Trevor Pepys reviews the Graziers’ Steakhouse, Noosaville
Of all the food fads of recent years, Trevor has been most chuffed to see the return of the passionate carnivore. Ask yourselves, you vegan girlie-men, what can beat sitting in a dark room with a bunch of blokes with steak knives at 45 degrees, three bottles of good red at the centre of the table and blood dribbling down your chins as you each devour a whopping Diamantina steak?
Answer? Nothing.
There are several steakhouses in Noosa and all have merit – and Trevor will no doubt get to them in the fullness of time – but his favourite is one that you won’t find people gushing about on Trip Advisor or any of those other silly internetty things because this is the real thing, not some tricked-up tourist version of a steakhouse where people eat Japanese beef, in Queensland, for pity’s sake, the beef capital of the world!
Graziers’ Steakhouse, which sounds like it should be on one of Rockhampton’s fine wide avenues, remains a locals’ dirty little secret mainly because it is tucked away inside the Villa Noosa Hotel, perhaps the least attractive licensed establishment in the state. But you can’t judge a pub by its doorway, and within the Villa’s featureless walls many of Noosa’s most momentous events have gone down, from outrageous punk and thrash gigs in the V-Room, to historic meetings of great minds of the Far Right in the steakhouse, such as the time the gentleman fisho and Noosa MP Davo hosted then Prime Minister John Howard.
So the Graziers’ Steakhouse (and the Villa) has history and colour aplenty, but it also has bloody good steak (and the adjective is used in the literal rather than expletive sense), and this, of course, was what Trevor was looking forward to as he and the missus ran through the rain across the Woolies car park and took a corner table where we could check who was coming and going from Dan’s, laden with Christmas cheer. It might be locals only, but plenty of us are steak lovers, and Graziers was already half-full of hungry people when we arrived around six, and by the time we left an hour or so later, it was packed – on a Monday night.
Trev and the missus began the repast with a fight. She wanted to drink white, I wanted to drink red, so we compromised with a bottle of the Cote des Roses ros¨¦ ($36), which for the benefit of a certain reader who thinks Trev is a cheapskate, was not the cheapest wine on the list.
She ordered the lamb rissoles with chips, mushy peas and gravy off the seniors menu ($13) but Trev blew the bank and took on the Graziers 400g rump ($32) off the premium char-grilled menu. As it turned out, what you should eat in a steakhouse is a steak, nothing more, nothing less. The missus was a little disappointed in her rissoles, calling them flavourless, although Trev had no problem devouring the leftovers, having smothered them with pepper sauce.
But the rump, ah the rump. Here was a full-flavoured primal cut that deserved a glass of excellent Shiraz at its side, but Monday night is Trev’s almost AFD, so he had to be content with the ros¨¦, which wasn’t bad. Forget about the accompaniments, chips are chips and the beetrooty salad was average – the meat is the thing, and you can’t beat a good rump lightly seared. Delicious. Trev devoured it so quickly he forgot to take a photo.
We finished off with the sticky date pudding ($8) which wasn’t bad either.
The verdict: Don’t go for the ambience, but the service is fine and the steak is first rate.
Graziers Steakhouse at the Villa Noosa, 19 Mary Street, Noosaville. Ph 5430 5555.
