e9b578e2

21st Birthday Venues in Melbourne's South-East

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 21:00:01 GMT

Choosing 21st birthday venues in Melbourne's south-east starts with one decision: a sit-down dinner or a party with a dance floor. They need different venues entirely. Book eight to twelve weeks ahead, confirm whether the venue closes to the public, and agree the alcohol arrangement in writing.

Decide which kind of 21st this is

This is the whole decision and everything else follows from it. There are two versions and trying to run both in one venue is the most common reason a 21st disappoints.

The dinner

Fifty people, a proper meal, speeches, and an evening that ends at a civilised hour. Parents and grandparents attend comfortably. Guests remember the food and the toasts.

This suits a restaurant, needs a room with decent acoustics, and works best with exclusive use so the speeches are not competing with strangers.

The party

A hundred and twenty people, a dance floor, a DJ, and a night that runs late. Food is incidental. Family attend the first two hours and then leave.

This suits a hall, a function space with a licence and a sound system, or a marquee. A restaurant will usually say no, and the ones that say yes often regret it.

Pick one. A venue that can technically do both will do neither particularly well.

Timing

Eight to twelve weeks is comfortable for most 21sts. Longer if the date falls in November or December, when you are competing with work Christmas functions for every venue in the south-east.

Weekend dates go first. A Friday or Saturday in a popular month may need four months. Sunday evenings are considerably easier to book and, for a dinner-format 21st, work better than people expect — nobody is arriving already three events into their weekend.

Numbers, and the two thresholds

Under about twenty-five, most restaurants can accommodate you within normal service. This is the cheapest option and it works well for a family-and-close-friends dinner.

Between twenty-five and eighty, you want either exclusive hire or a genuinely separate function space. A partitioned corner at this size produces the evening where half the room cannot hear the speeches.

Above eighty, you are in hall and marquee territory for most venues in the south-east, and the logistics change substantially — catering, sound, and often security.

The alcohol conversation

At a 21st, a proportion of guests will be eighteen to twenty and a proportion may be under eighteen. Every licensed venue has obligations here and they will have a policy. Ask what it is before booking rather than discovering it on the night.

Common arrangements: a capped bar tab, drinks on consumption, or a package per head. For a 21st, a capped tab with a clear ceiling is usually the sensible choice, because it removes both the surprise and the argument.

Ask directly whether the venue requires security for an event of your size and format. Many do above a certain headcount, and it is a real cost that should not appear late in the process.

Budget

Set a per-head figure including drinks before you enquire. The most common error is agreeing a food price and then discovering the beverage arrangement adds substantially to it.

Ask separately about room hire, minimum spend, cakeage, security and any surcharge for the day of the week. Get all of it in one written quote so you are comparing venues on the same basis.

Questions worth asking every venue

Will another group be in the building? Is there a fixed end time? Can we decorate, and when can we get in to set up? Can we bring a cake, and is there a charge? Can we run our own music or playlist? What is the parking situation? What is the deposit and when does it become non-refundable?

Seven questions. The answers will separate the shortlist quickly, and the first one matters most.

The family dynamic nobody plans for

A 21st is one of the few events where the guest of honour's friends and the guest of honour's grandparents are in the same room for several hours. That is genuinely difficult to design for.

A sit-down meal handles it better than a standing party, because everyone has a place and a purpose and nobody is left holding a drink at the edge of a dance floor.

If the plan is a late party, consider an earlier dinner with family and a later session with friends at the same venue. Two acts rather than one compromised evening.

Food, and how much of it

Under-cater a 21st and you will know about it by nine o'clock. A room of twenty-one-year-olds who have been drinking since six and eating canapés since seven is a predictable problem.

For a dinner format, a proper meal solves it. For a party format, budget for substantially more food than a canapé package suggests, and make sure some of it arrives late in the evening rather than all of it in the first hour.

Shared boards work well for both formats. They are less expensive per head than plated service and they keep arriving, which is the useful property.

Where to look in the south-east

The corridor from Bentleigh through Moorabbin and Cheltenham has more capacity than most people assume, and free parking is common once you move slightly inland — which matters when a substantial number of guests are being dropped off and collected.

Bayside proper has good venues with a premium attached and parking that becomes genuinely difficult on a weekend evening.

Halls and community venues through Kingston and Bayside councils are worth investigating for the party format, and are usually the cheapest route for large numbers, though you will be arranging catering separately.

Sporting and surf clubs along the bay hire out function rooms and are frequently overlooked. They tend to be inexpensive, licensed, and comfortable with a younger crowd, though the rooms themselves are usually plain and you will be doing the decorating.

A short checklist

Format decided. Headcount and threshold. Date booked eight to twelve weeks out. Per-head budget including drinks. Exclusive use confirmed, or not. Alcohol arrangement agreed in writing. Security requirement clarified. Cake and decoration policy. Set-up access time. Deposit terms and cancellation date.

Ten items, and the first one is the one that matters. Decide whether this is a dinner or a party before you look at a single venue, and the shortlist writes itself.

See birthdays and celebrations at Wood & Bone , or read how exclusive venue hire works more broadly. The full dinner menu is available for any celebration format. We also cover venues near Mentone and Cheltenham specifically.

FAQ

How far in advance should I book a 21st birthday venue?

Eight to twelve weeks for most dates. Allow longer for November and December, when you are competing with work Christmas functions, and for weekend dates in popular months.

Should a 21st be a dinner or a party?

Decide before choosing a venue. A dinner suits fifty people, speeches and mixed generations. A party suits larger numbers, a dance floor and a late finish. Venues that can do both usually do neither well.

How many guests before I need exclusive venue hire?

Above roughly twenty-five. Below that most restaurants can accommodate you in normal service; above it a partitioned space tends to disappoint.

Do venues require security for a 21st?

Many do above a certain headcount or for party-format events. Ask directly at the enquiry stage, because it is a real cost that should not appear late.

What alcohol arrangement works best for a 21st?

A capped bar tab with a clear ceiling is usually the sensible choice. Confirm the venue's policy on guests under eighteen and between eighteen and twenty before booking.

Can we bring our own cake to a 21st?

Most venues allow it, though some charge cakeage. Ask at the enquiry stage and get the answer in writing with the rest of the quote.

The Best Steak Restaurants in Bayside Melbourne

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 13:45:01 GMT

The best steak in bayside Melbourne depends on the occasion. Chadstone has the polished chain option, Hampton and Ormond have well-regarded local grills, Moorabbin has both a busy all-rounder and a dedicated wood-fired steakhouse. Most are cheaper than the CBD and all have easier parking.

Why bayside is worth taking seriously

Melbourne's steak conversation happens almost entirely inside the CBD. Rockpool at Crown, Grill Americano on Flinders Lane, Meatmaiden under Little Collins Street — these are the restaurants that appear on every list, and they are genuinely excellent.

They are also forty minutes, a parking bill and a set of city prices away from the several hundred thousand people living between Bentleigh and Beaumaris. For that catchment, the useful question is not which steakhouse is best in Melbourne. It is which is best within fifteen minutes.

The answer is better than most bayside residents assume. Here is what is actually available, organised by what you might want.

If you want a polished chain experience

The Meat & Wine Co, Chadstone

The national chain option, and the most conventionally impressive room in the area. Consistent, well-drilled service, a substantial wine list and the kind of environment that works for a client dinner where you cannot afford surprises.

It is the safest booking in bayside and it is priced accordingly. If you want a steakhouse that feels like a steakhouse and you are not looking for character, this is it.

Good for: client dinners, larger groups, anyone who wants a known quantity.

If you want a local independent doing steak well

Butcher & Vine, Hampton

A neighbourhood restaurant on the Hampton side with a serious approach to meat and a loyal following. Smaller than the chains, more personal, and firmly part of the Hampton Street strip rather than a destination in its own right.

Good for: a local dinner where you want the food to be genuinely considered and the room to be relaxed.

Steak Bank Charcoal Grill, Ormond

A charcoal grill with a devoted local following and — at time of writing — no website at all, which tells you something about how it operates and nothing about the food.

Charcoal rather than wood, which produces a cleaner, more even cook. Straightforward, unfussy, and well regarded by people who live nearby.

Good for: an uncomplicated steak without ceremony.

If you want somewhere that does everything

Big Pig Canteen, Moorabbin

Not a steakhouse, and included because pretending otherwise would be unhelpful. It is one of the busiest venues in the area with an enormous following, a broad menu and a room that works for almost any occasion.

If your group cannot agree on cuisine, this is the answer. If one person specifically wants a wood-fired steak, it is not.

Good for: mixed groups, families, anyone who wants options.

If you want the steak itself to be the point

Wood & Bone, Moorabbin

Full disclosure: we publish this guide. Read the following with that in mind.

Wood & Bone is a dedicated wood-fired steakhouse — the grill burns actual timber rather than gas or charcoal, which runs hotter and less evenly and produces a deeper, slightly sweeter crust. Alongside it is a smoker running brisket, ribs, lamb and duck for twelve hours at low temperature, which very few venues in the area operate.

The beef is Sher Wagyu from Ballan alongside porterhouse, scotch fillet and eye fillet. The room is warm and unfussy rather than polished. Sunday to Tuesday it closes to the public and operates as a private function venue.

Good for: people who care specifically about how the steak was cooked, and about smoked meat done properly.

If you want good food that happens not to be steak

Távola and Gilbert's, Bentleigh

Both are among the best-regarded restaurants in the corridor and neither is a steakhouse. Távola does Italian to a consistently high standard; Gilbert's is a well-liked local independent.

They are on this list because a good bayside dining guide that pretends steak is the only thing worth eating would be dishonest. If the occasion matters more than the specific dish, both are worth knowing about.

If you want it at home

Two of the better options in the area are butchers rather than restaurants. Marbled Meats in Bentleigh East and Mr Brisket in Highett both sell to people who want to cook it themselves, and both are worth knowing about.

Buying a good cut and cooking it badly is the usual failure here. If you are going to spend properly on beef, spend an equivalent amount of attention on getting the pan or the grill genuinely hot and on resting the steak afterwards.

What to look for when you compare

The heat source

Gas is consistent and easy to run through a busy service. Charcoal burns steady and clean. Wood runs hotter and less predictably, produces a deeper crust, and puts smoke into the meat rather than onto it.

None is objectively best, but they produce noticeably different results and it is worth knowing which you prefer. Ask — any restaurant proud of its grill will tell you immediately.

Whether the cuts change

A kitchen buying well will have cuts and weights that vary week to week, because they are buying the better piece of beef rather than the one that matches a printed menu. A menu that never changes is a menu built around consistency of supply rather than quality of it.

Resting

A steak that arrives immediately off the grill has not finished cooking and will leave its juice on the plate. If your steak consistently arrives swimming, the kitchen is rushing.

Parking, unglamorously

In bayside this genuinely separates venues. Church Street and Hampton Street parking on a Friday evening is a project. Venues slightly inland — Moorabbin, Cheltenham, Ormond — generally have off-street parking, and that changes the shape of an evening more than people admit.

Whether they will tell you what came in

Ask the floor staff which cut is eating best tonight. A kitchen that buys well will have an answer, and it will sometimes be the cheaper option on the menu. A shrug tells you the beef arrives to a standing order and nobody in the room is thinking about it.

Booking notes

Friday and Saturday evenings across all of these venues need booking, and December needs booking considerably further out. Sunday and Monday vary — several bayside venues close or restrict service early in the week, so check rather than assume.

For groups above eight, ring rather than booking online anywhere. Online systems will often accept a large booking that the room cannot comfortably seat, and you find out on arrival.

If you are travelling from Brighton, Hampton or Sandringham to anywhere inland, note that those suburbs sit on the Sandringham railway line and the inland venues mostly do not. It is a drive or a rideshare rather than a train.

Occasions, matched

A first date: somewhere with a room rather than a barn, and where you can hear each other. Hampton or Ormond over the larger venues.

A client dinner where nothing may go wrong: Chadstone. It is the safe answer and safe is what you are buying.

A birthday with fifteen people across three generations: a venue that can seat you together with decent acoustics, which rules out most of the busiest rooms on a Saturday.

A Tuesday when you cannot face cooking: whichever is closest and open. Several of these close early in the week, so check first.

A note on ratings and lists

Google ratings across these venues sit within a fairly narrow band, and the differences between a 4.4 and a 4.7 say more about review volume and clientele than about the food. Review counts vary enormously — a venue with 1,800 reviews and a venue with 250 are being measured differently.

Read a handful of recent reviews rather than the number. A restaurant that was excellent three years ago and has changed chefs will show it in the last two months of comments and not in the average.

The short version

Chadstone for polish and predictability. Hampton and Ormond for well-regarded local grills. Moorabbin for either a busy all-rounder or a dedicated wood fire, depending on what you are after. Bentleigh if steak is not actually the requirement.

All of them are cheaper than the CBD equivalent and all of them are considerably easier to get home from. Details change — menus, chefs and opening hours all move — so check before you travel.

What bayside still does not have

Worth naming honestly, because a guide that pretends everything is available is not much use. There is no dry-ageing room of any real scale in the area, so if a properly aged steak is what you are after, the CBD still wins that comparison.

There is also very little at the genuine fine-dining end. The bayside offer sits between good local independent and polished chain, and there is nothing here competing with Rockpool on its own terms.

What bayside does have is proximity, parking, and prices that have not been set by CBD rents. For most dinners, most weeks, that is the more useful set of advantages.

For our own kitchen, see our wood-fired steakhouse in Moorabbin and our smokehouse alongside it, or start with how to order steak, cut by cut if any of this is new to you. Closer to the specific suburbs above, we also cover steak near Brighton , steak near Hampton and steak near Ormond in more detail.

FAQ

Where is the best steak in bayside Melbourne?

It depends on the occasion. The Meat & Wine Co at Chadstone offers a polished chain experience, Butcher & Vine in Hampton and Steak Bank in Ormond are well-regarded local grills, and Wood & Bone in Moorabbin is a dedicated wood-fired steakhouse.

Is there a wood-fired steakhouse in bayside Melbourne?

Wood & Bone in Moorabbin cooks over timber rather than gas or charcoal, and runs a twelve-hour smokehouse alongside the grill.

What is the difference between wood, charcoal and gas grilling?

Gas is consistent and easy to control. Charcoal burns steady and clean. Wood runs hotter and less evenly, producing a deeper crust and putting smoke into the meat rather than on the surface.

Are bayside steak restaurants cheaper than the CBD?

Generally yes, and parking is usually free or easier, which reduces the total cost of an evening beyond the bill itself.

How should I compare restaurant ratings?

Read recent reviews rather than the average. Review counts vary widely between venues, and a restaurant that has changed chefs will show it in the last two months of comments rather than in the overall score.

Sher Wagyu Explained: What Marble Score Actually Means

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 02:16:13 GMT

Marble score measures the intramuscular fat running through beef. Australia uses the AUS-MEAT scale from 0 to 9+, alongside Meat Standards Australia's 100 to 1190 scale. Higher means richer, not automatically better. Sher Wagyu, from Ballan in central Victoria, has bred fullblood and crossbred Wagyu since 1991.

What marbling actually is

Marbling is fat inside the muscle rather than around it. Those fine white threads running through a steak melt at a lower temperature than the muscle around them, which is why highly marbled beef tastes richer and feels softer.

It is not the same as the fat cap on the edge of a porterhouse. That is subcutaneous fat, it renders differently, and it contributes crust rather than internal richness.

The Australian scales, both of them

There are two systems in use here and they confuse almost everybody, including a fair number of people selling beef.

AUS-MEAT

The older and more commonly quoted system. It runs from 0 to 9+ in increments of one, where 0 means essentially no visible marbling and 9+ describes the most heavily marbled Wagyu. When a menu says 'MB7' or 'marble score 7', this is the scale it means.

Meat Standards Australia

Run by Meat & Livestock Australia, MSA takes a broader view. Rather than grading a whole carcass, it grades by individual cut and cooking method, on the basis that a striploin and a chuck roll from the same animal perform very differently on a plate.

MSA's marbling scale runs from 100 to 1190 in increments of ten. It also factors in ossification, which indicates carcass maturity, rib fat depth, pH and temperature at grading. An AUS-MEAT score of 5 typically corresponds to somewhere in the MSA 700 to 800 range.

And the Japanese scale, for comparison

Japan's Beef Marbling Standard runs from 1 to 12. The Australian AUS-MEAT scale broadly aligns with it at comparable numbers, which is useful to know if you are reading an imported label.

Why there are two systems at all

AUS-MEAT came first and does one job: it measures how much marbling is present. MSA was built later to answer a different question — how good will this actually be to eat — which is why it takes in maturity, fat depth and pH as well as marbling.

The practical consequence is that a marketing team can choose whichever number sounds better. A grade 400 sounds more impressive than a grade 5, and is in fact lower. Ask which scale is being quoted.

Who Sher Wagyu are

Nick and Vicki Sher began producing Wagyu in Australia in 1991 through their family company, Beefcorp Australia, based at Ballan in central Victoria with further operations in the Tallangatta Valley.

They imported Wagyu embryos from Japan and calved the first purebred Wagyu embryo calf born in Australia in February 1992. At the time almost nobody in Australia had heard of the meat, and for the early years essentially all of their production was exported to Japan.

Their fullblood herd descends from the three principal Japanese bloodlines — Tajima, Fujiyoshi and Kedaka — and every fullblood animal is DNA registered with pedigrees traceable back to its Japanese ancestors.

Fullblood, crossbred, and what F1 means

Fullblood Wagyu is 100 per cent Wagyu genetics. Crossbred is Wagyu crossed with another breed, and the percentages are given as F1, F2, F3 and purebred.

Sher pioneered Wagyu crossed with Holstein in Australia in 1996 — the traditional Japanese F1 pairing — which produces good beef across a range of marble scores. Higher-percentage crossbreds follow: F2 at around 75 per cent, F3 at around 88 per cent, and purebred at around 94 per cent.

Crossbred Wagyu typically lands somewhere around MB6 to MB8. Fullblood can reach MB9+.

Crossbred is not a lesser product, which is a common misreading. The Holstein cross in particular produces beef across a useful range of marble scores, and for most diners a good F1 at MB6 is a more enjoyable steak than a fullblood at MB9 simply because it is less relentless.

The feeding programme

Cattle graze on pasture until roughly 18 to 20 months of age, then move onto a specially formulated Japanese-style barley-based ration for more than 400 days. That extended grain finishing is what puts fat through the muscle.

Sher Wagyu beef is graded for marbling by independent assessors accredited by AUS-MEAT, and is exported to more than fourteen countries. In Japan it is sold as Sher Black, because Japanese regulations restrict the word Wagyu to beef produced there.

What a marble score means at the table

Higher is richer. It is not a quality ranking, and treating it as one leads people to spend more money on a less enjoyable meal.

A marble score of 2 or 3 is a solid everyday steak — leaner, firmer, still juicy, and considerably better value. A score of 4 or 5 sits in the range most people find ideal for a full-sized steak. Above 6, richness becomes the dominant characteristic.

Plenty of experienced eaters prefer the cleaner, more mineral flavour of a grass-fed steak at marble score 3 to something at 8. That is a legitimate preference rather than an uneducated one.

How to order highly marbled beef

Smaller than instinct suggests. This is the single most common mistake and it is expensive. Marbling coats the palate as you eat, so a 150 to 200 gram portion of MB8 delivers as much richness as a considerably larger lean steak.

Order something acidic alongside it — a sharp side, a wine with some acid rather than a heavy oaked red. The point is to reset your palate between bites rather than compound the richness.

And cook it, or have it cooked, less than you would a lean cut. The fat is already doing the work that longer cooking would otherwise be needed to achieve.

Why highly marbled beef is priced the way it is

More than 400 days of grain feeding is expensive. So is a breeding programme that takes generations to establish, and DNA registration on every animal.

The price reflects time and inputs rather than scarcity alone. A fullblood animal has been fed for well over a year longer than a conventional beef animal before it reaches a plate, and someone has carried that cost.

Whether that is worth paying for is a genuine question rather than a rhetorical one. For a special occasion in a small portion, most people would say yes. As a weekly steak, most would not.

Where the number comes from

Marbling is assessed on the cut surface of the carcass at a standard rib site, by graders accredited to do it. Sher Wagyu's beef is assessed by independent AUS-MEAT accredited assessors rather than graded in-house, which matters — a self-declared marble score is not the same thing.

If a menu quotes a marble score without naming a producer or a grading body, it is worth treating the number as indicative rather than certified.

Questions worth asking

Which scale the number refers to. A 'grade 400' sounds higher than a 'grade 5' and is in fact lower, because one is MSA and the other AUS-MEAT.

Fullblood or crossbred, and if crossbred, what percentage. Both are good; they eat differently and are priced differently.

Who the producer is. A named producer with a traceable programme is a meaningfully different proposition from unlabelled beef described only as 'wagyu'.

And how it is being cooked. High marbling and a very hot fast grill are a good combination; high marbling and a long slow cook is usually a waste of both the beef and the money.

None of these questions are unreasonable and none should produce a defensive answer. A restaurant serving good beef is generally pleased to be asked about it.

See Sher Wagyu on our dinner menu , or read more about our wood-fired steakhouse . New to ordering steak generally? A broader guide to ordering steak covers doneness and cuts. Pair your order with what to drink alongside it — or if you are nearby, see where Brighton diners go for steak .

FAQ

What does marble score mean?

It measures intramuscular fat — the fine white threads running through beef. Australia's AUS-MEAT scale runs from 0 to 9+, with higher numbers meaning richer, softer beef.

What is the difference between AUS-MEAT and MSA grading?

AUS-MEAT scores marbling from 0 to 9+. Meat Standards Australia grades by individual cut and cooking method on a scale of 100 to 1190, factoring in maturity, rib fat, pH and temperature.

Is a higher marble score always better?

No. Higher means richer, not better. Many people prefer the cleaner flavour of a grass-fed steak at marble score 3 or 4 to something considerably more marbled.

What is the difference between fullblood and crossbred Wagyu?

Fullblood is 100 per cent Wagyu genetics. Crossbred is Wagyu crossed with another breed, graded F1, F2, F3 and purebred by percentage. Crossbred typically reaches MB6 to MB8; fullblood can reach MB9+.

Where is Sher Wagyu from?

Ballan in central Victoria, with further operations in the Tallangatta Valley. The Sher family have produced Wagyu since 1991 through their company Beefcorp Australia.

How much wagyu should I order?

Less than you think. A 150 to 200 gram portion of highly marbled beef delivers as much richness as a much larger lean steak, because marbling coats the palate as you eat.

Porterhouse vs Scotch Fillet vs Eye Fillet

Sat, 12 Sep 2026 23:18:15 GMT

Porterhouse has a firm bite and a fat cap that renders over heat. Scotch fillet is richer and more marbled, making it forgiving to cook. Eye fillet is the most tender and the leanest, with the least beef flavour. Order porterhouse for balance, scotch for richness, eye fillet for texture.

The short answer

Porterhouse if you want a proper steak experience with some chew and a rendered fat cap. Scotch fillet if you want richness and a cut that forgives a minute too long on the grill. Eye fillet if tenderness matters more to you than beef flavour.

Everything below is why.

Where each cut comes from

This is the part that explains everything else. A muscle's texture is determined largely by how hard the animal worked it.

Porterhouse — the sirloin

Cut from the back, along the spine, behind the ribs. Moderately worked, so it has structure and a genuine bite. A strip of fat runs along one edge.

Also sold as sirloin in Australia and as New York strip in the United States. Confusingly, an American 'porterhouse' is something else entirely — a large T-bone. If you are reading a US recipe, translate first.

Scotch fillet — the ribeye

From the rib section, forward of the sirloin. Less worked, and carrying substantially more intramuscular fat, which is what marbling is.

It has a separate cap of muscle wrapped around the outside called the spinalis dorsi. Many chefs consider it the single best mouthful on the animal. If it arrives intact on your plate, save it.

Eye fillet — the tenderloin

A long, narrow muscle that runs beneath the spine and does almost no work at all. That is the entire reason it is tender, and also the reason it is lean.

Sold as tenderloin, and as filet mignon when cut into thick rounds.

It sits under the spine, protected, doing nothing but existing. There is a general rule in butchery that the harder a muscle works the more flavour and the less tenderness it develops, and the tenderloin is that rule at its most extreme.

How they compare

Texture: eye fillet is the most tender, scotch fillet sits in the middle, porterhouse has the firmest bite of the three.

Flavour: scotch fillet is the richest because of the marbling, porterhouse gives the cleanest beef flavour with the bonus of the rendered fat cap, eye fillet is the mildest.

Forgiveness: scotch fillet is the most forgiving of overcooking, because the fat keeps it moist. Eye fillet is the least forgiving, because there is no fat to protect it. Porterhouse sits between.

Price: eye fillet is typically the most expensive per kilo, because there is very little of it on each animal. Scotch fillet usually follows, then porterhouse.

Yield explains most of that. A carcass produces only two tenderloins, each a few kilos, and demand for them is high precisely because they are easy to eat. Scarcity and convenience together set the price rather than eating quality alone.

Portion size: eye fillet is usually served thicker and lighter, porterhouse and scotch fillet flatter and heavier. Two 250g steaks of different cuts can look very different on the plate.

One more distinction worth knowing

Porterhouse and scotch fillet are both cut across a single muscle group, which is why they cook evenly. Eye fillet tapers along its length, so a whole tenderloin produces steaks of different thickness and the thin end cooks faster.

If you are served an eye fillet that is noticeably narrower than the classic thick round, it came from the tail end and will cook through more quickly than you expect.

Which to order, by situation

First time at a restaurant that cooks over fire: porterhouse. It shows most clearly whether the kitchen knows what it is doing.

You like your steak medium or above: scotch fillet. The marbling gives you protection that eye fillet does not.

You want something you barely have to chew, or you are eating late and do not want a heavy meal: eye fillet.

You are not sure and want the most flavour for the money: rump, which is not in this comparison and is consistently underrated.

Cooking each one

Porterhouse benefits from the fat edge being rendered directly — held against the heat on its side before the flat faces go down. Skip that and the fat arrives chewy rather than caramelised.

Scotch fillet handles high heat well and can take a slightly longer cook. Its irregular shape means it will cook unevenly, which most people find is a feature rather than a fault.

Eye fillet is thick and narrow, so it wants high heat briefly and then rest. It is the cut most often ruined by cooking it the way you would cook a flatter steak.

All three need resting. A steak that goes straight from grill to table has not finished cooking and will leave its juice on the plate rather than keeping it in the meat. Roughly half the cooking time is a reasonable rest for a thick steak.

What to drink with each

Porterhouse suits a shiraz with some oak — enough structure to meet the rendered fat cap without overwhelming the cleaner beef flavour underneath.

Scotch fillet takes a cabernet well, because the tannin cuts through the marbling. This is the cut where a bigger red genuinely earns its place.

Eye fillet is the one to pair lighter. A pinot noir or a lighter-bodied red suits it, because a heavy wine simply flattens a lean, delicate cut.

Where marbling fits in

Marbling is measured in Australia on the AUS-MEAT scale from 0 to 9+, and separately by Meat Standards Australia on a scale of 100 to 1190. Higher scores mean more intramuscular fat and therefore a richer eating experience.

A marble score applies to any cut. A highly marbled porterhouse can be richer than a poorly marbled scotch fillet, so the cut tells you about texture and the marble score tells you about richness. They are two separate pieces of information and worth asking about separately.

A note on names

Australian and American cut names diverge in ways that cause genuine confusion. Australian porterhouse is American New York strip. Australian scotch fillet is American ribeye. Australian eye fillet is American tenderloin.

If a menu uses American terms, it is either an American-style restaurant or someone has copied a US menu. Neither is a problem, but it is worth knowing what you are ordering.

Rump is called rump here and sirloin in the United States, which reverses the Australian meaning of sirloin entirely. It is the single most confusing overlap in the two vocabularies.

The verdict, if you want one

Porterhouse is the best all-round order and the fairest test of a kitchen. Scotch fillet is the best choice if you want richness or you like your steak past medium-rare. Eye fillet is the right answer only if tenderness is genuinely your priority.

And if none of those appeal, order the rump and put the difference into a better bottle.

There is no wrong answer here, only a mismatch between what you ordered and what you actually wanted. Knowing which muscle did what work is enough to avoid that, and it is most of what a butcher knows that a diner does not.

See our current cuts and price s , or read about our wood-fired steakhouse . For a fuller guide to ordering steak , that article covers doneness and etiquette too. Pair your order with wine to match each cut — or if you are nearby, see where Bentleigh diners go for steak .

FAQ block

What is the difference between porterhouse and scotch fillet?

Porterhouse comes from the sirloin and has a firm bite with a fat cap along one edge. Scotch fillet comes from the rib and has more marbling running through it, making it richer and more forgiving to cook.

Is eye fillet better than scotch fillet?

Not better, different. Eye fillet is the most tender and the leanest, with less beef flavour. Scotch fillet is richer and more flavourful but firmer.

Which steak cut is the most tender?

Eye fillet, because the muscle does almost no work. That tenderness comes at the cost of flavour, since the cut is also the leanest.

Is Australian porterhouse the same as American porterhouse?

No. Australian porterhouse is the equivalent of an American New York strip. An American porterhouse is a large T-bone containing two different muscles.

Which cut is best if I like my steak well done?

Scotch fillet. The marbling keeps it moist through a longer cook, where eye fillet dries out quickly because it has no fat to protect it.

What is the spinalis on a scotch fillet?

A separate cap of muscle wrapped around the outside of the ribeye. Many chefs consider it the best-eating part of the cut.

Planning a Corporate Dinner in Melbourne's South-East

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 23:19:29 GMT

To plan a corporate dinner , decide the purpose first, then the format. Shared service suits team dinners; plated suits speeches and clients. Budget per head including drinks, collect dietary requirements six weeks out, confirm invoicing terms, and schedule speeches between mains and dessert.

Decide what the dinner is for

This sounds obvious and it is the step most often skipped. A dinner to thank a team, a dinner to impress a client and a dinner to mark someone's departure are three different events, and they want different rooms, formats and lengths.

Write the purpose in one sentence before you look at a single venue. Every subsequent decision follows from it, and most planning problems come from trying to serve two purposes at once.

H2 Choose the format before the venue

Shared service

Boards down the middle of the table, people serving each other. This keeps a room talking and moving, and it is almost always the better choice for a team dinner.

It also handles uneven appetites gracefully, which plated service does not.

Plated service

Individual courses, a seating plan, and a defined rhythm to the evening. This suits client entertaining, formal thank-yous and anything with a structured speaking programme.

The trade-off is that the room stays seated, so people mostly talk to whoever they were placed beside.

Standing with canapés

Good for mingling, poor for anything that requires attention. If there are speeches, someone will be holding a plate and a glass and will not clap.

Cocktail-style with substantial food

A middle option that works better than pure canapés: shared boards on high tables, people standing but able to eat properly. Good for a room that needs to mingle but will also be hungry.

Numbers, and what changes at each threshold

Up to about twelve, a single table in a normal restaurant works well and costs least.

Between twelve and twenty-five, the room starts to matter. Conversation fragments across a long table and background noise becomes a real problem.

Above twenty-five, you want either exclusive hire or a genuinely separate space. A partitioned corner of a working restaurant at this size produces the evening everyone remembers badly.

Budget, and the number people forget

Set a per-head figure before enquiring, and be explicit about whether it includes drinks. The single most common budgeting error is agreeing a food price and discovering the beverage package roughly doubles it.

Three common drinks arrangements: a capped bar tab, which finance teams generally prefer because the ceiling is known; a fixed package per head, which is predictable but usually overpriced for a moderate-drinking group; and consumption, which is fairest and least predictable.

Ask separately about room hire fees and minimum spends. Get both in writing.

Build in roughly ten per cent contingency. Someone will bring a partner, numbers will shift, and a bottle will be opened that was not in the plan.

Choosing the venue

Once format and numbers are set, the venue shortlist writes itself. Ask every venue the same five questions: will another group be in the room, is there a fixed end time, is parking free, will the kitchen build a menu around us, and what is the total including all fees.

The first question is the most important and the one people forget. A corporate dinner sharing a room with another company's function is the most common cause of an evening that technically went fine and satisfied nobody.

Visit if you can. Fifteen minutes standing in the actual room tells you more about acoustics and layout than any amount of photography.

Invoicing and the finance conversation

Ask at the enquiry stage whether the venue will invoice the company rather than requiring settlement on the night. Many will, and it saves someone reclaiming a four-figure sum through expenses three weeks later.

Find out what your finance team needs on the invoice — purchase order number, ABN, payment terms, cost centre — and pass it to the venue early rather than after the event.

Dietary requirements

Ask your team in the same email that confirms the date. Six weeks out, a vegetarian, a coeliac and someone avoiding dairy are all straightforward. The afternoon before, the kitchen is improvising.

Ask the venue how requirements are handled, not whether they can be. The useful answer is that they are built into the menu at planning stage. The unhelpful answer is that something will be sorted out on the night.

Timing the evening

Speeches go between mains and dessert. During service they compete with the food; after dessert, a meaningful part of the room has drifted toward the car park.

Keep them short and keep the number down. Two speakers at four minutes each beats five speakers at two, because the room's attention does not reset between speakers.

Tell the venue when you want them so the floor staff can hold service rather than clearing plates over the top.

Whether to have a theme

Generally, no. Themes are enjoyed enormously by the person who chose them and tolerated by everyone else, and they add cost and planning for a return that is difficult to measure.

The exception is a genuine milestone — a company anniversary, a major contract — where the occasion supplies the theme and nobody has to be persuaded into a costume.

Transport, which decides who actually comes

If most of your team lives in the south-east, a CBD venue costs each of them an hour and a fare. Attendance drops, and the people who do come leave early.

Free on-site parking removes a cost and a decision for every driver. For a dinner of forty, that is a meaningful saving before anyone eats anything.

Check public transport as well, and say so in the invitation. People drink more comfortably when they know they are not driving, and an evening where nobody is watching the clock for the last train tends to go better.

The week before

Reconfirm numbers, dietary requirements and speech timing in a single email, and ask the venue to confirm receipt. Do not assume anything discussed six weeks ago is still front of mind for either side.

Send your team the address, the parking situation, the start time and the dress code. Half of the questions you will otherwise field on the day are answered by that one message.

A planning checklist

Purpose in one sentence. Format. Headcount and threshold. Per-head budget including drinks. Room hire or minimum spend, in writing. Invoicing requirements. Dietary requirements collected six weeks out. Speech timing agreed with the venue. Parking and transport. Access time if anything needs setting up.

Ten items. Work through them in that order and the evening largely organises itself.

What makes the difference on the night

The dinners people remember well share very little in common on paper. What they do share is that nobody spent the evening straining to hear, waiting for food, or working out how to get home.

Those three things are all decided weeks in advance, at the point where you choose a room, agree a format and pick a date. Almost nothing you do on the night itself will rescue a venue that was the wrong choice.

Which is a slightly deflating conclusion for anyone hoping for a clever trick. The trick is choosing carefully and then leaving it alone.

One genuine on-the-night improvement: arrive twenty minutes early. Walk the room, check the seating, find the person running the floor and introduce yourself. It costs nothing and it means any small problem gets solved before forty people are standing in it.

See corporate functions at Wood & Bone , or how exclusive venue hire works more broadly. Planning for December? Read about end-of-year functions . We are well placed for venues near the Cheltenham business belt , and shared smokehouse boards for groups suit a working room particularly well.

FAQ block

How far in advance should I book a corporate dinner?

Four to six weeks is comfortable for most events. December fills from September, so year-end functions need considerably more notice.

Is shared or plated service better for a team dinner?

Shared service generally works better for team dinners because it keeps the room talking. Plated service suits client entertaining and events with a formal speaking programme.

When should speeches happen at a corporate dinner?

Between mains and dessert. During service they compete with the food, and after dessert part of the room has already left.

Can restaurants invoice a company for a corporate dinner?

Many will. Ask at the enquiry stage and pass on your finance team's requirements — purchase order, ABN, payment terms — before the event rather than after.

How do I handle dietary requirements for a large group?

Collect them roughly six weeks out in the same email that confirms the date, and choose a venue that builds requirements into the menu rather than improvising on the night.

At what group size do I need exclusive venue hire?

Above roughly twenty-five people. Below that a large table or separate space usually works; above it, a partitioned area in a working restaurant tends to disappoint.

Christmas Party Venues in Melbourne's South-East

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 23:22:59 GMT

Christmas party venues in Melbourne's south-east should be booked by September, because exclusive-hire rooms are typically gone by mid-October. Prioritise venues with free parking, a single-group policy and menu flexibility. Expect to pay less than the CBD for a comparable room, and confirm dietary requirements six weeks out.

First, the timing, because everything else depends on it

The work Christmas party is usually organised by someone who was handed the job in October and needed it finished in September. That is the whole problem in one sentence.

Venues offering exclusive hire in Melbourne's south-east are generally booked out by the middle of October. The good Friday-adjacent dates in early December go first, followed by the second week, and by November what is left is mostly Sundays and Mondays.

If you are reading this in spring, you are on time. If it is November, ring venues rather than emailing them. Cancellations happen and a phone call reaches a human who can see the actual diary.

A rough month-by-month

September: enquire, hold a date, confirm numbers roughly. October: lock the menu and the budget. November: final numbers and dietary requirements. December: turn up.

H2 Exclusive hire, function room, or just a big table?

These three things get lumped together and they produce very different evenings.

A large table in a working restaurant is the cheapest option and works well up to about twelve people. Beyond that, conversation fragments and half the table cannot hear the other half.

A function room is a partitioned section of a venue that is also serving the public. You get a defined space and usually a fixed turn time — often around two hours, because the room is booked again later. This is where most disappointing work parties happen.

Exclusive hire means the venue closes to the public and the building is yours. It costs more per head at some venues and less at others, and it is the only option that reliably solves the acoustics problem.

What actually matters when you compare venues

Parking

In the south-east this is the single biggest differentiator, and it is routinely underweighted. A venue with free off-street parking removes a genuine cost and a genuine annoyance for every guest. In December, city parking rates and surge pricing on rideshare turn a $90 head spend into a $130 one.

Acoustics and the speech problem

Ask one question: will another group be in the room? If the answer is yes, assume the thank-you speech will not land. It is the most common regret after a work function and it is entirely predictable in advance.

Menu flexibility

A lot of venues run a reduced festive menu built for volume — three choices, plated in advance. Ask whether the kitchen will build a menu around your group, and ask whether the December menu is the same kitchen output as the rest of the year.

Dietary requirements

Ask how they are handled, not whether they can be. The good answer is that requirements are collected at booking and built into the menu. The bad answer is that the kitchen will 'sort something out on the night', which usually means a plate of sides.

Timing and turn

Confirm in writing whether there is a fixed end time. A three-hour cap on a party of forty means people are leaving as the evening finally gets going.

Deposit and cancellation terms

Read them before you pay. December deposits are often non-refundable from a certain date, which is reasonable, but you should know the date rather than discover it. Ask what happens if your numbers drop by ten, because they usually do.

Where to look in the south-east

The corridor from Bentleigh through Moorabbin, Cheltenham and Highett down to Mordialloc has more capacity than most people assume, and it is consistently cheaper than the equivalent room in Southbank or the CBD.

Bayside proper — Brighton, Hampton, Sandringham — has good venues with a bayside premium attached, and parking that becomes difficult in December. Worth it if the view matters to the occasion.

Further inland around Moorabbin and Cheltenham you find more former-industrial and larger-footprint spaces, which is where exclusive hire tends to be genuinely available rather than theoretically available.

Pubs across the corridor will do a function room and a set menu, and for a casual team of twenty that is often exactly right. The limitation is usually noise and a fixed turn rather than the food.

One practical filter: search on a weekday afternoon and ring three venues rather than emailing ten. In September a phone call gets a straight answer about availability, where an email may sit for a week while the good date goes.

How to run the enquiry

Send the same brief to every venue so the responses are comparable. Date, approximate numbers, rough per-head budget, whether you need exclusive use, and any hard requirements such as accessibility or a projector.

Ask for the total including room hire, service charges and any surcharge. A per-head figure that excludes three other line items is not a quote, and comparing two venues on incomplete numbers is how people end up over budget in December.

Budget, realistically

Set your per-head number before you enquire, and be clear about whether it includes drinks. The most common budgeting error is agreeing a food price and then discovering the drinks package doubles it.

A capped bar tab is generally the arrangement finance teams prefer, because the total is known before the evening starts. Drinks on consumption is fairer and less predictable.

Ask whether there is a room hire fee on top of catering, or a minimum spend, and get it in writing.

The mistakes worth avoiding

Under-ordering food and over-ordering drinks. A room that has eaten well stays longer and behaves better. This is not a moral point, it is an observation.

Leaving dietary requirements to the final week. Ask your team in October, when a vegetarian, a coeliac and someone avoiding dairy are all easy to accommodate.

Scheduling speeches after dessert, by which point a third of the room is in the car park. Between mains and dessert is the reliable window.

Booking a venue nobody can get home from. If half your team lives south-east, a CBD venue costs everyone an hour and a taxi fare.

Choosing a date without checking the team calendar. School concerts, other client functions and the last week before shutdown all thin attendance considerably. The first or second week of December on a Thursday is the reliable slot.

Assuming the venue will remember your dietary list. Send it again a week out, in writing, and ask them to confirm receipt.

If December is already gone

January and February functions are increasingly common and genuinely better in several respects. Venues are available, staff are not exhausted, and nobody is competing with three other parties for a cab at midnight.

End-of-financial-year functions in June serve the same purpose for teams that would rather not do December at all.

A short checklist

Exclusive hire or shared room. Parking, and whether it is free. Fixed end time, yes or no. Menu built for you or chosen from a tier. Dietary process. Room hire fee or minimum spend. Drinks arrangement and cap. Access time for decorations. Deposit and cancellation terms.

Nine questions. Ask all of them at the enquiry stage and the rest of the process is straightforward.

For Christmas functions at Wood & Bone specifically, or to see how exclusive venue hire works more broadly, those pages have the detail. Running a smaller team event? Corporate dinners covers it. We also work with groups from Bentleigh and venues near Cheltenham .

FAQ block

When should I book a Christmas party venue in Melbourne?

September or early October. Exclusive-hire venues in the south-east are typically booked out by mid-October, with early December dates going first.

How much should a work Christmas party cost per head?

It varies widely by venue and format. Set a per-head figure before enquiring and confirm whether it includes drinks, room hire and any minimum spend.

What is the difference between exclusive hire and a function room?

A function room is a partitioned section of a venue still serving the public, often with a fixed turn time. Exclusive hire means the venue closes to the public and the whole space is yours.

When should speeches happen at a work Christmas party?

Between mains and dessert. After dessert loses a significant part of the room, and during service competes with the food.

What if all the December dates are booked?

January and February functions are increasingly popular and avoid the December rush, with better venue availability and no competition for transport.

Is a south-east venue cheaper than the CBD?

Generally yes, and the saving extends beyond the bill — free parking removes both a cost and a logistical problem for every guest.

How to Order Steak in Melbourne

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 16:45:00 GMT

To order steak well, match the cut to what you want: porterhouse for a firm bite and a rendered fat cap, scotch fillet for richness, eye fillet for tenderness. Order medium-rare unless you have a reason not to, and take highly marbled beef in smaller portions.

Start with what you actually want

Most people order steak by price or by habit. Both are poor guides, because the cuts do genuinely different things and the most expensive one is not the best one for every appetite.

Three questions settle it. Do you want to chew, or do you want it to give way? Do you want rich, or do you want clean beef flavour? And how hungry are you, honestly?

H2 The cuts, and what each one does

Porterhouse (also called sirloin, or New York strip)

From the back of the animal, along the spine. It has a firm texture, a decent chew, and a strip of fat along one edge that renders over high heat into something close to caramel.

It is the cut that shows most clearly what a grill is doing, which is why it is the default recommendation at any restaurant cooking over fire. If you are ordering one thing and want to know whether the kitchen is any good, order this.

Scotch fillet (ribeye)

From the rib section. More marbling than porterhouse, which means richer, more forgiving, and harder to ruin by cooking it a little longer than intended.

It has a distinct cap of muscle around the outside — the spinalis — that many people consider the best mouthful on the animal. If your scotch fillet arrives with that cap intact, eat it last.

Eye fillet (tenderloin, filet mignon)

The least-worked muscle on the animal, and therefore the most tender. It is also the leanest, which means the least flavour, which is why it is so often served with a sauce or wrapped in something.

Order it if texture matters more to you than beef flavour, or if you want a steak that requires no effort. Do not order it expecting the biggest taste.

Rump

Firmer, cheaper, and considerably more flavourful than its price suggests. It punishes overcooking and rewards resting. A good rump at medium-rare beats a mediocre scotch fillet, and most menus underprice it.

T-bone and bone-in cuts

A T-bone is porterhouse and eye fillet either side of a bone, which is why it costs what it does and why it is difficult to cook evenly. The bone conducts heat differently and the two muscles want different treatment.

Order it for the theatre and the two textures, not because it is objectively better.

Flank, skirt and the cheaper cuts

Worked muscles with coarse grain and a great deal of flavour. They need either fast high heat or long slow cooking, and nothing in between, and they must be sliced across the grain or they are unchewable.

A restaurant that puts these on the menu and handles them properly is usually a restaurant worth returning to, because they are harder to get right than an eye fillet.

H2 Doneness, and why medium-rare is the default

Medium-rare sits around 52 to 55°C at the centre. At that point the fat has begun to render and the muscle fibres have not yet tightened and squeezed out their moisture.

Rare is roughly 48 to 52°C, medium 55 to 60°C, medium-well 60 to 65°C, and well done above that. Food Standards Australia New Zealand notes that whole cuts of beef carry bacteria on the surface rather than throughout, which is why a seared steak served pink is treated differently from mince.

If you want it well done, order it well done — nobody in a decent restaurant will judge you. But choose scotch fillet or rump rather than eye fillet, because the marbling gives you some protection against the extra time.

H2 Marble score, translated

Marbling is the intramuscular fat running through a cut. In Australia the AUS-MEAT scale runs from 0 to 9+, in increments of one, where 0 is essentially no visible marbling and 9+ is the richest wagyu.

There is a second system. Meat Standards Australia, run by Meat & Livestock Australia, grades by cut and cooking method rather than by whole carcass, and its marbling scale runs from 100 to 1190 in increments of ten. An AUS-MEAT score of 5 typically corresponds to somewhere around MSA 700 to 800.

The practical translation: higher is richer, not automatically better. Plenty of people prefer the cleaner flavour of a grass-fed steak at marble score 3 or 4 to something considerably more marbled.

The most common wagyu mistake

Order less of it than instinct suggests. Marbling coats the palate, so a 200g highly marbled steak eats like a 350g lean one. The people who order the largest wagyu on the menu are reliably the people who leave a third of it.

H2 Grass-fed or grain-fed

Grass-fed beef is leaner with a more mineral, direct flavour. Grain-fed is richer and more marbled, because grain finishing puts fat through the muscle.

Neither is better. It is a preference, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

H2 Wood, charcoal or gas

Gas is consistent and easy to run through a service. Charcoal burns steady and clean. Timber runs hotter and less evenly, produces a deeper crust with a faint sweetness, and puts smoke into the meat rather than onto it.

This is worth asking about, because it changes the result more than the marble score does at the everyday end of the scale.

H2 Dry-aged and wet-aged

Wet-aged beef sits vacuum-sealed in its own moisture, which tenderises it without changing the flavour much. Almost all beef is wet-aged to some degree simply through distribution.

Dry-aged beef hangs in controlled cold air. Moisture evaporates, concentrating the flavour, and enzymes break down the muscle further. The result is nuttier and more intense, and a proportion of the weight is lost, which is why it costs more.

If a menu advertises a dry-ageing period, ask how long. Twenty-eight days is common and noticeable. Sixty days and beyond is a distinct, funkier flavour that not everyone enjoys and nobody should order blind.

H2 Portion size, honestly

A 300g steak is a substantial meal for most people once sides are involved. A 400g steak is a decision, and a 400g heavily marbled steak is a decision most people regret.

If there is a smaller weight available, it is usually the better order, and the money saved is better spent on an extra side or a better glass of wine than on meat you will not finish.

H2 Three things worth asking your waiter

What came in this week. A kitchen buying properly will have cuts that vary, and the floor staff should know which is eating best tonight.

How long it rests. A steak that arrives immediately off the grill has not finished cooking and will leave its juice on the plate.

Whether the smoked or specialty items have run out, before you plan a whole meal around one.

None of these are difficult questions and none of them mark you as fussy. A floor team that cannot answer them is telling you something useful about the kitchen behind them.

H2 Putting a table together

Order one more side than seems sensible, and make sure at least two of them are sharp and green rather than creamy. Rich food needs something cutting against it.

Try the first few bites without sauce. A good crust carries enough salt, char and rendered fat that a sauce added immediately is covering work the fire already did.

For a group, order a shared plate to the middle before the steaks land. It arrives faster and gives everyone something to do.

H2 Common mistakes, briefly

Ordering the most expensive cut on the assumption it is the best. Eye fillet costs the most and has the least flavour, which surprises people who have paid for it expecting the opposite.

Ordering a large highly marbled steak. Richness is not linear with size, and half of it will go back to the kitchen.

Cutting into it immediately. Give it a minute even after it reaches the table, particularly if it looks like it came off the grill in a hurry.

Ordering three creamy sides. Rich mains want sharp, acidic company, and a table that ignores this stops enjoying the meal around the halfway mark.

See our dinner menu and current cuts , or read more about our wood-fired steakhouse . For a closer comparison of the three main cuts , that article goes deeper. Pair it with what to drink with steak — or if you are closer to the bay, see where Brighton diners go for steak .

FAQ block

What is the best steak to order at a restaurant?

Porterhouse is the best default — a firm bite with a rendered fat cap that shows what the grill is doing. Choose scotch fillet for richness or eye fillet for tenderness.

What does marble score mean in Australia?

The AUS-MEAT scale runs from 0 to 9+ and measures intramuscular fat. Meat Standards Australia uses a separate scale from 100 to 1190. Higher means richer, not automatically better.

What temperature is medium-rare steak?

Roughly 52 to 55°C at the centre, where the fat has started to render but the muscle fibres have not tightened and lost moisture.

Is grass-fed or grain-fed steak better?

Neither. Grass-fed is leaner with a more mineral flavour; grain-fed is richer and more marbled. It is a matter of preference.

Why should I order less wagyu than I think?

Marbling coats the palate, so a highly marbled 200g steak eats like a much larger lean one. Smaller portions are usually more enjoyable.

Should I order sauce with steak?

Try the first few bites without. A good wood-fired crust carries plenty of flavour on its own, and sauce added immediately covers it.