Bistecca Restaurant, Bar and Wine Shop Is Sydney's New Tuscan Steak Joint

Steak connoisseurs, all your Christmases are about to arrive at once. Meet Bistecca, Sydney's newest steak restaurant. Its entire menu is based on a single cut: bistecca alla fiorentina, which comes from Tuscany. After you've ordered, the chef brings your selection to your table, cuts and weights it before your eyes, then cooks it over an open fire in an open kitchen.

As you might've guessed by now, Bistecca is the creation of a couple of diehard Italophiles. Co-owners James Bradley and Warren Burns, who've been friends since childhood, have travelled all over Italy together in search of the ideal steak and, needless to say, its perfect red wine match.

Bistecca is the result of their findings. To complement your steak, there's a choice of hearty, traditional side dishes, including braised cannellini beans, garlic and rosemary potatoes, and cavolo nero. And vegetarians, though you're probably quaking in your non-leather boots by now, we should let you know there's a meat-free cannelloni on the menu, too.

Give yourself some time to pore over the wine list: there are more than 300 drops to choose from. They're all straight from Italy or made in Australia from Italian varietals. Meanwhile, the cocktail list is big on Italian classics, such as negronis and bellinis. Before too long, Bistecca will be letting you take its wine picks home via an attached bottle shop.

Realising the owners' culinary vision is head chef Pip Pratt, who's worked at Bentley and Michelin-starred Club Gascon in the UK. The classic Italian interior, splashed with marble, terrazzo tiling, timber panelling and butcher's blocks, is the design of Tom Mark Henry, whose work you might know from Dead Ringer and 1888 Certified.

Bistecca is set to open in late June at 4 Bridge Street, Sydney. To begin, opening hours will be Monday to Saturday from 4pm.