Choose Your Own Cut — The Steakhouse Experience Built Around a Butchery

Why choose your steak at the counter?

The Butcher Shop & Grill was built around a simple idea: if the steak is the reason you are coming, you should be able to see it before you order it. Since the Sandton restaurant opened in 1994, guests have been able to walk to the butchery counter, speak to a specialist and select the actual piece of meat that will be cooked for them. It is part restaurant ritual and part quality assurance. You can compare cuts, see the fat and marbling, choose on or off the bone, decide on size and ask how long a particular cut has been aged.

Step 1: choose the cut

Ribeye offers richness and fat; sirloin balances tenderness with steak flavour; fillet is prized for tenderness; T-bone and prime rib provide the character of bone-in cooking; rump is robust and versatile. Wagyu adds a different level of marbling and richness. Our butcher can explain the differences based on what is physically at the counter that day.

Step 2: choose the size

A standard menu portion is convenient, but the counter lets you choose a larger or smaller piece based on appetite, marbling and occasion. This is particularly useful with rich Wagyu or large bone-in cuts, where the right portion can matter more than the biggest portion.

Step 3: ask about ageing and provenance

Selected core cuts are aged for 21 to 40 days. Ask how long the piece you are considering has been aged and where it comes from. For Wagyu, ask about origin and marbling. The more transparent the product, the easier it is to choose confidently.

Step 4: choose how it is cooked

Your server and butcher can guide you on temperature based on the cut and thickness. Leaner South African beef can dry more quickly when cooked well beyond medium, while higher-fat cuts respond differently. The aim is not to impose a single temperature but to match the cooking to the steak you have chosen.

A restaurant with a butchery in Johannesburg and Cape Town

In Johannesburg, the in-house butchery at Nelson Mandela Square is a defining feature of the Sandton flagship. In Cape Town, the Mouille Point restaurant follows the same format. In both cities, the butchery is also open for retail purchases, so you can buy premium meat without booking a table.

Johannesburg Cape Town Butchery Sandton Cape Town Butchery Book a Table