Botswana Butchery Melbourne

Overview

As a staple of New Zealand's food scene for more than a decade, Botswana Butchery now has two Aussie outposts, bringing its luxe meat-focused offering first to Sydney, and more recently to Flinders Lane.

With room for 300 punters across three levels, Botswana Butchery Melbourne is giving locals a taste of the brand's signature swanky styling and expansive menu celebrating premium meat and seafood. Inside, handsome Charlotte Spary-designed interiors feature marble-topped counters, sunken dining areas and sumptuous booth seating, as well as two terraces overlooking Flinders Lane.

The kitchen is using a woodfired grill to celebrate a generous array of quality Aussie meat, while premium seafood and artisan charcuterie are heroed via a dedicated raw and cured bar.

Ocean-fresh bites might include the likes of torched hiramasa kingfish with eggplant relish and burnt orange dressing ($28); snapper ceviche finished with tiger's milk ($29); and Alaskan crab leg sharing a milk bun with remoulade and iceberg lettuce ($39). There's a caviar service, too, or you can get your charcuterie kicks with options like wagyu bresaola ($22) and the house chicken paté ($19).

Meat-lovers will find 14 steak — and lamb — cuts sourced from across Victoria and beyond, topping out with the 1.6-kilogram Rangers Valley Tomahawk for $320. Elsewhere, venison tartare is elevated with Tasmanian wasabi ($32); roasted blue eye is matched with a mussel saffron butter ($46); and a Berkshire pork chop stars grilled figs and fennel pollen ($52).

More tough decisions await you over on the 1000-strong wine list, which champions Australian and New Zealand drops, and in the upstairs bar, with its expansive offering of cocktails, top-shelf tipples and rare spirits.

Images: Garth Oriander