mentioned in its name. More trifle like than donut as the donut were more like crumbs. There was definitely a donut taste in the mouth but none of the satisfaction of biting into a plump fried piece of sugared dough.
Steer sadly was a bit of a comedy of errors for us and in our opinion not worthy of it's one hat. If friends suggest we go again, I'd gently suggest trying somewhere else for steak. For somewhere tried and tested I'd head to the Station Hotel in Footscray - less trendy but food wise much stronger and better value for money. For the money we spent, I reckon we could have done a pared back version at Rockpool. Or there are other steakhouses we haven't tried. We just feel that there's got to be better out there.
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