Cha Cha Char

What a great place to eat! We booked this place based on their menu variety and location and I am so glad we did. The food was top notch and the service impeccable! For a busy Saturday night we managed to get a seat by the window we had only booked a few hours earlier and decided to eat on the later side at 830pm. Hence the reason we got a window seat. We had oysters, chicken pâté, and beef tartare for entrees and roadt ocean trout with poached lobster and lastly veal cutlet with sage crust. Everything was presented beautifully and was absolutely divine to eat. My sister and I enjoy sharing food so they bought everything out with plates to do so. Nothing was a problem. The waitstaff were lovely, attentive and knew about all the food on the menu and the wines. Prices were reasonable between $ 18-​$ 30 for entrée and $ 30 -$ 50 for a main with quality produce. Would definitely recommend this place for a great night out! My sister even thought it was better than Aria! Keep up the good work guys! Will be back

I made a booking on Monday for Saturday night. Upon making the booking I specifically asked for a table with a view and stated that the reason I wanted this was that we would be celebrating our wedding anniversary. Before hanging up the phone after making the booking I specifically asked the staff member again «so did you manage to get a table with a view» and he said yes! We arrived last night a few minutes early for our booking, we were asked to wait in the bar area, which we were happy to do and that was a nice experience as the bar staff were very friendly and attentive. About 20 minutes later we were shown to our table by a friendly waitress who mentioned our special occasion. To our surprise and disappointment our table was literally the furthest table away from the window/​view in the entire restaurant. The only view was a view of the toilet and a tv. You could not have got any further away from the view and any closer to the toilet. It all went downhill from here. The friendly waitress left and we were stuck with the rudest waiter we have ever come across. Our first impression was that he asked only my husband what he wanted to drink (didn’t ask me if I wanted a drink) and walked off really fast. My husband wasn’t able to stop him to order me a drink. The waiter came back with husband’s drink and again he didn’t offer me a drink. As he walked off my husband was able to stop him this time so that I could order a bottle of wine. I ordered one of the cheapest bottles of wine on the menu and sarcastically the waiter commented «nice drop». I wasn’t impressed with his insult. The waiter returned and filled both of our wine glasses for the first and only time for the night. (the rest of the night the bottle sat plonked our table for us to fill our own glasses). I am coeliac and no items on the menu were marked gluten free so I had to ask our rude waiter which items were gluten free. He had no idea so I told him what main I would like to eat and he checked with the chef as to whether it could be made gluten free. This left us still not knowing what entrees or sides I could eat so again we picked 2 sides and asked it this could be done (it could). We skipped entrees and dessert solely because we didn’t want to lengthen our horrible experience with the waiter. We ended up going to another bar with a beautiful view and very friendly staff after for dessert. This really saddened us as we went out really looking forward to a long evening of dining and enjoyment. We barely saw our waiter the whole time we were there but when we did he was arrogant and rude. My husband enjoyed his steak, my duck was cooked well but the fat wasn’t rendered so it made each bite very chewy. I frequently dine at Moo Moo with work/​clients and the service and food is always spot on. This in comparison for a steak house was a shocking experience. We have no desire to return to Cha Cha Char after last night’s awful experience on what was meant to be a really special night for us and we will certainly be telling our friends and colleagues not to bother either. We feel gutted that our special occasion was ruined by being placed at a table which was the exact opposite to what I was advised would happen and with one nasty waiter.

Very professional steak restaurant and good taste. If you can book a seat beside the window, you may enjoy the river view at the same time. Nice service and it is a very popular restaurant.

I was really surprised how great this restaurant really is?! The beef tartare was the best I’ve ever had! The meat was tender and flavouring was spot on! We’ve tried the trout with the lobster and it was lovely too!

Cha Cha Char used to be incredible. Now, the service is just so-​so, wine overpriced, and you have to order sides to have enough to eat (and the staff have no hesitation in telling you that). Really disappointing.

If you want a consistently good meal and experience then this restaurant is NOT for you! So sad! Been many times in the past. Had a really bad experience and then decided not to return for about 2 years. Returned and managed to have 2 good experiences but then tonight it was the worst restaurant experience I have ever had in my life! Lovely waitress (Emily), AM great but GM was condescending and rude. My husband’s meal was sent back twice. (In fact he ended up not having a main.) While speaking to management re our concerns we had another table interject aggressively which deeply upset my family, leaving our waitress and myself in tears. I will never in my life set foot in that restaurant again! Not as a patron nor as a guest.

Great steak. Great service. Great night. If you want a great steak and a great night and don’t mind paying a bit of a premium, then come here.

My sweet heart and i found ourselves without kids for a night and felt like going out for a «grown up» only dinner, luckily i was still allowed to go.
Char char char got our attention on the walk past with the carnivore decorations and who doesn’t love a great steak.
Without a reservation we were swiftly accommodated for a table for two, quick drink at the bar and hey presto table is ready!
I would have to say the steak is one of the best i’ve had, salad sides were delicious, wine selection was great.
Staff were friendly and accommodating. All in all a great night out.

A very good quality steak with an extensive menu, both food and wine. The service is very good indeed and in needs to be because this is one very busy place. I have been a couple times and it does tend to get a little noisy however it’s not that bad that you can still have a good conversation with your dinner partners. If you want to impress a visitor to Australia about our meat, this is the place to go.

Unimpressed. For an award winning restaurant my group of 7 friends as well as myself were less than motivated to ever return!
Poorly described menu items left my dear friend 50 dollars poorer with an empty stomach. Sassy waiters served us through the night challenging simple customer requests.
I, for example asked for 2 side dishes on one plate to make an entire meal because (being a specialty steakhouse) they didn’t have any vegetarian options. My food came out on 2 side plates– I asked my French waiter to take it back and slide it on one plate and I received a flat «no», so he received a firm «yes».
Unhappy with my ability to stand up to rudeness, he continued to give our table rude comments for the rest of our time there!
For some good feedback: water was filled up the second it became empty.
On a weird note: The scenery was disturbing from a vegan perspective but I can see how people could love it. Dead cows «artistically» displayed everywhere was a turn off for me but my friends enjoyed it.
Award or no award, there is no room for rudeness in Brisbane. We mean business with our loveliness.

Finally, somewhere to have a proper decent meal in Brisbane.
Superb steak, good choice of craft beers and very pleasant atmosphere.
Thoroughly enjoyed the evening (dinner with clients) and will be back again soon.

Best steakhouse in Brisbane, hands down. Loooooove their wagyu, loooooooove their angus. The best part of their steaks is the fact that they are always cooked to exactly what u asked them for. And the fact that they never had that burnt bitter grill taste on the steaks (which face it, a lot of steakhouses have that taste on their steaks when they don’t clean their grill probably) is just freaking fantastic. Whenever I have the urge for some meat, this place is ALWAYS my choice =D

This is a solid steak restaurant situated in a premier location right on the river.
The thing I like most about Cha Cha Char, is it’s unpretentious airs. You will feel equally comfortable dressed to the nines, or wearing a casual, laid-​back ensemble.
The staff are always knowledgeable, courteous and attentive without being overbearing or over-​the-​top.
Last night it was my dear-heart’s birthday. We ordered steaks (no entrée — we learnt last time the steaks are more than enough!) with our choice of accompaniment (fried green tomatoes for the boy, caprese salad for me) as well as some crunchy beans with almonds.
The meat was cooked perfectly and the salad and tomatoes were a delight. The beans were so crunchy and beautifully blanched, we both raved about them and vowed to try to replicate the simple dish at home.
For dessert I opted for what was very much like fluffy cinnamon squares of french toast (the actual name escapes me), with condensed milk ice cream and peanut butter powder. 5 stars if I were rating this dish alone — although I could have done without the dried apricots that bought nothing to the plate.
The boy went with the dark chocolate mousse with orange notes, bringing on a Jaffa experience. He said it was lovely but not the best he’d ever had.
I adore the ‘fish bowl’ like window and being able to watch the world go by on the river walkway.
Overall I feel like Cha Cha Char is a great option for a fantastic steak — free of the general wankery that can ruin a nice dinner at a fine dining establishment.
It will remain a staple choice of ours for dates and groups.

Best steak I have had in years — the rump was perfectly cooked medium rare.
My only criticism would be that the restaurant is lit like a supermarket — so probably better for business dinners than romantic liaisons.

Definitely a nice place for a classy, cruisy date for steak lovers. It’s fancy but not over the top plus if you get in at about 6 just before the dinner rush at 6:30−7 you’ll be more likely to score a good table next to the river. If you plan on going after that I recommend making a reservation. We got 2 entrees, 2 mains, 1 side, 2 desserts and a few drinks (be ready to fork out $ 8.50 for still water) for just over $ 200 and it was money well spent. Our eye filet was $ 42 which is a good price for such a good steak. Plus the brownie sundae was one of the best I’ve ever had!

Sorry Australia, but you suck at cooking steaks.
After a few tries at a few places, I’m now convinced that you export all your good beef and force the leftovers upon your unknowing citizens. My last attempt of an Australian steak was at Cha Cha Char. The waitress assured me that the Wagyu rump had the best marbling of any of their steaks and it would be the fattiest. My cohorts ordered a couple of the other steaks, so we had a fair assessment of the spread.
Opening up the dinner was an auto-​amuse of beef wrapped around some stuff. Meh, nothing too fancy here;
Then came my steak with a side of very well executed fried gnocchi. The side was the best part of the meal, each ingredient was there with a purpose and had my plate been full of just this, it would have been a much nicer dinner.
The steak itself had an okay crust and was seasoned well enough. But looking inside you can sympathize with my disappointment. Zero marbling. I’ve had «Australian Wagyu» all over the states and even the worst of that lot easily trumps what was on my plate.
It was chewy, not that juicy, and really lean. Lean should not exist in a highly marbled steak. Neither of the other two steaks order fared much better.
Overall, a miss and the nail in the coffin of my ever trying to enjoy steak down under again.
PS — here’s a great read on the lie that is Kobe Beef:

If you love steaks I can really recommend Cha Cha Char. The steaks are excellent, they really know their meat. The rest they also manage but it is for the steaks that one would come here. They have a good selection of microbrews and very good wine list. It would have been even better if more come by the glass.
The location is also very good, right by the river. The service was a bit slow and they did not really put in the extra effort but it may just have been a busy night.

Char Char Char is a restaurant that any steak fans with an expendable income should consider checking out. I have only been here when my father has shouted dinner as forking out $ 40 is more than a bit excessive for me. The steaks here are better than perfection, if that is possible.
Situated in the classy end of the Brisbane CBD– Eagle street, Char Char Char manages to stand out against its competitors. With its spacious dining room table overlooking the Brisbane river– it exudes everything you would expect form a fine dining restaurant.
The only downside would be that it can get pretty busy therefore very loud– not the best place if you are wishing to have a quiet and intimate dinner. Also, this is not the place to bring your vegetarian friend to, steak is practically the only thing they sell here.
If you do not feel like eating steak, are tight on cash, or are dining with a vegetarian, you may want to look elsewhere. Otherwise, Char Char Char is a restaurant you really must try.

Awarded National Restaurant & Catering Award for Excellence as Australia’s best steak restaurant — for the fourth time in a row back in 2007 means that this place means serious steak business.
I have on good knowledge that every year these restaurants bid on the prize cows that come from around the country. Basically they try and get the cow that will give them the best steak in a cow auction. It’s very prestigious and the top cows have been known to have been bought for over $ 15 000… back in the day, could be more now.
To have won this cow, is to have claimed the title The Best Steak In Brisbane pretty much. MSA certified etc etc etc it is the cow to have ticked all the boxes, and now it was up to the chefs.
Having said that, these guys know how to cook up the best steak. The prices are on the pricey side being in the fancy pants Eagle Street Pier and the waiters are very particular about the sides and side sauces you put next to your piece of beef. On a Friday night, it gets a bit loud with the business men of Brisbane crowding into their regular tables, opening up their expensive wines and sitting down for the 9:30pm service… the Saturday NIght crowd seems a little better in my opinion. Don’t expect there to be many sides with your steak, and expect the steaks to be over $ 40.
Yes, you can get steaks somewhere else for cheaper, but no you won’t have had the Cha Cha Char experience that I need everyone to have. So check it out just because.

Don’t have a cow anywhere else but at Cha Cha Char. This is undoubtedly Brisbane’s premium steak restaurant though it will squeeze both your wallet and cholesterol clotted arteries.
Whether you like your cow still bleeding, rare, medium or well done, the chefs at Cha Cha Char will get it perfect each time. Steaks cost between $ 40 to $ 70 depending on the cut and how long they’ve been grain fed. Yes, yes for that amount of money you could probably go several times to the Caxton, the Pineapple, the Fox or any one of the suburban pubs with a reputation as a steakhouse. Only, the quality of a Cha Cha Char steak is ten times better than anything I’ve experienced at any other steakhouses. I prefer to save my money and splurge it all at Cha Cha Char than be a regular at the Caxton.
If you do get the chance to indulge at Cha Cha Char, make sure to try the corn roll with butter, beef jus dipping sauce and pistachio dukkah. For a bit of trivia, ‘jus’ is not a fancy way of saying ‘juice’ but refers to a specific type of sauce. Well, whether you want to call it jus, juice or simply gravy, it’s to die for and comes in a cute cow jug which pours through the nostrils.
So the next time you need a special place to celebrate, break your children’s piggy banks, dress up pretty and head to Cha Cha Char.