Its High Steaks again at the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival this year with fine dining, drinking, and, of course, luscious steak lunches catered by signature chefs and local restaurants.
This week-long event — April 1 to April 8 — which is part of the larger festival, sees Melbourne’s finest establishments offering lunches all week long to showcase Australia’s finest steak dinners.
Restaurants range from bars to high-end but each is sure to leave your mouth watering with their tailored set menus and perfectly paired drinks.
First, is Bar Lourinha, where the meal kicks off with a Nagambie 3608 Martina when you arrive followed by a spiced prawn and sesame montadito starter. Then arrives the real treat — a Wagyu skirt steak served with hazelnut Ajo Blanco and an organic leaf salad. As if you were still hungry, the meal is finished off with pomegranate and pistachio crema.
Bar Lourinha is a Little Collins Street institution and, while in the capable hands of chef and owner Matt McConnell, you will not be disappointed — although you may be ready for a nap at this point.
Alternatively, head to Chancery Lane where on your arrival you will be poured a Martini consisting of Nagambie Gin, Fino Colosia Sherry, Dolin Dry garnished with lemon and rosemary.
Chef Scott Pickett kicks off this divine menu with Seafood hors d’oeuvres and Westholme Wagyu tartare with puffed tendon.
Then the true High Steaks begin — a 40-day dry-aged, grass-fed Tasmanian Hereford rib-eye with truffle sauce, for 2. As a side, tuck into some Pommes Frites with garlic aioli. Finish off the meal with a Section 28 Mont Priscilla cheese, honeycomb and lavosh.
This meal comes with the option to pair-matched wines, selected by the restaurant. Chancery Lane, barely a year old, is fast becoming a local favourite.
Finally, you could try lunch at Epocha, a contemporary European restaurant with spectacular views of the Carlton Gardens. Start lunch with a Blood Orange Kombucha Martini and handsome starters spread including heirloom cauliflower with Romesco sauce, zucchini fritti with ricotta and Mr Cannubi mortadella.
Then comes the steak, a Niksan Sher Wagyu cooked over the coals with Yorkshire pudding, mustard and jus. Team this with potatoes cooked in duck fat and local greens with Verbena dressing.
The meal is paired with a 2019 Reed Wines Knife’s Edge Shiraz giving it the perfect flavour combination.
Finish off the meal with Tarte Tatin — beef-fat caramel with crème fraiche.
Although the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival is so much more than its week-long High Steaks event, it is a local favourite — bringing together some of the city’s best chefs pushing creative menus which showcase one of Australia’s finest cuisines, steak.