Meatmaiden — Restaurant in Melbourne

Meatmaiden serves one of the best steaks I've had in Victoria—cooked to absolute perfection with equally impressive sides. The chefs clearly know what they're doing, and I have nothing but praise for their work.

Unfortunately, the service left a lot to be desired. Upon arrival at our booked time, we were seated at a tall table near the entrance to the bathrooms. While I understand that seating arrangements can be limited, our request to swap tables was denied—even as we watched two empty tables remain unused. One was finally occupied 50 minutes later, while the other remained open the entire time. I fail to see why a simple table swap was such an issue.

The real disappointment, however, came from our waiter, Nick. When I asked for takeaway containers, I was told that customers are not allowed to pack their own food because "it’s a bad look for the restaurant." Instead of simply handing over the containers, he engaged in a passive-aggressive argument, making the whole situation unnecessarily tense. Frankly, I can’t imagine how this policy is more important than basic customer service. After I pointed this out, he abruptly took my food away to pack it himself.

Having worked in hospitality, including high-end restaurants, I’ve never encountered an issue as trivial as this being turned into a point of contention. It was an unnecessary and unprofessional interaction that soured an otherwise excellent meal.

To the chefs—thank you for your outstanding work. To the front-of-house staff—there’s serious room for improvement.

Would I return? Absolutely not. Not paying $100 for a steak, where the staff is seeing fit to engage in an argument with their guests.

Edit: Hi, thanks for your reply. I understand tables may have bookings later in the night, but in this case one sat empty for nearly an hour and the other for the entire duration of our visit. Given that, a table swap could have been possible without disrupting your service flow.

As for the leftovers policy—yes, it’s your decision, but it’s the delivery of that policy that matters. Hospitality isn’t just about rules; it’s about the experience you create for your guests in the moment. A polite, accommodating approach would have achieved the same outcome without leaving customers feeling singled out or spoken to in a condescending manner.

Your steaks are phenomenal, but unfortunately, no amount of culinary excellence makes up for a front-of-house experience that actively detracts from...

Had a great meal out here at Meatmaiden. Finding the place was a little tricky! Google maps tells you to enter via Collins st, but the entry is from Little Collins, right after Wilson Parking.

A little quiet due to covid no doubt, but we were served very promptly and attended to by attentive and friendly staff. Always came round to top our water off, so service was pretty good.

The food. This is where the one star comes off. We loved the entrees and the side of lobster Mac and cheese (it is big! Enough to be a main for a small eater). The mains steaks however were a little bit of a letdown.

I ordered the Dry Aged O'Connor rib off the bone (400g) and my wife ordered the Master Kobe Rump 9+. The rump was better, and slightly more charred which we like. The pepper sauce went better than the garlic and thyme. Although, in my mind it's a bit of a knock that I enjoyed the steak more with sauce than by itself. I've been to other places where the meat itself is sufficiently full of flavour, and no sauces required! The medium rare cooking was top notch and even all throughout the steaks so no problems there. The flavour was very even, but not bursting with flavour as I'm used to with a more marbled steak.

The entrees were excellent. The stuffed chicken wings were a nice surprise! No bone in the top section. We discussed how they could've made it like that. Very nice, with a peppery coating mixed with a tomato relish sauce. And the burnt ends (the end of a beef brisket) was really nice. A dark kind of bbq sauce, onions, and the meat had a crunch but was also quite stringy which you'd expect. A bit tough and if you hate tough meat, maybe stay away from this one. But we loved it. And the lobster Mac. The most expensive side by far but worth it. A Mac and cheese with lobster pieces mixed throughout, and a lobster bisque sauce to pour all over it. Seriously good!

We ordered too much for 2! But we're not big eaters. Hope you'll enjoy...

The craziest thing happened here. I ordered the 500g dry aged ribeye medium rare, and the server tells me the chef cooks them medium. For bacteria or some such thing. I’ve never heard of such a thing, anywhere, ever, in the world, from Los Angeles to New York and everywhere in between, to Calgary, Mexico City, Saigon, Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Florence, Zurich - you know, anywhere in the hundreds or thousands of times and places in the world I have chosen a steak restaurant (which is the only thing I ever choose), I have never, ever been told that the chef will cook my steak the way he wants. On the contrary, in truly fine beef restaurants, they don’t even ask. You can assume it’s medium rare unless you dictate otherwise.

I asked if the chef would cook it mid rare. He said probably not, it depends on the chef tonight, but he would check. He checked, and indicated they would cook it mid rare.

The steak came out sliced and mid rare, I am not dead yet, and my only complaint is that they did not rest it long enough before slicing. It was as advertised. Nothing out of this world, a decent value for a decent steak.

My colleague took his as recommended, medium. Also as expected, (I tried it), medium is too much, especially for dry aged which has 30% less moisture, and the steak was significantly tougher than it should have been for the price.

Service top notch. Well trained staff. Good wine menu and very nice cocktails menu. Dessert was clunky (the mousse), it needs tweaking. Quality of beef was good for the price, they do seem to have their own dry age case. Sides well executed (I might recommend to the chef a ginned up version of a Caesar perhaps, salad a bit unimpressive).

I rarely leave reviews. This was important enough to share with the public - if you’re paying close to it or more than $100 for a piece of beef, you deserve to have it cooked to...