‘Completely over the top and ridiculous’: The Sanderson sells the sizzle and the steak

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There’s steak, and then there’s sizzle. And the Speakeasy Group’s Sven Almenning and Greg Sanderson have always done good sizzle, whether at their award-winning cocktail bar Eau de Vie, Viking-themed Mjolner, Parramatta’s Nick & Nora’s, or their Melbourne equivalents. Now they’ve launched The Sanderson, which comes with steak as well as sizzle.

You can feel the fizz of energy in the air as you arrive on the first floor of the 101-year-old Beneficial House and clock the dry-aged ducks and ribs of beef hanging behind reception. Past the kitchen, the large dining room crackles with energy, as gueridon trolleys moor tableside and trays of cocktails are ferried from the bar. A loud crowd settles into curvaceous velvet booths under the original timber windows, book-ended by colourful artworks by figurative American painter Todd White.

Don’t think you get to relax at the table, either. A tick-the-box list is your shortcut to being served oysters, caviar, martinis or a glass of Krug, in case you need sustenance while you peruse the menu proper.

Plus, you have three different sea and river salts from which to choose. And those ordering steak will be asked to select their weapon of choice from a roll of fierce-looking Argentinean knives.

Wait, someone is already pouring a drink into a small pewter cup in front of me. I miss entirely what it is (sweetish, lemony) as they recite a verse that sounds like a rhyming toast to good health. Or it could have been wealth, which you will also need to frolic in the shallows of The Sanderson.

Speaking of rich, I’m loving the eclair carbonara ($14 each). The finger of choux pastry, topped with crisp, salty guanciale, oozes with peppery pecorino custard. But then it’s on with the show, courtesy of executive chef James Green, formerly of Manta and North Bondi Fish (also responsible for the newly installed Eau de Vie in the basement).

An order of Fraser Island spanner crab salad ($44 for two), brings the gueridon trolley, and a waiter who expertly tosses picked crab meat with macadamia, cucumber, eschalot, chives and a wonderfully hot, sour and salty lemon kosho, spooning it all back into the crab shell with avocado puree and roasted macadamia and garlic cream. It’s live, theatrical and charming enough to set up a catapult effect of every table next to me ordering it next, but it needs something better than the tough little Melba toast squares accompanying it.

Dry-aged Murray cod ($62) gets a brisk sear, nicely paired with lemony fennel and a tumble of crisp Jerusalem artichokes on their own silky puree. The crisp, golden cubes of potato roesti ($16) deserve special mention,for being so light and fluffy.

We’re not low-key, and we’re not trying to be. We want to pull out all the stops.

Sven Almenning

Three steaks are on offer, with the wagyu scotch fillet ($89) aged for at least six weeks in “The Tottori” Japanese whisky, before being grilled medium-rare on a Brazilian lava rock grill (the heritage listing doesn’t enable charcoal). It comes cooler than it should, with roasted garlic and a tumble of watercress. There are six sauces to choose from (an extra $6), and a rich, smooth, miso and roasted garlic butter is fetchingly served in a tunnel of marrow bone. They also want to drizzle their own olive oil, made by Rio Vista in South Australia, over the steak. One or the other, methinks, not both.

But that’s The Sanderson for you, never knowingly underplaying its hand. “We’re not low-key, and we’re not trying to be,” says Almenning. “We want to pull out all the stops.”

So when pastry chef Kelvin Chin flavours the Medjool sticky date pudding ($22) with Guinness and finishes it with a whisky butterscotch sauce, he’s just playing by the company rules.

It’s completely over the top and ridiculous, but it works, drawing us out of our passivity as diners and turning us into collaborators instead. Let’s face it, anyone can cook a steak. This is for those who prefer the sizzle.