Australia’s best steak

An Adelaide restaurant has won a national competition to find the best steak-eating experience in Australia.

Belmondo Ristorante, at Holden Hill, topped 380 eateries from around Australia to win the Pepperjack Battle of the Steaks competition, held over eight weeks.

Criteria for the competition included presentation, creativity, quality of the steak and how well it matched with Pepperjack shiraz from Saltram in the Barossa.

Belmondo Ristorante’s head chef Michael Lapa, 24, created the winner – a 450g seared and oven-baked rib eye on the bone, medium rare and served with braised borlotti beans, herb mash, sautéed endive and a thyme and shallot beef glaze.

Steak supremo Michael Lapa works the burners

Judges agreed the level of seasoning was “spot on.”

Michael spends much time sourcing the best quality steak. His winning dish was grass-fed Northern Rivers ribeye from Gippsland in Victoria.

“I have never been involved in anything like this before – this is such a great honour,” he says.
Winners from five State competitions assembled in Melbourne for the national cook-off, with judges awarding Michael the $20,000 first prize.

Judges said the stand-out feature of Michael’s dish was the integration of flavours which matched perfectly with Pepperjack shiraz.

(In another recent steak promotion, a steak and lobster combo was offered by 22 Woolworths’ pubs in SA. It involved a 250g Graziers rump and half a WA lobster for $28.95).

The crowning of Belmondo Ristorante as Australia’s best steak restaurant followed the naming of Damon de Ruiter, of the Roaring 40s Café in Angaston, as the maker of Australia’s best pizza, using Barossa smallgoods, as reported in our last issue.

But the accolades have kept coming, cementing SA’s reputation as a culinary paradise.
The national Restaurant & Catering Awards named The Spice Kitchen, in Kensington, as Australia’s best Indian restaurant and Auge Ristorante, in Grote St, as the best Italian restaurant.