Bistecca

To enter you wander down an alleyway, pass through a door and take a flight of stairs down to an antique-look, Euro-style cocktail bar. Another door leads to a similarly Continental-themed room, the dining room, with a flaming hearth covered in T-bone steaks as the centrepiece.

Welcome to Bistecca, a subterranean steakhouse by Liquor & Larder, the team behind Surry Hills cocktail bar and diner, the Rover, and another opulent Sydney steak restaurant, the Gidley, which is just around the corner.

Bistecca is only about Riverine steak. Literally – it’s the one and only main executive chef Pip Pratt heroes on the menu. And not just any steak, but one specific style: bistecca alla fiorentina, or T-bone traditionally cooked in the traditional Tuscan way, over coals and served rare.

To begin, you ask for your steak in weight, which is then carved in front of the hearth and presented to you at the table. The waitstaff will tell you the price, and once you agree it’s whisked away to be cooked. Then, there are sides – maybe some slow-cooked white beans, crunchy roast potatoes or radicchio with woodfired grapes.

The kitchen first chars the cut over a flaming mix of ironbark and charcoal, then slides it into the oven before finishing it on the flames again, but this time with a wash of olive oil and steak juice. Your meat and sides are then served immediately, probably with a glass of nebbiolo or sangiovese you’ve ordered from Bistecca's award-winning wine list.

The hearth and the steak are the headliners at Bistecca. And in the front room is the support act: a sophisticated bar with an Amaro-led cocktail list and a short menu of cicchetti (Venetian for “bar morsels”), the biggest of which is a ricotta gnocchi.