New Brisbane

It was Thursday afternoon, I was feeling a bit exhausted from work and I knew there wasn’t a scrap of food in the house. Then, as sometimes happens to me, I get a call from a friend and the first words out of his mouth are “I feel like steak. You in?”. Well, of course I am - and that’s how we ended up at Fiasco Steakhouse at the Morrison Hotel in Woolloongabba, one of Brisbane’s best steakhouses.

Fiasco Steakhouse
640 Stanley St
Woolloongabba
Hours: 7 days, 12pm-2pm, 6pm-10pm

There are several steakhouses in Brisbane that seem to vie for the title of Brisbane’s best steakhouse - among them are Cha Cha Char in Eagle Street, The Norman in Woolloongabba and Fiasco, also in Woolloongabba. Not willing to outlay the money required by Cha Cha Char for a Thursday night meal with the boys, it’s either The Norman or Fiasco. And while one of my friends had a not-so-great experience there, he is like me in that he’s always willing to try a place twice, and so we trundled on down there to check it out. I’m quite glad we did.

With another friend in tow whose normal schedule sees him working somewhere in the oil fields to the north, we rock up around about 7:30 and are promptly shown to our table - it gets busy there from time to time, even on a Thursday night, and so my forward thinking friend had even booked us a great table.

Sitting down outside, our drink orders were promptly taken and delivered with blinding speed, while we purused the incredible menu set before us. I must admit, though we had come down for a steak that night, there were a few things I was very tempted to try out that were not on the grill menu. In any case, I ordered the wagyu rump and my friends each got the 360g special bacon-wrapped rib fillet and the lamb roast.

Again, it wasn’t long before our meal came out and it’s pretty safe to say we were all pretty happy with what we got. My Wagyu was topped with herb butter and came with my choice of salad and chips or potato, and I was particularly impressed by my ability to order the caesar salad as a side, which is rare to find in a restaurant in Australia. Garnished with a piece of garlic bread, the meal set down before me was exactly what I was after - filling, delicious and a “just right” sized serving.

I was a bit surprised to find that my friend’s 360g size serving of the house special rib fillet came out as two 180g steaks, but as my friend pointed out, that just meant more bacon to go with his steak. The steamed side of steamed vegetables that were ordered was huge and turned out being enough for everyone at the table.

All up, Fiasco delivers a high class meal in what is still very much a casual environment and for that I applaud them. The only possible fault I could find is that we were never asked if we wanted a second round of drinks, but if I’d really wanted another drink, I’m sure I could have easily got one. Next time I want a great steak and a good night catching up with friends, I’m definitely heading back to Woolloongabba for a feed at Fiasco.

– Ross