A Hereford Beefstouw — Restaurant in Melbourne

We booked a table of 4 and upon arrival were impressed with the cosiness and elegance of the venue.

Upon meeting our waiter he was very friendly and helpful. His strong knowledge base of the various kinds of meat on offer were impressive and his ability to suggest matching wines proved to be on point.

We ordered the 1.3kg tomahawk and the 700g côte de boeuf cooked to a medium rare as well the potato gratin, seasonal veggies and coleslaw.

Before we knew it the steaks had arrived with the waitress carving them up at our table for us. The full bodied colour in the meat was to die and they were cooked on point. As the waitress placed the sides on our table she knocked over a glass of red wine which broke and split on one of our members, who happened to be wearing a lovely white top. Immediately a couple of waitresses came over and started cleaning up our table etc and we were told that upon getting the top dry cleaned to provided the receipt to the business and it would be covered.

The steaks have definitely put A Hereford Beefstouw on the map but unfortunately as a group we believe there sides and sauces have undone all their hard work. The size of the sides are only large enough to wet the tastebuds which are having trouble to differentiate the difference between their mushroom and pepper sauce. They did provide a serve of chips but it was only enough to cover two people even though we ordered enough steak to serve 5 as suggested by their menu and waiter.

Upon receiving the bill we were undoubtedly shocked to find the bottle of wine was on the bill or even worse that there was no immediate subsidy for the spillage on our friends white top. We do believe the dry cleaning gesture was good but have all the unwritten rules of hospitality and customer service dissolved to make way purely for business profits.

I would recommend the steak but unfortunately I...

Dined here twice. The first time was on my birthday a few years ago and it was a great experience. The second time was last night.

Let’s start with the positives: Fantastic service with very polite and accommodating staff. Great ambience and honestly very competitive pricing for an upmarket restaurant in a prime location. The ribs were fantastic and the sticky date pudding is chefs kiss out of this world.

Unfortunately the negative: The reason why HB gets (a generous) 4 stars and not 5 from me is that we ordered a rump steak well done for a pregnant family member and it came out extremely pink and closer to medium than medium well. As would be expected, we asked for it to be cooked further and this is where the real problem starts. The thing came back out very obviously overcooked. I’m talking darker than The Batman movie with Robert Pattinson, but the team still let it out of the kitchen and onto our table. At the point that it was returned to us, it was so far past well done that you might as well call it congratulations. AHB is a steakhouse and as such getting doneness right should be second nature so I’m unsure what the root cause is here but it seems like the kitchen needs to stop cooking steaks by feel and go back to thermometers please. I didn’t mind the initial oversight but letting the incredibly overcooked steak come back out in its state was unprofessional and completely unacceptable. What was equally disappointing was the 25 minute wait that followed for a replacement when the restaurant wasn’t very busy.

Hoping that this can be improved because I’d love for AHB to once again meet its full potential. Please spruce up the cocktail menu as it’s a bit limited and plain. The menu would also benefit from additional side options and an upsizing...

A Hereford Beefstouw is lovely anytime but at dinner it is almost magical. The restaurant is roomy and yet cozy, the walls wrapped in odd paintings that defines the space as a place where time does not count. Warm atmos with wooden floor and tables.

When you stroll out of the lane shadows into this gracious cellar wall-filled walkway, you leave the real world behind… passing the small kitchen and grill you'll oft see heat being mercilessly applied to those beef meat slabs.

Most days the banquettes that ring the room are occupied by an astonishingly varied group of people, (asians love their beef too) - Our Saturday night had a mix of family and Christmas reveller guests. The bar at the front lay empty. Most tables wanted to try the $150 tomahawk, their most extreme beef.

Westerly decaying daylight washed thru from the back windows overlooking Flinders street as trams and trains passed. All around us patrons were having personally carved beef offered up to them, a prelude to some of the things to come and deja vu to others of what had just transpired.

A table next to ours had cleaned the meat from the bone and continued to gnaw away, bone in hand which made an impromptu photo op. Their signature dessert was a small revelation, a glass of ice cream, syrup, ginger and rum mascerated raisins, yum, dynamically prepared right at your table. Delicious well cooked food, would recommend. Rocket pear and blue cheese salad another hit accompaniment to beef. Well, almost everything was superb: only quibbles: mushroom sauce was ordinary and the steak needed a little more seasoning for my tastes, the patrons did pay attention to their food. But then, at Hereford Beefstouw the food does not allow itself...