Down a staircase, in a moody basement with exposed ceiling beams and a pleasant lack of overhead lighting, a once-adored Sydney steakhouse quietly reopened. The Cut, from the group behind Rockpool Bar and Grill and Spice Temple (Hunter Pacific) has reopened in its original location after a four-year hiatus.

At the helm is a trio of executive chefs: Santiago Aristizabal from Rockpool, Shimpei Hatanaka from Sake and Andy Evans from Spice Temple. Running the day-to-day is head chef Johnny Murphy, pulled from the Rockpool Melbourne kitchen.

The menu is all New York – so transformatively so that while you sip on an oyster-shell gin Gibson, served on a silver tray with an oyster on the side, you feel miles away from the queues forking out The Argyle’s cover charge and drinking vodka Red Bulls right above your head.

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Snacks span modern classics, done very well: wood-fired scallops swimming in kombu butter; a bougie take on a surf‘n’turf, where a beef-fat potato is topped with thin slices of roast beef and a healthy scoop of caviar; and an elevated pig in a blanket, with Berkshire pork and ale mustard. The future classic is a beef empanada filled with off-cuts from yesterday’s prime rib, served with the zingy house hot sauce.

Small plates include hashbrowns with caviar, prawn cocktails and fried calamari. There’s also a seafood tower with rock oysters, cooked prawns, scallop ceviche and Balmain bugs served on ice over two-tiers.

While mains include a few options for the vegos and pescies (think eggplant parmigiana or John Dory) it’s really all about the red meat here. The Cut’s signature dish is a 12-hour slow-cooked black Angus prime rib from South Australia, cut and served tableside in hunks of 300 or 400 grams with a simple combo of red wine sauce and horseradish cream. “We cook it medium all the way so you don’t lose any moisture,” Aristizabal tells Broadsheet. “It’s so slow-cooked that you keep all the liquid inside and it’s extremely tender.”

For people that prefer their meat smokier there are woodfired cuts that come with the option to add an egg, a nod to Aristizabal’s Colombian heritage – “Where I come from, they put eggs on anything.”

For old regulars at The Cut, the biggest change will be the bar: a group of high-top tables where you can stop in for a cocktail or a glass of red, the snacks, and a towering cheeseburger.

The Cut Bar & Grill
16 Argyle Street, The Rocks
(02) 9259 5695

Hours:
Mon to Thu midday–9pm
Fri & Sat midday–10pm
Sun midday–9pm

www.cutbarandgrill.com.au
@thecutbarandgrill