Charcoal Restaurant

Excellent steak from this long-standing restaurant. Popular and relatively small so maybe book ahead.

Good choice of food from the menu steaks we're a good size and reasonable price
Good services from all the staff.

If I had an option to rate somewhere half a star, this would be the place. Maybe it’s time for “Canberras oldest restaurant” to retire. Extremely overpriced for the quality of food. I do not usually mind how much the meal costs as long as it executes what has been chosen on the menu. Every food item they brought out wasn’t seasoned and just a massive disappointment of a meal. Low quality pub food is what I would advertise it as. The staff were not working as a team, one was kind of mean to the other and made the atmosphere quite tense.
Definitely avoid.

We dined here in late February 2022. It’s on the pricey side. However, the steak was very good - tender and cooked just as ordered. Loved the garlic bread.

Very nice food, great service, prices are a little steep. Small prawns as an entree a piece of crusty toasted bread would have been lovely to dip in the garlic sauce as it was delicious.
The steak was very good, a little more seafood toppings would have been nice for the price.
Sticky date pudding was lovely.

Steak was cooked exactly as requested, staff were friendly and attentive. Overall a great feed.

A fantastic steak house with an intimate setting. A good selection of cuts and sizes, with options if steak isn't your thing. Definitely above the quality of the chain steak houses but you pay for it. Wait staff on occasion have seemed a little disinterested but I never had to chase them for another drink like I do at many restaurants. Will visit again.

Canberras oldest resteraunt and a reliable steak house at that. I had a prawn cocktail entree which was good and for main a 1.5kg tomahawk and was not disappointed, the steak was good; cooked to order and came out hot with yummy side dishes

Charcoal is an institution in Canberra and all lifers know it and talk about it, it’s supposed to be one of our finest joints and our most iconic steakhouse which is why I was disappointed to see them selling pod coffee and not real, fresh ground coffee. For me that removes them from being fine dining and takes them back a notch.

The service staff are exceptional and really made for a pleasant evening.

My partner and I have been going out in Canberra looking for a nice restaurant. I think we found it tonight. The service is top of the game. The food was so excellent, and for a steak house, it had plenty to offer, from soup to chicken, even had pasta dishes. One of the best steak and chicken dishes in town and not to mention the creme brûlée’s were to die for!

Amazing restaurant!
The staff are fantastic, but I'm afraid it will ruin your steaks at home.
I now refuse to cook steak at home no thanks to Charcoal and their delicious steaks

Food quality and service are great, spot on. The Decor needs an update. Highly recommend for the food, but not the wall carpets ;)

Hands down the BEST cooked steak we've ever had. 350g eye fillet with pepper sauce done medium rare & 250g eye fillet surf and turf done medium. Served with basic veg and baked potato but the perfect accompaniment for a perfect steak. Will dine again!

Wow, this place has the best steak I have ever had, cooked to perfection, whilst on the pricey side if life, was well worth the money spent, great cosy atmosphere, and the staff were only to happy th attend to us when we needed service. Well done guys.

Fantastic steak, 500g fillet, try it. Wish I had taken a pic. Yes it is expensive, but worth every dollar. Wine list pretty good as well. Will definitely be back.

We came here to celebrate my partners birthday, and I ordered a medium 250g eye fillet and my partner ordered a rare 500g eye fillet. Unfortunately the steaks were not cooked as requested and my partners steak was cooked more than mine and mine was probably on the rarer side. As another reviewer mentioned, the toppings for your potato (which comes with every steak) are communal. I saw someone on another table use their personal fork in the sauce and these same toppings were then offered to us.

Our waitress also avoided eye contact and barely said a word so she seemed like she didn't really want to be there, so the atmosphere was a bit spoiled too. Over priced for what you get, would not go back as much nicer steaks out there.

I have visited Charcoal Restaurant with my friends recently. I was a bit sceptic about food options in the beginning as I am a pescatarian, but I was happy to know that they have got options for people who do not eat meat or who are vegetarians. I've had an amazing prawn linguini which was just delightful. They also got fish options and most of the entrees are seafood based.
I really recommend this restaurant as the atmosphere there is amazing and everyone can find something for themselves on the menu.

Also, I am not normally a dessert person but I have decided to try sticky date pudding from their menu and it is just the best dessert that I have tried in a long time.

Food was tasty and staff were great but I expected more for the price. Restaurant is quite small and was packed full, could barely move unfortunately.

Great Canberra Institution that knows how to cook a steak. Appropriate matching wine list.
Give them a try if you're in Canberra. You won't be disappointed!

Charcoal cancelled my 6pm booking at 5pm on a Saturday night. Everywhere else booked. Was looking forward to dining here for an anniversary dinner. Very disappointed and would appreciate more notice next time if you have to cancel a reservation.

I’m commenting here as a chef and restaurant owner.

This is my first visit to this place.

1) menu is not complete for such an establishment. More variety needed

2) we waited over 1 hour for our food. Completely unacceptable as we had kids with us

3) menu is dated and bland. What we were served would have been acceptable in the 80’s.

4) portions were small and did not match the pricing at all.

5) we all asked for medium rare and got medium to medium well.

The only positive is the steak was a quality piece of meat but definitely over priced.

Clearly the owner has lost sight of the fact that these businesses only function if you nail three basic principles. Quality, price and service.

Clearly no money has been invested in the kitchen for many years. Kitchen staff completely disorganised. Food did not all come together and ingredients were missing off the plates.

Worst of all, who in their right mind would share open condiment dishes during Covid. The waitress came to our table, took the baked potato condiments and put them straight on another table. Not even the spoons were changed snd we were putting our forks in the bowls as we thought it was for our table only.

Definitely will not return