5 to try: Beijing's juiciest steaks

Get your teeth into one of these hunks of meat

Iron deficiency is no laughing matter. When your main simply must be slain, make sure to get your hit at one of the city’s finest porterhouse-peddlin’ steakhouses.

China Grill

Best for: wanton extravagance

Teetering high on the Park Hyatt’s 66th floor, China Grill’s panoramic city views are truly something to behold. Pull up a chair on the restaurant’s Chang’an-facing western flank and savour one of Beijing’s most unusual steaks from Australian meat maverick Mayura Station, whose herd marbles itself diabetic on a daily diet that includes 2kg of milk chocolate. Priced at a cool 3,322RMB for China Grill’s 600-gram signature sirloin, the beef ain’t coming cheap, but for a unique sense of satisfaction that only a chocolate-fed steak can induce, this is your spot.

Wolfgang's Steakhouse

Best for: dry-aged brilliance

The pride of Park Avenue, Wolfgang Zweiner’s steakhouse made its high-profile debut in Beijing this March. Its incredibly flavoursome signature porterhouse (600RMB per person) – dry-aged en masse, on site – hits the white tablecloth spitting like a cobra, bubbling in its own naughty juices. The dry-aging technique – deal breaker for some, game changer for others – imparts on the beef a funk comparable to that of a mature cheese. There’s almost more flavour than you know what to do with here.

O'Steak

Best for: beef for your buck

O’Steak is one of those charmingly shambolic restaurants that you’re not convinced is actually a restaurant at all until your food arrives. Thankfully ours, the Le trés grand steak, did arrive, satisfying the hell out of our flesh hankering trés quick with 300 grams of all-Mongolian sirloin (198RMB). While the quality of the meat doesn’t touch the likes of the others on this page, O’Steak is undeniably great value.

Char

Best for: beef enthusiasts

The wait is over. US beef is back in China for the first time since 2003, following the lifting of a 14-year ban implemented after an unfortunate breakout of mad cow disease. This is big news for beef fiends, particularly those who favour a liberal marbling throughout their flesh. In celebration, InterContinental Beijing’s steak joint Char is running a 300-gram cut of US rib eye for 588RMB. Not lean – know this before you commit.

Bistrot B

Best for: grilled grandeur

At 1,500 grams, Rosewood’s Côte de Boeuf Chilean Bone-in Wagyu is rather an intimidating proposition that is best tackled with a partner or two. Accompanied by fabulously fragrant Bistrot fries, roasted shallots and a heady béarnaise sauce, Chef de cuisine Jarrod Verbiak’s masterfully simple approach allows the quality of the meat to speak for itself. At 1,380RMB, we’re by no means out of luxury spend territory, but for meat, service and atmosphere of this quality, we’re more than happy to shell out the Chairmans.

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