24 York in low steaks game

Australia is currently drenched in meat sweats. Our beef consumption is always high anyway – we rank third in the world, outflanked only by the USA and Argentina – and is climbing annually. We have an impressive 17 entrants on the World's 101 Best Steak Restaurants list (an enterprise, admittedly, of opaque provenance), and vegetarian restaurants seem to be swooning anaemically and either closing or backpedalling.[[Like Flora in Sydney's Newtown, which opened with an entirely plant-based menu in February, decided to put pork on its fork by July and then expired entirely last week.]] It might also be a protein thing; what technology executive worth his Oura Ring isn't double-fisting whey shakes at 4am?[[This guy, for example.]] Whatever it is, we can't stop eating animal.

So opening a restaurant that serves one thing only – steak and chips, or steak frites if we’re being continental – was a surprisingly astute move from Hunter Street Hospitality, the team behind Rockpool Bar & Grill, Spice Temple and Saké.[[Certainly more astute than their recent idea of putting a piano crooner on regular duties at Rockpool.]]

And that’s it. That’s 24 York's whole pitch. Set inside the former Bavarian beerhouse on York Street and seating what feels like thousands of diners at a time, it simply serves steak and chips for a flat $48. You eat it, you swill a glass of wine and you're back at the office in under an hour.