Black Cow Bistro Review

Tried the cow while on holiday and my god the steak is next level quality. Best steak ever....just go and try the best.

Waiting staff were sensational.

We got a scotch fillet each which was very fatty and definitely not worth what we paid for it.

It was more ore less a pub meal at 10 times the price.

Delicious steak, fantastic service and a trendy and relaxed atmosphere. Thank you for an amazing steak and sauces, wouldn t go past the truffles bearnaise!

Excellent food and service. Amazing suffers and delicious steak

Delicious meal well priced good quality in the centre of Launceston

Positive: Service was great. The Lindt dark chocolate brownie was lovely, and kinda saved the whole dining experience in the end. Side dish baby carrot was tasty and special with the leatherwood honey teriyaki.

CONS: paid $110 for Robbins Wagyu Rump and tasted chewy, dry and worse than most of the steaks we had elsewhere. Fortunately it came with the garlic sauce which made it edible. How could a restaurant famous for steak presented such tasteless main to customers who travelled far for it. It was definitely not worth the money and I even had a bite of beef couldn t be chewed that had to leave out. At the bill the lady in charge tried to explain however it didn t help make sense of a terrible dish.
Funnily enough the bill said carrot dish for $9 which the menu stated $8.5. Sure it s only $0.5 difference but for a bill automatically generated from system (assumption only) it leaves me wonder for how long this has not been corrected and customers were overcharged by this.

The food is amazing!!! The only negative was the host lady asking us stuff and pouring our wine (incorrectly - much more in one than the other) when our waitress had it under control and was very good. Rump wagu to share is the go.

Dessert taste very good. Ordered a porterhouse steak well done, it cooked just right! :)

Black Cow is on of those special places that make visiting Launceston such a special event. The tables are a little close by Australian standards of personal space but the venue more than makes up for it. An Art Deco Butcher now serving beef with an attention to detail and focus that does Tas proud. The points to improve - I ve been maybe a dozen times - they need a CRM /staff system to recognise return guest and adapt to the preferences of the return guest. Simple things like when I call - for my 12th booking I don t want to have to give my details again and again. Tables preferences/allocation could also be handed better. Having said all this they are insignificant quibbles for an extraordinary venue. See you soon - Lucas.

really great produce! You do need to book in advance, but you will receive brilliant service! the salads are very tasty as well. and the atmosphere is very cosy!

Absolutely unbelievably good steak best I've ever had hands down.

I was next door at Bento, which was awesome as always and incredibly good value.

Fantastic meal and services. The steak with truffle sauce is really delicious.

Our go to place for easy Sunday night dinner , great flavours , professional service , slick . Not budget but well worth it , always leave feeling great , probably not a stretch saying best restaurant in Lonnie currently.

Very expensive, but the restaurant is full, the taste is not bad, but the premium is a bit high, there may be no restaurant.

Walked in last night, wanted a glass of Shiraz with a steak- only one available by the glass and it was $30.
Ordered a rib eye, but had sold out so had a porterhouse which had gristle and looked great but was ordinary. This is my first time rating any restraunt but felt strong enough that I needed to share.

good food but not very impressed with the service, only lady staff who served our table showed some friendliness but others, especially the male staffs, made us felt like we shouldn't even be there. One of the "not so good" experiences in Launceston.

Restaurant is cosy and in an old butcher. Steaks are cooked perfectly and accompanied with an extensive wine list. Make sure to book ahead though as it gets quite busy, even on a weeknight. It was packed on the Wednesday night and service can be a little slow.

Best steak I've ever eaten. Service was second to none!

Meal was great, but service dropped off a cliff after mains service. Very odd.

Enjoyed the food and wine offerings on all fronts in that everything was delicious. It is at the higher end in terms of price but quality was there to match. Their menu did seem slightly mean in that they were charging extra for condiments and bread, which to be fair were great but generally in my experience you would get bread and condiments at a place like this...

Great food, love the calamari, very creative dish, very good steak as well. Good friendly helpful service.

ordered 300g scotch fillet aged 30d, with an extra side of mushrooms, to be shared between 2 of us. beef seemed to be more on the medium well side though we requested for medium, but it was delicious nonetheless. waitress was attentive and brought an extra sharing plate without being asked. beef came with a creamy block of potato gratin, and we also had pickled octopus and grilled squid which were accompanied by delicious gardens of salad. nice upmarket vibe yet not too intimidating for the casual diner, though a little dimly lit

Great steaks and great service! A must visit when in launceston

Great service and the food was cooked to perfection. Highly recommended.

The wagyu was incredibly tender and the sides were fantastic a great evening of fantastic food.

Very good steaks and sides. Good beers, excellent service.

Food was very well cooked, and ambience is good too, reservations are recommended

I had the 450g porterhouse steak, I was happy with how it was cooked. I also ordered additional butter and some sides. The service was great as you would expect at this price level. Overall it's a bit more on the pricey side but nice overall

Service excellence, steak cooked perfectly to order

Wagyu is perfect, fresh and juicy. And the side potota are also great! If you come to Launceston, you have to try this!

Beautiful food. Everything about this place exceeded expectations. Highly recommend booking as it fills up quite fast.

Great service, atmosphere and steak. In fact, their signature wagyu steak is the best I've ever had, but at $160 for 400grams I think I'll stick to 'almost as good' steaks for $40-50.

The steaks were great - cooked exactly how we wanted them. Dessert was scrumptious. The waiters were very attentive to our needs.

This place was such a great find. Very small restaurant, but super cosy with fantastic service, food and wine. That steak was cooked absolutely to perfection and all the sides matched well and tasted just as good. It was definitely worth More

It is fairly hard to secure a booking, because there are only 40 seats in the restaurant (plus a function room). I was expecting great things. Then we were told there was no Wagyu, and only the massive 550g portion of rib eye. It was akin to the pub with no beer.

Then I saw the charges. You pay for the meat, the sauce and the side separately. I said good bye to $61.50 for a scotch fillet, small square of potato, Paris sauce and a side salad. Wow. You don't pay those prices at three chefs hat restaurants let alone a bistro in Launceston.

Entree was scallops which were very nice. Again paying $24 meant you were expecting something exceptional. They weren't exceptional.

Main course was the scotch fillet, medium rare. I was looking forward to the best steak experience in my life at the prices that were being charged. Sadly, what I got was a very chewy, bleeding piece of meat, starchy potato and a dry rocket, Parmesan and pine nut salad with little or no dressing.

Dessert was the highlight of the experience. The caramel slice was the best dessert I've tasted in town, better than its sister restaurant, Stillwater. Wine list was good, but again very pricey, charging over 300% markup on many known favourites.

The service was good, polite and friendly. Although, having all the staff standing in the little bar area staring at the customers, staring back at them, was a bit awkward. They need somewhere to disappear to when they gossip about the customers who are disappointed the Wagyu isn't available.

There was no atmosphere. Let's face it, the dining room has the same fit out and feel as a flat white cafe. Tiny two person tables hugging one wall, long party tables of 8 in the middle and a mix of four and two seaters on the other wall with the feature cow murals. It was snug, my back was touching the table behind me. One couple were sitting under a ladder - part of the decor. Not a single tablecloth in sight.

Overall, it's claims to be 'up market' are grossly exaggerated. So don't be disappointed if you can't make a booking. It's a nice 'bistro' that charges way too much for its food. You'll get more value for your dining dollar at Stillwater or one of the places down at Seaport. And if you want the best meat experience in Tasmania, buy some quality Cape Grim scotch fillet from the farmers market (every Saturday morning) and find a BBQ.

Food (eye fillet):excellent.
Service: excellent.
Time waiting for meal: excellent.

Unfortunately, I felt dudded because as I walked in yesterday, I thought the mineral water I had been offered was complimentary.

Not true.

This place charged me over $9 for something BEFORE I had an opportunity to look at any menu.

And, I only had less than a glass because i ordered a beer to accompany my meal.

Dodgy.

Not good enough.

Excellent service and decor. The absolute worst wagyu steak I have ever had...either that or the chef mixed it up with a poor cut of sirloin...pity as the oysters starter was perfect.

Aaaamazing food, service atmosphere, experience. Great fine dining.

I have not, in a while, had food where I was deep into it like reading a book.

Such delicious food. We ordered a steak rump to share with sides of rocket salad and mushrooms. Loved it! One particular male waiter was extremely kind to us and looked after us. Thank you! memorable anniversary dinner in Launceston

An amazing place. The food is brilliant. Awesome staff.

Meat is cooked well and the wine list quite extensive ranging from local to international wines. Service was ok as i had to wait a couple of times when my glass of wine was empty

Every course brilliant, terrific service, great atmosphere - a dining experience we won't soon forget

Great steaks and service. On the menu it tells you where in Tasmania each cut of meat is from. The wife and I had a lovely feed.

Nice restaurant. Staff are very friendly. Food was good. Steak cooked to my preference but found the meat tough and chewy (rib eye) despite being cooked perfectly medium-rare. Sides were delicious, loved the pumpkin and the cauliflower with Gruyere gratin.

I tried the eye fillet steak and it was absolutely delicious and cooked perfectly medium rare how I asked for it. It came with a sort of potato gratin which was also really good. Very impressed with this restaurant , and the service didn't disappoint either.

Consistently amazing service and steak. The staff here are amazing at what they do!

Trying to bring American tipping culture to Australia, and what's more they loom over you while you select "no tip" -- highly inappropriate in an Australian context.

[In regards to their response below: this is nonsense, they've chosen to add a tip select step to their EFTPOS machines and almost no restaurants in Australia have this step because, as I said above, we don't have a mandatory tipping culture in Australia]

The food though is has been delicious both times we've been. Everything from the cocktails to the mains to the sides to even the bread was first class and amazingly tasty. Sharing steaks are always fun, and the one we had here was beautifully cooked. A word of warning though: this is the most expensive meal I've had in Tassie. Tipping aside, I'd definitely return for the food.

Excellent service and food. Steak was cooked to perfection, amazing depth in flavour and the Cafe de Paris sauce was delicious! Decor and ambience was lovely, would highly recommend.

Very good service and nice food! Waiter with nice and helpful attitude!

Food was generally nice however if criticised as an one hat restaurant I would say the calamari quality was fresh although would be better if the chef could have cleaned the film inside the calamari. Texture would not have been stringy and chewy.

Sashimi was nicely flavoured and presented. Perhaps fish was cured too long in the vinaigrette it lost its original flavours and texture of kingfish I assumed?..

Steaks were nicely cooked. Little under-seasoned hope offered cracked pepper and nice salt. Another thing about the steak is that it looked like it was done in sous vide and finished off on grill as it was pink right to the surface..

Nice wine list, good service and well presented food. Overall good experience.

Bit slow
Excellent food and service

A real steak lover s paradise. Excellent steaks, great service. Well worth a visit.

Fabulous venue. Food is perfect and service is excellent. Not cheap but worth the cost

Fantastic meal and service. Make a booking whenever you want to go. They were packed on a Tuesday.

The best steak in that area as you cannot have other choice

Fantastic fare all round. Great service. Steak was cooked perfectly and the sides were to die for.

I got eye fillet 200g, medium well with pepercorn sauce and wholegrain mustard. i think it is the best steak ever! Pepper sauce is just great! Great restaurant to try out!

Good food. Excellent selection of beef cuts, sourced locally. Friendly staff. Worth the upmarket pricing.

Really good restaurant. Definite 5 stars. As the name suggests, beef is the star attraction. The staff warns you, the menu warns you and I will warn you; if you get the star cut, a wagu fillet, it's 30-something bucks for 100g, the steak (for at least 2 ppl) is minimum 550g so ... drum roll ... it's a $192.50 steak (with a decent potato gallantine side).

Entrees were excellent - we had a flight of oysters and a trevalla ceviche / crudo, both really good.

The service was attentive and very well meaning, but could do with a little polish to match the steak. Little stuff like getting utensils and plates to the table in some semblance of order, nothing major. They kept my glass topped up, so all good.

Desserts all looked amazing; the caramel slice concoction we had was world class. Great wine list, lots of local stuff, fair pricing I suppose.

Must book - it's not huge and they were offering tables for 9:30pm at 7pm for those who hadn't. Quick tip - the web only had q table for 5:30pm but a quick call got us a better time.

Great experience overall, if a little expensive.

Tasty local steaks but pricey once you add sauce and sides. We shared an aged cape grim rib eye on the bone and it was perfectly cooked.

You should visit this place if you are a meat lover. Good taste, service and price

Delicious food, attentive staff, massive selections of wines, side dishes very generous. Steak cooked to perfection. Silver service. Deserts to die for, omg. Nice array of cocktails, beers and liqueurs.

Very disappointing. I would have taken a photo of our medium rare 4+ Wagyu rump, but the lighting in the restaurant is so dim, it would have been impossible to see the food. If not for our impending departure, I would have sent it back to the kitchen and asked them to start again. As it was, I left half my meat... the dryer, more well done parts... on the plate with a request to the waitress for the kitchen to tell me whether they would call the steak we got as medium rare. No response to that question. On the bright side, the red Yuzu green beans, the side I ordered, were deliciously tangy with only one inedible (unstrung) bean. When I asked for the bill, I mentioned my disappointment to the maitre d'. He apologized and removed the beans from the bill as a compensation. To their credit, I did mention we needed to be out in an hour for our flight and they did manage to achieve that. But we could have been gone even sooner if they hadn't cooked the meat so long!

Great experience. Fantastic staff and fab food. Thanks guys

Went here while on holidays and had the best meal the steak was for 2 and the truffle bearnaise sauce was to die for. This place is well worth a visit and I will definitely be going back

Great steak but the service and the price really let it down. What you get for such a large price is not as good as what you get at similar restaurants.