Rump Steak at Cafe New York, 426 Victoria Ave, Chatswood

Yesterday’s lunch took us to Cafe New York located at 426 Victoria Avenue, Chatswood (near to the Chatswood train station). Please note that there are two Cafe New York Grill in Chatswood. The other one is at 316 Victoria Avenue, same street as No. 426 but at the other end of Chatswood (opposite of Chatswood Chase shopping centre). We have passed by Cafe New York at 426 Victoria Avenue many times but never had the opportunity to try the place until now.

The $12.00 Lunch Special

This restaurant has 2 tiers. The ground floor has a few dining tables with a coffee bar but upstairs, the place is huge. Their dishes are written almost every part of their wall on the first floor. The good thing about this Cafe New York is that they have the AUD12.00 
“lunch special”. The “lunch special” changes every 2 weeks. For this week, they have Smoked Salmon Salad, Cajun Chicken Salad, Pulled Pork Burger and the 200g Rump Steak. On this particular day, both of us were yearning for some steak, so we ordered the 200g Rump Steak (which was quite unlike us). However, just to differentiate both steaks, one was with mushroom sauce and to be cooked “well done” while the order would be with pepper sauce and to be cooked “medium well”. As for drinks, we ordered Lemon Lime Bitter.

Nice and spacious

Balcony overlooking the Chatswood Mall walkway

Chatswood Mall walkway

While waiting for the food, we can’t help but admire the layout of the restaurant which is really spacious. The tables are nicely spaced out and there is a balcony overlooking the Chatswood Mall walkway where you can sip your coffee and do some people watching. For ambient, we would rate this place 8/10.

The "transparent" Lemon Lime Bitter

Rump Steak ("medium well") with pepper sauce

Rump steak ("well done") with mushroom sauce

Our orders came rather quickly, less than 10 minutes. First came the drink which was Lemon Lime Bitter. At first glance, the Lemon Lime Bitter wasn’t very appealing as the colour was rather light and not that darker pinkish colour that we are familiar with. As a matter of fact, it was translucent and we could see through the glass! However, when we took a sip, we were pleasantly surprise to find that the Lemon Lime Bitter did taste like it and very refreshing nothwithstanding the colour of the drink. Well, looks can certainly be deceiving. Next, came the two orders of 200gm Rump Steak. The Rump Steak was served with mixed salad and chips (french fries). The “medium-well” Rump Steak was dry and not tender. We would prefer the meat to be slightly moist, so that it would not be too tough to cut with the steak knife. We felt that the chef must have cooked it a bit too long. The pepper sauce was average and we could find a few pepper corns swimming in the sauce. For this dish, we will rate it 5/10. As for the 200g Rump Steak “well done” with mushroom sauce, we find that the “well done” steak is no different from the “medium well”. The mushroom sauce was equally average. We would rate this dish a 5/10 as well.

In conclusion and based on our dining experience, we would rate the service which is prompt and courteous a 7/10 and we hope to visit this place again as we saw the next table which ordered the Cajun Chicken Burger, it looked quite good. Can’t wait to try that.