The Local Grill in Johannesburg won the Best Steakhouse Award at the 2011 Eat Out awards. We sent VISI editor and red meat lover Jacquie Myburgh Chemaly to test-drive their wondrous steaks.

If Tim Noakes’s new no-carb diet is catching on as fast as dinner party conversations indicate, then steakhouses are about to become the hottest ticket in town. But we all know that there’s a lot more to them than T-bones, sharp knives and onion rings; it’s all about the meat.

And no steakhouse in South Africa takes that more seriously than The Local Grill, co-owned by Steven Maresch, with its two branches in Parktown North and Boksburg. Despite its unassuming, neighbourly name, The Local Grill is in fact a highly sophisticated take on the old family steakhouse that we all grew up loving. (My childhood memories were made at the Sir Loin in Pretoria. Anyone remember it?)

Of course, there’s still the understated décor, mushroom sauce and ice cream with chocolate sauce on the menu. But this perfect example of a modern steakhouse has kept pace with how eating habits have changed, and with the fact that (for many of us) food is an interest and experience, rather than simply a nutritional or social occasion.

True foodies must be delighted then that they are given a choice of Chalmar grain-fed beef (R110 for a 200g fillet) or Greenfield free-range beef (R99 for a 200g rump). What’s more, you can pick your meat according to its age, with a blackboard on the wall telling you how long the meet has been maturing in the cold room. You can even buy steak – butcher-style – to take home and prepare yourself.

I arrived just as the Chalmar truck was making its regular delivery. Happily, gone are the days of creepy butchers in stained overalls going through the back door with a heavy load slung over their shoulders. No, the elegance of this style of steakhouse means trimmed pieces of meat, vacuum-packed in odour-free slabs arrive in handy crates that are unpacked straight into the cold room. This evolution of the steakhouse means that walking into The Local Grill kitchen is not only a thoroughly pleasant experience, it’s also something they encourage through beef appreciation courses that they offer to groups of between eight and 12.

The course takes place in the kitchen, where guests are lectured on the ageing process, different cuts of beef and the farms, plus a tasting and cutting demonstration. They also have a private dining room that seats about 14, but most of us will experience the restaurant from the regular dining area where Steve is hoping to educate his diners that there is more to steak than fillet.

So how should you choose your cut? If it’s melt-in-the-mouth you’re after, then go for fillet. Rump gives you the best flavour. The longer a piece of meat is aged, the more exotic the flavour. Steve once tasted a 92-day sirloin, which had lost its texture but had developed the most remarkable flavour.

According to Steve, meat on the bone is the sweetest. He recommends the wing rib (or rib eye) on the menu for this reason. One of the house specialities is a Heston Blumenthal-style treatment where a whole wing rib is oven roasted at 50°C for 20 hours, then seared and served.

Steve says the mission of the team is to “pay homage to the bovine”. That’s why he’ll soon be putting a giant print of a cow (photographed himself) on the wall, and also why meals are simple and straightforward. “We want the diners to be reminded of that time when you bought sausages in brown paper,” says Steve.

It’s a return to honest values, combined with 21st century sensibility and good food. Sounds like the recipe for winning a restaurant award.

By Jacquie Myburgh Chemaly

A real steak fan? Check out our story on the best steakhouses in the country.