Prime Steakhouse

Ph: 9229 7777; Lower Ground, GPO, 1 Martin Pl, SYDNEY 2000 www.gposydney.com

Steak Gpo I Pi, $$$ +, * for Food & Ambience, Good Wine List
Open Lunch Mon-Fri noon-3pm Dinner Mon-Sat 6pm-10pm, Closed Suns; Licensed; AE DC MC V EFT
Chef (Lwao Yamanishi, 2007-11-3) Owner (Peter Petroulas, 2007-11-3)

Mietta's Review
Tucked away in the depths of the resplendent, revitalised GPO on Martin Pl, Prime has become the embodiment of the Sydney Power Lunch. Stylishly modern yet subtly and dramatically lit, retaining features of the ancient edifice, Prime looks not unlike a Wagnerian stage set. Happily, the carnivorous menu is equally operatic. The menu has broadened considerably under the current owners and even caters for vegetarians.

Other published opinions

Gourmet Traveller 2009 Australian Restaurant Guide "Close the door on the clatter of the adjacent bar and slip into a cocoon of hospitality beneath Martin Place. The aura of warmth starts with the welcome and extends to the sandstone walls and the mellow lighting"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2008 Score: 13/20 "Buried in the GPO basement, away from the crowded bars, Prime feels a little like an exclusive gentlemen's club"

Gourmet Traveller 2008 Australian Restaurant Guide "Prime is a basement bastion of beef-eating nestled beneath the sandstone of Martin Place's GP building"

Sydney Eats 2008 "The lion-coloured sandstone walls of the GPO were once the point in Sydney from which all distances were measured"

Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2007 Score: 14/20 "The catacombs of the GPO basement lend a sense of occasion to visiting Prime, the spiritual home of city carnivores. Aside from the compact, warm sandstone dining room, everything about this place is big - from the generous dimensions of the leather tub seats and the broad, cloth'd tables to vase-like wine glasses and whopping 800-gram yearling T-bone steaks."

Gourmet Traveller 2007 Restaurant Guide "From the name to the vaulted, stone-heavy, leather chair-dotted basement digs to a meatfocused menu heavy on technical detail and the mostly red wine list, Prime is a festival of blokedom (though 'festival' might be putting it too flamboyantly)."

Gourmet Traveller 2006 Australian Restaurant Guide "The steaks here, be they wagyu or dry-aged yearling from the finest beef cattle in the country, are magnificent, as well they might be for the price. Carefully cooked, then rested for half their cooking time, they are protein-packed bundles of juice and joy. ... match it with a ripper red from an exceptional wine list and you're in for a prime time."

SMH Good Food Guide 2005 Score 14/20 Good Wine List "Tucked in the sandstone basement of the GPO, Sydney's take on the New York steakhouse is a plush, stylish, red-blooded grotto for the ravenous carnivore. Muted lighting, cosy booths and an encyclopaedic wine list lure the loose-lipped/wide-hipped business clientele to the infinite power lunch... and beyond."

Gourmet Traveller Australian Restaurant Guide 2005 Good Vegetarian Options, Good Wine List "If you liked meat, this carnivore's haven used to be the place that city folk would go in the moneyed late-90s when tables were packed with suits galore tucking into the huge steaks. Sadly, the power-lunch seems a little sluggish these days"

SMH, goodliving, 1/6/04,Matthew Evans,'warm basement steakhouse'

SMH GFG 2004,Score 15/20,Good wine list,Consistently very good,Award winning restaurant,'Comfy booths,subdued lighting and a mostly suit-and-tie clientele reinforce the hushed club atmosphere.If only the staff would smile a little more,then we'd all feel at home eating Sydney's best steaks.'

Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Guide 2004, Excellent wine list,'The exposed-brick interior is dimly lit, but the soft leather chairs and spotless tablecloths are a good sign.So what do you eat here? Steak of course, and it comes dry-aged for up to three weeks...This is a destination for serious steak lovers.'