Rich & Rare

Overview

Got beef? The answer is yes at West End's West Village, but no one will be quarrelling. Rather, Rich & Rare wants to fill Brisbanites' plates with steaks, steaks and more steaks — so much so that 15 different cuts are on the menu.

The focus: prime beef. The vibe: high end. The wild card? Upscale surf 'n' turf combinations are encouraged. Hailing from the Tassis Group, Rich & Rare also goes big on seafood, as the hospitality company's Fatcow Steak & Lobster did over at Eagle Street Pier before it was torn down for a yet-to-be-built new riverfront precinct.

Clearly, this crew isn't letting its expertise with steak and the ocean's finest go to waste. Rich & Rare serves up its favourite types of protein both indoors and out, seating 150 people. The new Manhattan-style joint joins the array of eateries settling in at the park-filled West Village precinct, including the Tassis Group's own Yamas Greek + Drink since 2022.

The look and feel: sleek and sophisticated, with both a cylindrical glass walk-in dry-aging room and a temperature-controlled walk-in cellar greeting patrons as they arrive, plus manicured gardens.

In the kitchen, Tassis has assembled a culinary team led by Cameron Croad, who was most recently General Manager at Spicers Hidden Vale, plus Head Chef Felipe De Souza Oliveira (Urbane, Greca) — as well as Kadu Imbroisi (Cha Cha Char, Fatcow Steak & Lobster), who trained at Parisian culinary school École Ducasse, also hails from Brazil like De Souza Oliveira and has been nicknamed "the grill master".

Their menu unsurprisingly makes prime dry-aged steaks the star, using cuts from Australian farms as well as Japan. If you only try one, the wagyu tomahawk steak looks to be it; it's cooked over an open flame, rested to up its juice game, then carved and served at your table — although it does come with a hefty $190 per kilogram price. Eight other wagyu options are on the menu, alongside 180- and 250-gram eye fillets, a 400-gram scotch fillet, 600-gram rib on the bone and dry-aged sirloin, and a MB4+ t-bone.

For adding seafood to your beef, picks include Alaskan king crab legs, king prawns and whole lobsters. The latter from the tank is a highlight in general; however, the seafood range also spans oysters that are opened 'on order', caviar, seafood platters for two, raw kingfish and Mooloolaba swordfish steak on the bone — which Rich & Rare hopes will become one of its signature dishes.

Woodfired beets, steak tartare, beef tataki and seared scallops also sit among the entree choices; bone marrow mash, truffle mac 'n' cheese and rosemary-salted fries with the sides; and steak sandwiches, truffle mushroom spaghetti and lamb cutlets amid the mains.