This $210 steak and beetroot sanga might be Sydney’s most expensive sandwich

Italian steakhouse Manzo Bisteccheria has just opened with an eye-popping $210 steak sandwich on its menu and a central location in the Sydney CBD precinct fast becoming a searing hot destination for meat lovers.

The streets around Circular Quay are staking a claim as the city’s emerging steak central, with established restaurants Bistecca and the recently expanded Bouillon L’Entrecote now tailed by a posse of new venues strong on red meat programs. Manzo Bisteccheria, a spin-off from the crew at Divino Osteria in Elizabeth Bay, has taken up residence in the Quay Quarter development on Bridge Street. But first things first. How do you justify $210 for a steak sandwich?

The Double Manzo sandwich is layered with Kagoshima A5 wagyu and 30-day dry-aged sirloin, and smeared with luxe ingredients including truffle butter and 100-year-old balsamic vinegar. Oh. And it serves two. Regardless, it’s possibly – probably – Sydney’s most expensive sandwich.

The menu bills the dish as “unapologetically over-the-top”, stacked with provolone cheese, charred onion, baby cos, ox-heart tomato, pickled beetroot, Kewpie mayo, rocket and parmesan crisps on house-made schiacciata bread.

Chef Andrea Di Stefano points to a meat program with a wider price point, where an entry-level grass-fed eye fillet from Victoria is $62. Di Stefano, who trained with Michelin chefs, has London’s STK Steakhouse on his CV, and has put in place an ageing program at Manzo Bisteccheria with a rotating line-up. He’s excited to get his hands on some locally grown Chianina, the Italian breed of white cattle.

Manzo Bisteccheria will also serve its spin on the 100-layer lasagne concept, made famous by Babbo restaurant in New York. Here, the $82 “Millefoglie” lasagne is made with freshly made pasta sheets, ragu of wagyu, and layers of MB5 striploin with aged parmigiano and rosemary bechamel.

Circular Quay’s western shoreline is already home to one of Sydney’s busiest steakhouses, 6Head, and late last month another new venue landed on its doorstep. The harbour-front restaurant that once housed one of Australia’s most iconic fine-dining institutions, Quay, reopened as four-level hospitality hub The Oriana.

Despite its coastal brief and seafood leanings, the restaurant where Quay previously operated has a $280 dry-aged one-kilo Riverine T-bone on the menu. And downstairs in the pub there are a Queensland sirloin ($48), a pasture-fed tenderloin ($60) and an 800g rib-eye on the bone ($150).

“Five years ago you wouldn’t see a tenderloin in a pub,” said Oriana’s executive chef, Jason Roberson. Circular Quay’s unique clientele mix of passenger-ship tourists, corporates and art-gallery visitors informed a tight steak selection that still sweeps variety and portion size. But the meat’s provenance remains singularly focused.

“In my opinion we have the best beef in the world, you want to showcase it. You don’t want to be eating American or Japanese [in this location],” Roberson said.

The August opening of Vito’s, in the heritage-listed Burns Philp Building at 11 Bridge Street, will add to the party. While the luxe restaurant and bar will take culinary cues from a broader sweep of American-Italian cooking, former Carbone Hong Kong chef de cuisine (and 2011 The Age Good Food Guide Young Chef of the Year) Michael Fox is in its kitchen, and Vito’s has promised a large “beef program”.

James Bradey, co-owner of local area stalwart Bistecca, welcomes the new arrivals as a lever to grow the market, and maintains their timing is good, with six new towers in the area bringing thousands of new workers in the precinct.

“Australians have a good relationship with red meat, and understand it,” Bradey said of its enduring appeal. Data from Meat & Livestock Australia places Australians among the highest per capita consumers of red meat in the world, with the average Australian consuming more than 22kg in 2024.