Mad Cow

5.5 Average

Food  4      Ambience  8      Service  7      Value  3     

What a rip! Bar quality steak at gourmet prices.

Apr 12, 2012 

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  9      Value  8     

We do love our steak, and we were not expecting Mad Cow to have 'the best steak in Sydney'. To be honest, the Wagyu inside skirt probably is the best Steak we've had in Sydney. Really loved our meal here. Read more on our blog.

Read more on my blog

Apr 01, 2012 

6.3 Average

Food  5      Ambience  6      Service  9      Value  5     

Booked this as a treat for my hubby for valentines day. I was surprised how small the restaurant actually is, especially after reading so many great reviews and general hype. The decor is gorgeous and supreme trendy, but the all-white leather banquette seating hasn't fared well and everything feels a bit worn. Located just off the ivy bar it feels a little club gritty too, not that I'd normally mind, but with steaks over $50 expect a bit more ambience.

Service, as with most merivale venues was uber cool and faultless.

We had 3 courses and the food was disappointing. Best steaks in Sydney? No way. We began with the steak tartare. A good tartare should not taste like raw meat. This really was a mouthful of mince, with raw egg. The texture not deft enough to hide what you are eating. Absolutely gross.

The steaks were okay. The dessert the best part. I'd save your pennies and get a steak at your local.

Mar 24, 2012 

3 Below Average

Food  1      Ambience  5      Service  5      Value  1     

You would truly have to be mad to eat at this place. Unless you like the idea of mortgaging your property for a piece of charcoaled crud!

Jan 10, 2012 

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  10      Value  8     

Had a late dinner on Friday night, we ordered the eye fillet (250g) $48.00 medium rare with bernaise sauce. The steak was perfectly cooked and could have been cut with a butter knife. The sauce was tangy and creamy exactly how a bernaise sauce should be. The side salad was great and the fries were perfect. The waitress was attentive and very quick, service was faultless. Prices are very reasonable for CBD. Needless to say we will be back.

Nov 26, 2011 

5 Average

Food  3      Ambience  8      Service  6      Value  3     

Went there for lunch on a Wednesday and the waiter encouraged us to order the inside skirt cut of the steak, highly recommending it to the table. This was a $50 steak, and we all found it extremely chewy and I found mine particularly fatty (and not fat that you could easily cut off) - so maybe that's just the cut, but why on earth would you highly recommend such a piece of meat? The waiter was apparently supposed to tell us to cut it across the grain, which he didn't at first (but it didn't make any difference at all). I'm not sure if we got "sold one" this time, but it was definately disappointing compared to my recent dining experience at meat and wine co. I have been to mad cow before and not have a bad experience, so maybe stick with what you know and take what the waiting staff say with a grain of salt. The service was fine other than that and the sides were tasty but at mad cow it should be about a good steak, and it wasn't.

Oct 20, 2011 

7.5 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  7      Service  8      Value  7     

Went there for dinner on a Friday night after drinks at the Ivy bar with my partner. Made reservations earlier in the day and got our seats without any hassle. The restaurant itself isn't all that big so, perhaps, reservations are indeed required. Towards the end of our dinner, we could clearly see that all tables were fully taken up.

We were given some time to run through the menu and the waiter came along to explain the difference between grain-fed and grass-fed steaks as well as asked if we had any questions. The menu itself was very limited but sufficient for us as we were looking forward to the steaks (they do not have many options if you aren't a meat eater). My partner ordered a medium grain-fed rib eye with chimchurri sauce while I ordered a medium-rare grass-fed rib eye with diane sauce. None of the entrees in the menu looked/sounded all that great, so we skipped that.

On top of that, we asked for recommendations for wines by the glass and we were recommended 1 Malbec and another Cab Sauv from Barossa Valley. My partner enjoyed the lighter Malbec 1 while I definitely enjoyed fuller Cab Sauv. However, the prices were a bit steep for both but there are cheaper options available on the menu.

I must say that the 2 types of bread provided were excellent! When the food came, my partner's rib eye was slightly overcooked, being slightly more towards a medium-well than a medium while mine was a perfect medium-rare. The steaks come with a garden salad and shoestring fries. Both steaks were well cooked although my partners was a bit over (she didn't mind it all too much but she'll be ordering medium-rare with me next time), garden salad was normal and the shoestring fries were good albeit way too saltish. We both individually liked our sauces.

For desserts, we shared a pavlova which was okay. Unfortunately, we just had the pavlova at Rockpool Bar & Grill over a week before this and the pavlova here isn't close to that. The pavlova here was a little over crispy and way too sweet for our liking.

Overall experience was good and we'll definitely come back here for steaks again as the ambience here is a little more laid-back than Rockpool Bar & Grill.

Aug 22, 2011 

9.5 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  10      Service  10      Value  8     

All you haters really don't know anything about food if you are speaking about mad cow in such a way. How can you say the steaks are undercooked? Do you know what temperatures these stakes should actually be cooked at? Because if you did and you checked your steaks temperature when it came out you would know a lot of care is taken to make sure the steaks are cooked to perfection.

After eating there a few times now, the menu is written very well to incorporate everything perfectly. Entrees are amaizing, simple but full of flavour and seasoned very well. Being a steak house you expected the steak to be awesome and that is exactly what it was. All of us enjoyed it very much. Desserts were very well presented and tasted fantastic. I think everyone should go. Service is great and friendly. I also believe if you have never worked in hospitality before then you have no right to judge a restaurant or any hospitality venue.

Aug 01, 2011 

7.5 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  8      Value  6     

We had the $40 lunch menu. Prosciutto with (buffalo) mozzarella for entree was fresh and light. For main minute steak black angus fillet with salad and french fries. The steak was perfectly cooked, medium rare and so tender. The McLaren Vale shiraz included was rich and went well with the steak. The service was efficient and friendly and we were outta there in not much more than an hour.

Jul 20, 2011 

1 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  1      Service  1      Value  1     

Absolutely terrible! Where do I start from? Took my mum out for dinner thinking we will have a nice meal but walked out with the bill that was 120 bucks and hungry. Wine that was like 15 bucks a glass filled up not even a quarter of my glass. The waiter offered 2 glasses of sparkling water, we accepted and then cost us as 1 liter of mineral water on our bill.

Ordered a prawn salad, pear salad and a duck as well. Got 4 prawns and letters, pear salad that probably included half a pear and the worse duck I have ever tasted. Duck is supposed to be crispy on the outside and juicy inside and this one was just raw. The guy that served us was probably the most terrible waiter I have ever encountered.

After I asked why we were waiting for over 30 min for our food, he started to explain the cooking of the duck as if I never tried one before. He pretended to be some kind of Italian and when my mum who speaks fluent Italian tried to speak to him he walked away. We were going to have desserts but after that meal and service I just wanted to leave.

I guess he expected us to spend much more and that is why he didn't even say goodbye or anything to us really. We payed completely different waiter and walked away with no one saying one thing. Never again. Arrivederci.

Jul 15, 2011