The best steak restaurants in Sydney right now

One of the city’s stalwarts, Rockpool Bar & Grill is still at the top of its game after 15 years, voted the eighth best steak restaurant in the world for 2024. The chefs work closely with Australia’s finest farmers and producers, and dry-age the meat in-house to develop deep flavour and character. There’s a solid selection of cuts on the menu, each finished on the wood-fired grill for optimal char and caramelisation.

Time Out tip: There are more sides than you could throw a log at – so go to town. I'm a big fan of the mac and cheese.

At the Gidley, the opulent steak restaurant from the Liquor and Larder group who also own Bistecca, a friendly host takes your jacket, zips your phone away in an expensive leather pouch, and walks you past the galley bar into a velvet-lined booth, complete with curtains. Here, the rib eye is king. You can get it on the bone, as a boneless rib eye cap or as a standing prime rib roast. You'll also find the rarely served but impossibly juicy spinalis cut – a part of the cow often overlooked for its fattiness, but when prepared and seared just right, is an absolute showstopper. 

Time Out tip: The Gidley is home to one of Sydney's best burgers. The team may ask if you want to share, but trust us: you won’t want to.

When Porteño first opened in 2010, it shook the Sydney dining scene to its core. It remixed dinner to a frenetic rockabilly beat, fuelled it with fire and sparked a Latin-American boom. The Wagyu skirt here is luxuriously juicy, with that deep, savoury flavour that comes from grass-fed cattle raised up in north Queensland. The tender slices are laid out on crimson tracks of sweet roasted capsicum dressed in a generous lug of olive oil. The bartender mentions that he only eats red meat twice a year and it’s this steak – let that be your guide. 

Time Out tip: If you're in the area during the day, check out next-door sibling bakery Humble, home of the nostalgic finger bun and delicious focaccia sambos.

Firedoor is a place that appeals to the primal. Watch glowing coals go from furnace to grill and chefs cook by touch, not timer. Head chef Lennox Hastie has basically won all the accolades there are to win, because he sure knows how to prep and grill a steak. At the electricity and gas-free, fire-powered Firedoor, Hastie specialises in a 150-day dry-aged beef rib on the bone. Just a heads up though, it can be tricky to get in: reservations open up three months in advance on the first Wednesday of the month, so pop a reminder in every calendar. It's worth it.

Time Out tip: Love Firedoor? Then check out Hastie's Basque-inspired wine bar and restaurant, Gildas (and yes, order a couple of gildas).

20 Chapel is a neighbourhood bistro in Marrickville with a focus on wood-fired cooking and farm-fresh produce. Corey Costelloe, former culinary director of Rockpool Bar & Grill and recipient of Time Out Sydney’s Legend Award 2023, is behind the 64-seater Chapel Street diner. Costelloe has teamed up with his mate David Allison, chef-owner of Stix Farm (located on the banks of the Hawkesbury River just north of Sydney), as well as Rockpool’s former maître d' Anthony Qalilawa, to bring 20 Chapel to life. As you’d expect from the team’s impressive CV, the menu features premium proteins alongside locally grown, seasonal and organic fruit, vegetables and herbs.

Time Out tip: Negronis are on tap, too. Oh, and order the wedges.

Clam Bar is inspired by the great steakhouses of New York City – chefs and owners Dan Pepperell and Mikey Clift, alongside sommelier Andy Tyson, went there on a research trip before opening the Bridge Street spot. So, top-notch prime-aged steaks are on the menu, including a New York strip, a rib-eye and a porterhouse. Plus, there’s a Barnsley lamb chop. It's all a clam dunk.

Time Out tip: Neptune’s Grotto, a sexy, underground Italian haven, is now open in the basement of Clam Bar. Come check out both.

The Cut Bar & Grill, a subterranean steakhouse and wood-fired grill in The Rocks, has reopened with a fresh look and menu from the team behind Sydney's award-winning Rockpool Bar & Grill, after being closed for four years. Craving an iron hit? Head to the heritage-listed underground space on Argyle Street and go for The Cut’s signature slow-cooked prime rib that's sliced and served tableside. Alongside New York steakhouse classics and great steak, you'll find lots of fresh seafood and quality produce cooked over wood fire on the line-up.

Time Out tip: The Cut's pièce de résistance is the prime rib that's been slow-cooked and served with a buttery, red wine jus. Hooley dooley it's good.

This basement restaurant devoted to Florence’s famous T-bone steaks asks you to lock your phone in a little drawer when you arrive. All the better to focus on your meat, we imagine. You elect how much steak you’re here for – at $18 per 100g – and they deliver it for inspection. It comes unseasoned, with only a little olive wood and ironbark smoke to augment the clean, light beefiness of the sirloin and fillet sliced off the bone.

Time Out tip: You'll be asked to put your phone away – and at first, mild panic may set in. But as the night goes on, it becomes refreshing to be fully present, eating and drinking (well) with your people.

‘Big’ Sam Young and his partner Grace take steak seriously at their relaxed and indulgent Castlecrag bistro, S’more. The chefs and owners are passionate about sourcing the absolute best in the biz and the results are pretty juicy. Young gets all his steak from NSW – including the grass-fed beef from the award-winning Jack's Creek in Tamworth, as well as 2GR Wagyu, which is as luxe as they come. Young reckons the Wagyu has the perfect balance between fat and beef flavour, and we agree. All of the steaks are expertly cooked on the hibachi grill, and we recommend pairing it with a clay pot fried rice with lap cheong and shiitake mushrooms, and sweet corn lathered with a soy honey. More is more at S’more, and we’re here for the ride.

Time Out tip: Wear loose pants. And order BSY's signature lobster pasta, a luscious, umami-rich plate bursting with the flavours of the sea (and yeah, lots of butter).

Alfie’s second promise is steak to your table within 15 minutes after ordering. And because this is the Bistecca team we're talking about, any old steak it ain't, but a 220g Riverine sirloin, dry-aged at the on-site butchery found at the back right of the room. And true to their word, 15 minutes later our steak arrives, blackened on the outside thanks to being sizzled on Alfie’s custom-made grill. It’s cooked to perfection, blushing pink, with a glorious amount of fat, char and seasoning. Paired with a green sauce, heady with confit garlic, Dijon mustard and horseradish, it’s a cut above most steaks in town.

Time Out tip: Alfie's Martini, served tableside out of a thermos, is one of Sydney's coldest. Go for that.

Morrison Bar & Oyster Room has had a glow-up, transforming into Morrison’s Oyster Bar & Grill. Prime cuts of beef – hand-selected and sourced from Aussie farmers including Jack’s Creek, The Australian Agricultural Company and Rangers Valley – is the go here. The meat is aged in-house from 6-12 weeks, tenderising the protein and allowing it to develop a deeper and more delicious flavour. Choose from a grain-fed rib eye with Diane sauce and rich and creamy Paris mash potato; pasture-fed beef tenderloin with cracked black pepper and chestnut puree; and black Angus sirloin with café de Paris butter and fries.

Time Out tip: Morrison’s still has its rocking oyster offer: swing by on Wednesdays, 6-7pm, and score $1.50 oysters. Shuck yes!

Poetica skews primal – you realise it as soon as you walk into the airy dining room and see all the meat and seafood in the glass-fronted dry-aging cabinet. It's clear from the get go: vegos, this isn't one for you. The open kitchen is an integral part of the space and the woodfired oven and Josper grill the focal point. Our main course of black onyx flank and a beautifully hued vegetable salad are completely unadorned save for the smoky kiss of fire and char. This is cooking of the highest order.

Time Out tip: While meat is the undeniable hero here, the seasonal vegetable side dishes slap.

The joy of a steakhouse lies in its simplicity. At Matt Moran's Chophouse, curveballs are not welcome on a single-page menu with laser focus that skips from appetisers to steak and sides with nary a detour. You can order your own fully-contained cut from a selection of four from the grill – no sharing obligations attached. But to get your hands on the Moran family beef from their farm in Oberon, you need to level up to the ‘on the bone’ menu, where meat is priced by the 100g and minimum weights are enforced. 

Time Out tip: Located on Bligh Street in the CBD, Chophouse is a solid (and tasty) choice for a lunch meeting.

Honestly, if you order anything on the menu at Ester you'll be dining happy. However, if you want to enter carnivore Nirvana, don't go past the dry-aged Angus striploin. Few things go together as beautifully as wood-fire and red meat, and while it might set you back a hefty $125, it's well worth it for every charred, tender and rich bite.

Time Out tip: Never been to Ester? You'll also need to order its signature dishes: the fermented potato bread with sour kefir and pops of bright salmon roe, and the blood sausage sanga on pillowy bread.

Just walking into Woodcut – the Crown’s ground-floor restaurant – is an experience in itself. Firstly, the sprawling dining room is enormous (it seats 300 both inside and al fresco) and, with golds and browns and blacks, statement moody lighting and leather seats, it’s absolutely glamorous. Secondly, the smell of charcoal, fire and smoke meets you as quickly as you’re greeted by the smiling maître d' at the front door. It’s inviting and nostalgic all at once, taking us back to our childhood of weekends spent around a campfire. Except it’s not marshmallows being toasted, but premium cuts of meats and vegetables on the finest charcoal grills across four different kitchens. Each of the kitchens has its own focus – fire, smoke, ice and steam – and the chefs communicate with each other using headsets. Serious business, and the results are delicious, in particular the steak cooked on the wood grill. As good as it gets.

Time Out tip: Woodcut's bar has a happy hour offer during the week with $15 cocktails and snacks. Get around it.

Though it takes its inspiration from Little Italy and the state-side steakhouse scene, Gowings 2.0 is a thoroughly new era, an utterly fresh reimagining under the direction of acclaimed British chef and genuinely good geezer, Sean Connolly (the Morrison Bar and Oyster Room). Steaks are just one of the highlights at this all-killer-no-filler diner, though they are truly exceptional steaks. Grass-fed, aged, and grilled to perfection, this is one to add to your list.

Time Out tip: The fresh, handmade pasta is also a hit at Gowings.

If you're after something familiar done so, so well, we suggest a steak feed at Sydney restaurant Bopp and Tone. There are four to choose from: An Angus tenderloin; Wagyu sirloin; Angus flank; and an 800g bone-in rib eye from Riverine in NSW.

Time Out tip: As for sides, we’d go for the roast cracked potatoes with herb butter; and asparagus with pistachio, mint and lemon.

If you’re keen to dig into one of Australia’s best steaks with a side of a million dollar view then Kingsleys Woolloomooloo is your spot. Executive chef Jason Roberson has curated a first-class steak menu showcasing mostly grain-fed, grain-finished or pasture-raised beef from some of Australia’s leading farms like Riverine, Westholme, 2GR and O’Connor. All the cuts are cooked on a charcoal grill and come with onion jam, snow pea leaves, smoked salt, and a bunch of mustards.

Time Out tip: Choose your sauce from bernaise, chimichurri, red wine jus, green peppercorns, confit garlic butter and fermented chilli. Read: condiment heaven. Don’t even get us started on the sides.

Long gone are the days of school excursions and overpriced, mediocre wedges when dining at Sydney Tower. The jewel in the crown of the refurbished sky-high complex is Infinity. The steaks here are outstanding, in particular, the grass fed scotch fillet. Tender, flavourful, and served alongside house mustard, smoked salt and green horseradish crème fraîche, every bite is an adventure into deliciousness.

Time Out tip: The sunsets here are something else, so we recommend making an early booking.

The Sanderson is a handsome CBD restaurant by the Speakeasy Group (also Eau de Vie, Nick and Nora’s and Mjølner) where excellent steak and sublime seafood comes served with a side of fun. When it comes to proteins, the team does not muck around. In fact, there’s a whole section of the menu dedicated to ‘Land’. They also dry-age their meat in-house (which you’ll see as soon as you walk in). Order the miso and roasted garlic butter to pair with your steak – you won’t regret it.

Time Out tip: Finished dinner? Head down to basement bar Eau de Vie for cocktails with a side of theatrics.

The Fairmont, a classic bistro above the Occidental Pub in Wynyard, is fairly uncompromising in its offering: you’re having steak. End of. Only sixteen bucks separates the cheapest minute steak for $40 and the prime eye fillet. It’s all carefully managed to walk that mid-range line – but you still can expect great quality, aged and tender cuts of beef.

Time Out tip: When you're craving a well-cooked steak on a big white plate, a good pepper sauce, an even better jus, and a pleasing selection of mustards, head to the Fairmont Hotel.

At Black, the chefs smoke your precious serve for ten minutes over cherry wood before grilling it over ironbark coals. It’s seasoned with Murray River pink salt and glazed with rendered fat that they trim from the meat. The result is four utterly perfect, rosy-hued slices. They come caramelised and salty on the outside and so juicy in the middle that you get a dopamine hit every time you bite down.

Time Out tip: The flavour of the steak is as pure and clean as the NSW pasture the cattle are raised on, and it’ll make you close your eyes, lean back, and groan quietly while pleasure firecrackers explode in your brain. Enjoy.