Eat Out: Longhorn Saloon

Longhorn Saloon
13/20
Address 118 Elgin Street, Carlton; 9348 4794; longhornsaloon.com.au
Open Tue-Sun 5pm-late, 5 Points Deli open 11.30am-4.30pm
Cost Small plates $8.50-$21; mains $28-$48; desserts $12-$14
Drinks Sprawling list of cocktails, wines and beers to get the party started
Vegetarian A few salads and sides but this is a vegan's nightmare

The lowdown
Pro tip The epic Reuben sandwich can be shared between two.
Go-to-dish 300g New York strip steak with jus, broccolini and mashed potato, $35.
Like this? Entrecote is serving fancy steak, burgers and oysters with a side of Euro glitz at 131-133 Domain Road, South Yarra

The Balleau brothers created a little bit of magic last year with their flawless revamp of the old Glasshouse Hotel, rechristened Le Bon Ton. They breathed new life into the old Collingwood pub, giving it a woozy N'Orleans makeover and nailing a greatest-hits menu of pit-smoked meats, drippy burgers and calorific sides. Longhorn is the inevitable sequel: bigger, more ambitious, hungry to satisfy a larger audience. But will it strike the same box-office gold?

It still seems to be finding its feet after opening in March, and has tweaked the formula substantially after losing high-profile head chef Nick Stanton to the south-side cool kids from Sweetwater Inn just two months into the role. Pierre Khodja, ex-Terminus at the Flinders Hotel, has stepped up to run the kitchen, stripping back the original menu to a single-page document split into three sections: snacks, the grill and sides.

During the day, the place is called 5 Points Deli and serves sandwiches as thick as romance novels until 4.30pm. At night the lights go down and it morphs into a slinky steakhouse, Longhorn Saloon, with an upstairs dining room open on Friday and Saturday nights, unless it's busy, which it isn't on the two nights I visit.

It's a slightly difficult venue – the enormous 200-seater was once German restaurant Mutti's – but they've done a ripper job with the fitout. Everything looks as if it's been run through the Earlybird Instagram filter; low sepia bulbs, chesterfield couches, varnished brick and elaborate copper panelling. There's a kitsch soundtrack in the key of Gold 104.3 (Fleetwood Mac features heavily), and a blazing wood-fired grill emitting a pungent campfire aroma that comes home with you on your clothes.

The signature reuben is a thing of beauty, inspired by the monster sandwiches of New York City.

Cocktails are a big thing here, mostly boozy standards with an American twang. Big Trouble/Little China (*Kurt Russell not included) is a tart, limey breakfast martini that disappears in four sips. There's a solid range of local wines, American beers, whiskeys, you name it. It's a compelling list.

Food-wise, the snacks deliver the goods. There's oysters, burgers, a taco and several deep-fried things, including the heartstopping poutine; a nacho-ish mound of over-seasoned fries tossed with chunks of smoked pastrami piled over rich onion gravy and covered in melted mozzarella. I could go face down in these and call it a night.

The signature Reuben is a thing of beauty, inspired by the monster sandwiches of New York City. Two slabs of toasted dark rye bread barely hold a bonanza of flaky corned brisket, stretchy Swiss, balanced sauerkraut and piquant Russian dressing, with a generous handful of translucent barbecue chips and a juicy pickle on the side. I'm still thinking about it.

But next, a "healthy" option. Black-eyed pea salad with discs of fried green tomatoes, dabs of jalapeno cream, shreds of parsley, cucumber and cherry tomato is a welcome burst of freshness on a fairly saucy landscape, but to call it a salad might be pushing it.

Over on the grill, the classic New York Strip steak ticks all the boxes. Grain-fed, cross-hatched angus beef is cut into thick, blushing segments served with al dente broccolini stems and smooth, just-warm mashed potato and plenty of gutsy jus. It's a well executed dish that would stack up at any high-end steakhouse around town, as it probably should for $35.

Other main dishes are thin on the ground. The Chingon Chicken is cribbed from the Balleaus' Richmond restaurant; it's some nicely barbecued Hazeldene's chook with a sloppy "Spanish rice" reminiscent of Old El Paso, sprinkled with curls of corn chips – it's something you might find on pay day in a Northcote share house.

Dessert is a brief list, including a pie of the day (maybe a deep-dish apple number), a cake of the day (lemon cake with lemon curd on both visits) and an ever-reliable warm chocolate brownie sundae with everything. It's a puddle of butterscotch caramel with a slab of walnutty cake that may have been nuked in the microwave, topped with an oozing scoop of vanilla ice-cream and shrouded in a flutter of toasted coconut. What's not to like?

Indeed, there's not much to dislike about Longhorn, but I'm left feeling as if the place is trying a bit hard to please everyone without delivering any wow factor. Instead, it's like a hipster version of TGI Fridays, with inflated prices to match. While there are some stellar breakout performances, as sequels go, it's not quite as magic as the original.

How we score

Of 20 points, 10 are awarded for food, five for service, three for ambience, two for wow factor.
12 Reasonable 13 Solid and satisfactory 14 Good 15 Very good 16 Seriously good 17 Great 18 Excellent 19 Outstanding 20 The best of the best