The Best Steakhouses in Melbourne, by the Record
The best steakhouses in Melbourne, by the professional record: World's 101 Best, Australian Good Food Guide, and Spirited Awards have all weighed in, and their honors are what rank this list. Gimlet at Cavendish House comes out on top.
Steer Dining Room and Victor Churchill hold the next two places. World's 101 Best shows up on more of this list than any other guide, with Australian Good Food Guide next.
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Rank 1. Gimlet at Cavendish House
European
Andrew McConnell's fine dining room inside the grand Cavendish House on Russell Street turns on an open fire grill and dry-aged Victorian and South Australian beef, which landed Gimlet a spot on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list. The room manages to feel glamorous without feeling stiff, and the wine list reads like someone actually thought about what goes with the food rather than just buying everything.
- World's 101 Best #62 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats
- Spirited Awards 2026 · Regional Top 10 Honoree · Best International Restaurant Bar – APAC
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Rank 1. Steer Dining Room
Modern Australian
A wagyu-focused fine dining room in South Yarra where the menu is essentially a graduate seminar on breed, marbling, and provenance. Australian and Japanese A5 cuts are aged in-house and cooked over a hibachi grill, served simply enough that the beef does the arguing. The room is warm and understated, the sommelier knows when to stop talking, and the service hits that rare register of polished without stiff. Ranked 29th on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list.
- World's 101 Best #29 · World's Best Steak Restaurants
- Australian Good Food Guide 14/20 · Two Chef Hats
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Rank 3. Victor Churchill
Steakhouse
The glass-walled dry-ageing chambers aren't decoration; they're the thesis statement. Victor Churchill is a steakhouse-meets-butcher-shop in Armadale where premium Australian beef is aged, cut, and grilled with the kind of restraint that lets the meat do the talking. The amber-lit interior runs to polished timber and bronze detailing, and it lands on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list. The wine programme skews deep and serious.
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Rank 4. Meatmaiden
Steakhouse
A basement steakhouse on Little Collins Street, lit by the glow of a custom-built ironbark-fired smoker and a grill that does most of the talking. The kitchen dry- and wet-ages Australian cuts before they meet the fire, so the flavour has been building long before service starts. It ranked 81st on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list, which feels about right for a room that's industrial without trying too hard about it.