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Flavours of Southbank

Flavours of Southbank
Shane Scanlan

Walking up the stairs to the bar and second-level dining area of the Meat & Wine Co in Southbank, you can’t help but notice the 12 clocks on the wall.

They show the time at The Meat & Wine Co’s restaurants across the world: in London; Israel; three in South Africa; Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Kuwait in the Middle East;  two at Sydney’s Darling Harbour, and here in Southbank.

Time is an important ingredient at The Meat & Wine Co. Super-aged steak is the specialty, and Southbank’s restaurant uses its own Monte Beef brand of primarily Angus cattle, sourced from farms across Australia.

“Monitored from paddock to plate,” is the proud motto.

Melbourne-Sydney area manager Nicholas Noonan says the preparation of no meal is rushed.

“Our chefs and grillers are told that consistency is most important when grilling each steak,” he says. “The meat quality is consistent, and it must be consistently cooked.”

The result is repeat patronage, which Mr Noonan attributes to why the Southbank restaurant, at Queensbridge Square’s Freshwater Place, “is fully booked on Fridays and Saturdays, and there is never an empty table on any night of the week”.

“Sunday lunches are popular for families.”

It’s now winter menu time, with super-aged beef (with chips and side sauce) headlining the line-up.

The Monte Select category beef has been grain fed for 120 days and includes eye of rump $26, rib-eye $39, New Yorker (similar to porterhouse) $34, fillet $34, rump $28, large rib-eye $46, T-bone $49.

Wagyu has been grain fed for 500 days to achieve the marbling: rump $48 or rib-eye $59.

Monte Gold is the best of the best, grain fed for 130 days, and includes the New Yorker $46 or fillet $49.

The grand daddy of them all is the Monte Dry aged selection. Pasture fed, the choice cuts are aged about a month at a low temperature, to achieve extra tenderness and taste. The New Yorker is $45 or the rib-eye on bone is $48.

Aussies love lamb in winter. Lamb shanks, slowly cooked with carrots celery, onions and herbs, served on garlic-spinach mash for $34; rack of lamb, grilled medium-rare, topped with olive, caper and anchovy infused butter, sitting on sautéed asparagus and with a capsicum polenta stack, for $39.

Mr Noonan says the grilled kangaroo fillet is popular with tourists, and is served with bush spices and pepper rubbed chat potatoes with an apple cider sauce, for $34.

But “meat” makes up only half the name of the restaurant; the wine selection of 160 varieties are mostly local and interstate, with some international choices for those patrons who have eaten at overseas Meat & Wine Co restaurants.

“I have had several guests who have dined at every Meat & Wine Co restaurant in the world,” says Southbank’s marketing manager Sam Hasim.

Regular local diners are in for a surprise, with a major interior renovation scheduled for August.

“We will have a new look and feel,” says Mr Hasim.

“It will be based on the restaurant chain’s heritage, with a subtle South African feel (the first Meat & Wine Co restaurant was opened in South Africa in 2000 by Costa Tomazos and Bradley Michael).

“But we will still be all about meat and wine.”

Wine list advice is on hand: Mr Noonan established his sommelier credentials at Crown’s flagship Number 8 restaurant and bar, before moving to a management role for several years at The Venetian Macao (Macau).

“Australians love their sav blanc in summer, even at a meat themed restaurant,” says Mr Noonan.

“But shiraz outsells all of the whites. Our Heathcote shiraz absolutely ‘flies’, and the Barossa Babe is a big seller.

“We have our own label, Cleaver and Vine, that is popular with our regulars.”

Mr Noonan said the restaurant does a great trade for lunch, and office workers pop in for a drink on the way home.

“Sydney folk tend to drink wine, whereas here in Southbank our corporate locals are mostly beer and spirit drinkers,” he says.

 Mr Noonan says the economic recession ”will cause a bit of a slump and restaurants will lose some business, but the good ones will do fine”.

He says the key to success in Melbourne is quick service and plenty of tables.

“Sydney queues, Melbourne refuse,” he trots out the phrase with a grin. “In Melbourne, you don’t have to queue to eat, there are so many choices.

“Southbank’s population is increasing, with apartment towers going up everywhere. There’s talk about it becoming a greater population density than Hong Kong.”

To satisfy the increasingly discerning tastes of these residents, office workers and tourists, The Meat & Wine Co also has burgers and skewers, seafood choices and a kids menu.

Vegetarians need not despair: the Mediterranean Vegetable Spears (skewers), with saffron rice and Napoli sauce, for $24 could almost make a meat-lover turn.

Almost.

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