The Cut Bar & Grill, Sydney

It's easy enough to make a decent steak at home, but there's something about the dark furnishings and luxury of being able to pick and choose lots of sides to go with your steak that make it a bit of a treat. I decided to treat Sir D on his birthday with a visit to The Cut Bar & Grill for some tasty meat.

As you walk downstairs into the restaurant, it's almost like you're walking into a secret underground cavern. The restaurant itself is dark and moody with plush leather banquette seating as well as individual tables.

Scallops, peas, mushroom, bone marrow - $25

We're here for the beef but we decide to start with a few entrees to whet our palates. The words 'scallops' and 'bone marrow' catch my eye so we order the scallop entree which has three juicy seared scallops sitting on some crumbled blood pudding, with peas, mushrooms and little blobs of bone marrow. The earthy flavours of the blood pudding and mushrooms pair quite well with the sweet scallops which are perfectly cooked.

Beef tartare, quail egg, truffle mustard, traditional garnishes, lavosh - $35

I love a good steak tartare so we order the entree size and it comes artfully presented on a wooden board, with a quail egg in the shell, and lines of finely chopped onion, herbs, cornichons and capers, and served with some lavosh. This means you can mix the garnishes into the steak tartare as you like.

4 hour slow roast F1 Wagyu standing rib - $56 for 100g

This was what we'd been waiting for the whole night - The Cut's signature 4 hour Wagyu standing rib roast. It's quite a show when the main course comes out, as a meat trolley is wheeled to your table, and the lid is opened to reveal the roast. The smell of roasted meat wafts out as a cut of the roast is sliced in front of you and placed on an enormous plate before some of the jus is ladled on.

Luckily we're sharing the portion, and it is cooked to a perfect medium rare with a pink centre. The crust on the roast is also super flavoursome and the meat of course is juicy and tender.

Potato puree, chives, olive oil - $9

We choose a few sides to go with the steak. The potato puree is smooth as silk and while it's a small serving, it's rich and buttery enough to make sure both of us have more than enough.

Onion rings, fennel salt - $11

The onion rings are a surprise favourite. The onion inside is well-cooked and sweet while the outside batter is light as air, with the fennel salt providing an interesting flavour to the batter.

Roasted bone marrow - $10

And I can't say no to some extra bone marrow. Each serve gets you two pieces of marrow and a little spoon to dig out the fatty goodness from within each bone.

Sticky date - $14

We're pretty stuffed so we share a dessert of sticky date pudding. It turns out to be a deconstructed version of a sticky date pudding, but still containing all the usual elements of dates and caramel with an extra hit of coffee. There was a light date-flavoured sponge scattered on the plate, two tuile "cigars" filled with a coffee and caramel cream, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream to top things off. It was a lighter version of what is usually a rich, heavy dessert which suited me fine.

Despite the dark "romantic" mood lighting, the mood of the restaurant was actually quite boisterous and vibrant with lots of laughter coming from tables and friendly service from the waitstaff. The food was on the pricey side, but it was delicious and definitely something that's worth treating yourself to every once in a while!

The Cut Bar & Grill
16 Argyle St
Millers Point NSW 2000
Ph: +61 2 9259 5695
Open for lunch, Monday to Friday from 12 noon
Open for dinner 7 days from 6pm