Everything a steak should be, tender, juicy and full of flavour, that’s what you’ll find at Treasury Brisbane’s new restaurant addition Black Hide by Gambaro.
Combine these mouth-watering steaks with a slick restaurant fit out in one of Brisbane’s premier heritage buildings, and you have an experience that’s worth repeating.
Opening the cleverly crafted knife handle door to the private Black Label Room revealed a stunning private dining area created from one of former Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s offices.
It was smaller than I thought a premier’s office would be, but Gambaro Group Director John Gambaro said Joh had plenty of additional space in other rooms and liked the corner office with its river view. It certainly had that, and with a knife in the door rather than a politician’s back, it was comfortable dining too.
More about dining at Black Hide
- The steak
- The décor
- The experience
- Need to know
The steak
It’s not often that I agree with Des Houghton, (The Courier-Mail’s senior restaurant critic), but when it comes to his choice of Stanbroke’s 1200 angus tomahawk from the Darling Downs at Black Hide at Treasury Brisbane as number one on top ten of South East Queensland’s best steaks, he has it right.
Long-standing Brisbane food and hospitality players, the Gambaro Group serve steaks sourced from only one supplier, beef and cattle company Stanbroke who operate eight cattle stations in northern Queensland. The angus cattle graze on natural pastures for most of their life before moving to customised feed.
Gambaro’s Black Hide restaurant on Petrie Terrace is a four-time winner of Queensland’s Best Steak Restaurant Award. It’s going to be a tough call between the two restaurants for this year’s award, but I suspect the heritage décor and atmosphere at Treasury Brisbane will provide a winning edge.
Black Hide at Treasury Brisbane has two export- quality steak cuts with an excellent marble score (MB) of nine. This is the highest score by Australian industry standards. There are also two traditional dry aged steak cuts, live lobster and Moreton Bay bug seafood dishes.
As a ‘super beef’ renowned for its higher marbling score and intense flavour,
The Wagyu steak cuts include an eye fillet MB9 and a sirloin MB9 – both exquisitely tender and perfectly caramelised using a Montague Broiler Grill.
Dry-aged steak cut options include a Flinders grass-fed dry aged rib eye MB2+ and an Angus grain-fed dry aged rib eye MB3+.
Diners can view dry aged meat hanging in a retail-inspired cabinet near the bar.
“This traditional method of dry ageing beef on the bone for a minimum of 28 days allows the slow break down of the meat’s natural enzymes,” said Mr Gambaro.
“When the meat is ready to be used, we remove it from the bone and remove the crust so that the beef underneath is beautifully tender and ready for cooking. The result is meaty goodness bursting with flavour and leaving nothing to the imagination.”
The décor
Constructed from 1886 to 1928, the Treasury building has a glamorous Italian Renaissance style that fronts the top end of Queen Street Mall, with views over the Brisbane River. In 1995 it was sold by the Government and is now owned by the Star Entertainment Group and contains Treasury Casino.
Treasury Brisbane Chief Operating Officer Kelvin Dodt said the interior design was inspired by the restaurant’s hero bovine cuisine and the Treasury building’s political history.
“In partnership with The Gambaro Group, we wanted to orchestrate a design that paid respect to the building’s history while reflecting our hero cuisine of succulent, tender steak,” said Mr Dodt.
“We collaborated with a team of local consultants and contractors to create an edgy and sleek design combined with the types of rustic textures and materials typically found on a cattle station and butchery – think polish, leather, hand-stitched, saddle, wrought iron, rope, timber, luxe, raw.
The experience
Entrance to the 154-seat restaurant is on the river side of the Queen Street frontage.
It’s filled with refurbished rooms with an intimate feel named after the ‘senses’ they evoke. The Hide Room evokes the sense of ‘touch’; both the Carving Room and the Butchers Room work on the sense of ‘taste’; the Paring Room the sense of ‘smell’; and the Parlour Room the sense of ‘hearing’.
Apart from the steaks, the Gambaro also does service very well. Their highly professional staff take great pride in getting it right and making your meal a dining experience.
I ate in the restaurant’s most exclusive space aptly named the Black Label Room as the guest of The Gambaro Group. It has a luxurious palette of materials including velvets and deep timbers, offset with brass and marble.
Need to know
- There is a great bar at Black Hide where you can enjoy a drink before dinner while you check out the dry aged beef cabinet.
- Don’t miss the wine cabinet with its rows of Grange Hermitage bottles.
- While the steak is fabulous, there’s plenty more on the menu including some Italian meatballs with basil and sugo that will remind you of nona’s.
- Black Hide opens for lunch and dinner Tuesday to Friday and dinner Saturday and Sunday.
Find out more about Black Hide by Gambaro at Treasury Brisbane.
Discover Art of the Palette, a Treasury Brisbane event that brings art, food and wine together in a bonanza for food lovers.
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Treasury Brisbane.
