My Father-in-Law has been saying every time he comes to Melbourne that he wants to go to The Meat & Wine Co., however always leaves it to the last minute and we can never get in. Finally on his last visit, I made a booking straight away as I didn’t want to disappoint him again.
With multiple venues throughout Melbourne and Sydney, the company has several years behind them of pleasing Australians with high quality local produce and perfectly cooked meats.
FOOD
It says it all in the name; this is a meat lovers heaven. The Meat & Wine Co. pride themselves in serving the highest quality meats, which are also cooked to perfection.
We started the night with a round of cocktails as we studied the menu before deciding on which wine to go with. Their cocktail list reads quite well with a variety of yummy drinks to choose from. It was quite hard to decide, so we all ordered a few different ones to try.
While we waited for our cocktails to arrive, we read through the menu, which of course was predominately meat based. They have a variety of different meats to choose from, everything from steak, to kangaroo, to ribs to burgers all filled the menu.
We started with a small entree of the ‘Seared Beef Carpaccio’ which was pepper-crusted rare grain-fed sirloin with horseradish, mint, flat leaf parsley, crème fraiche, fresh lemon and olive oil. It was good, but nothing out of this world.
As you all know I’m not the biggest steak lover, so I decided to go with the ‘Grilled Chicken Breast’ served with a cabbage salad with fresh mint, Italian parsley, cumin, Spanish onion, chilli and French vinaigrette. The chicken was beautifully tender and juicy, however the salad wasn’t to my liking.
MC ordered the full rack of ‘Beef Ribs’ which was 1kg of ribs. Don’t get too excited, it’s mostly bones that add up to that weight! The waitress did mention that he wouldn’t be able to finish it, so MC took this as a challenge and finished it with no problems.
My Father-in-Law ordered the steak and unfortunately wasn’t overly wowed by it. He said it was quite chewy, however was cooked how he asked, but not worth the price paid.
Since we only got a small entree to start, we decided to share their ‘Grand Finale’ dessert consisting of a variety of small individual size desserts to share. Such a perfect way to end the evening.
SERVICE
The service is that of a standard upper scale restaurant with friendly wait staff and quick service. Drinks do take a bit longer to arrive, however the amount of time that needs to go into making their cocktails justifies the wait time to receive them.
Our waitress gave good recommendations to the cocktails and wines and repeated our order back to us to make sure it was correct before putting it through the kitchen.
ATMOSPHERE
The space itself is quite large with both an indoor and outdoor area for diners. Tables are positioned fairly close together, which makes it a bit difficult to get through some of the sections of the restaurant.
The outdoor area has a beautiful view of the Yarra and can sit back and enjoy a glass of wine while you people watch. The indoor space is innovative and modern with exposed ceilings, dark tables with old classic wooden chairs and simple place settings.
Overall our experience at The Meat & Wine Co in Southbank was a so so experience. The service was good, the location is fantastic, however the food left a bit to be desired. Maybe we need to check out one of their other locations to see if the steaks are any better.
