Flat iron steak

AN attempt to rank the best destinations in the world for steak restaurants has placed Australia, and the city of Sydney, on top of the pile.

Last month in a report issued by a UK-based group called World Best Steaks.com, Australia topped statistics by country, with 17 entries (16.8pc) among the 101 best steak restaurants in the world for 2025.

Australia’s top entry, Neil Perry’s Sydney restaurant Margaret, was placed second, behind top-placed Don Julio in Parrilla, Buenos Aires. Third was Spain’s Laia Erretegia. Other in the top ten came from Singapore, Stockholm and New York.

In a follow-up list released this week by the same group, Sydney was ranked Number One among cities in the world for steak restaurants, beating out Buenos Aires (predictable), and Madrid for the top position. Further down the list were London and New York.

A social media post by World Best Steaks.com said:

“Sydney continues to raise the bar for meat lovers globally. Leading the charge: Neil Perry’s @margaretdoublebay ranked No. 2 in the world, a masterclass in precision, produce and pure Australian hospitality.”

The diversity of product types in Australia is clearly a defining factor in the upper end of the food service restaurant market. Where the US churns out vast volumes of USDA Choice and Prime grainfed beef, with very little to distinguish one brand from another, and Brazil and Argentina are dominated by grassfed, Australian steak dining is defined by diversity – high-end certified grassfed, short and long grainfed, Fullblood and Crossbred Wagyu and Certified Organic being just a few.

The full list of Australian steak restaurants on the 2025 Top 101 list includes:

• No. 2 Margaret, Sydney
• No. 12 Rockpool, Sydney
• No. 14 The International, Sydney
• No. 16 Firedoor, Sydney
• No. 18 Victor Churchill, Melbourne
• No. 20 Porteño, Sydney
• No. 32 The Gidley, Sydney
• No. 36 AALIA, Sydney
• No. 37 Steer, Melbourne
• No. 45 Gimlet, Melbourne
• No. 51 Shell House, Sydney
• No. 57 Matilda 159, Melbourne
• No. 62 The Cut Bar & Grill, Sydney
• No. 91 Meatmaiden, Melbourne
• No. 92 Grill Americano, Melbourne
• No. 93 20 Chapel, Sydney
• No. 99 Bistecca, Sydney

Does the methodology behind the rankings have any real credibility?

Is the list just a social media grab by the organisers?

Does the methodology behind the rankings have any real credibility?

Hard to tell, but credible Australian foodie sites like Delicious have seen fit to highlight the achievement in its socials.

People like prominent Sydney celebrity chef and restaurateur Neil Perry (his Sydney restaurant, Margaret ranked 2 on the list, while Rockpool, in which he still holds a stake ranked 12) have also chosen to comment on social media:

“So thrilled for the harbour city, go team Sydney and go our amazing Australia beef farmers, the true heroes,” he said.

Mr Perry also posted on his personal Instagram account:

“So proud of Sydney and our amazing Australian beef farmers and suppliers who make this all possible. Thankyou @worldbeststeakrestaurants for recognising the quality of Sydney dining . So proud of what @margaretdoublebay has achieved with it’s world class meat and seafood program in beautiful Double Bay, it is testament to our incredible staff and their dedication to daily excellence.”

The authors of the report are a group called “World Best Steak Restaurants” initiated by UK-based Upper Cut media. The WBSR facebook page has 313,000 followers. The report has been issued yearly since 2019.

Beef Central asked the report authors who the 24 “Steak ambassadors” are, who were tasked with  choosing the entries and ranking them. Evidently at least two ‘ambassadors’ were used in each region.

‘Safe-bet, big city’ Cliches?

Some might argue that the list of Australian entries looks somewhat clichéd, being limited to Sydney and Melbourne only. It completely overlooks exceptional steak restaurants in Brisbane, which by any measure is the beef capital of Australia, with Queensland accounting for close to half of the nation’s entire beef production, two-thirds of its feedlots and an over-representation of the nation’s super-premium product.

How any list of Australia’s best steak restaurants cannot include Brisbane venues like Establishment 203 (Stanbroke), Walter’s, Bos and SK Steak and Oyster is beyond comprehension, but Sydney/Melbourne’s notorious ‘safe-bet, big city’ bias clearly has a lot to do with it. Perth’s on-trend steak restaurants like 6Head can also feel hard-done by. It’s a fair bet that none (or perhaps more accurately, neither) of the ‘ambassadors’ stepped foot out of the Melbourne/Sydney CBD.

The report used a curious, somewhat vague ranking criteria, based on:

• Quality of the meat offered, considering taste, terroir, character, marbling, cut and preparation.
• Selection and variety of meat cuts (ageing process, origin, breeds), including both primary and secondary cuts.
• Service quality and expertise in meat. In-depth product knowledge is essential.
• Detailed description of the meat cuts on the menu (including breed, origin, gender, ageing process, feeding methods, slaughter age, and preparation).
• A bunch of service and cellar observations.