With a canopied entrance, clubby wood-panelled interior, scalloped red-leather booths and marble-topped tables, Walter’s is a venue that instantly conjures the classic steakhouses of New York. Not a skerrick of the old Restaurant Two remains. The Mad Men vibe is lightened in the main dining space by Anna Spiro’s eclectic gallery op-shop hangs on some walls, floral curtains separating the double private dining spaces from the main dining room, a couple of outsize botanical murals on plain white brick walls in those private spaces and the use of varied fabrics, heavy velvets, mismatching moquette tops on the chairs and Persian-style rugs.
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There’s fun to be had with pre-dinner Martinis at the eye-catching bar (the feature that best reveals the shared DNA with award-winning sibling, The Gresham) and a well-balanced wine list, but the house specialty, a grain-fed, dry-aged T-bone, cut for two and priced at $110, is the main draw. Cut into strips and seasoned adroitly, the steak arrives on a searing-hot platter in a pool of butter and its own juices. Well-drilled floor staff then dispense it silver-service style, swiping slices of sirloin and fillet around the scorching platter rim with sizzling effect.
Retro entrées, such as oysters Rockefeller and a deconstructed prawn cocktail, are less precise in their execution, the Mooloolaba prawns better served by a squeeze of lemon than by the kitchen’s take on cocktail sauce. A slice of crisp-based apple strudel, though, served on old-school plates and dolloped with schlag, restores the fantasy in glorious style.
Grace Elizabeth
