Margaret Menu — What to Order in Double Bay
Published
The verdict. Book Neil Perry's woodfire room, order the Copper Tree Farm beef and the blue-swimmer crab salad — Sydney's best steak table for a celebration.
What the Margaret Menu Actually Is
Margaret sits at 30 Bay Street in Double Bay, and it is the most personal thing Neil Perry has built — his first restaurant with no financial partners, named for his late mother. The kitchen runs on a woodfire grill and a rotisserie, and the menu reads as large sharing plates rather than a fixed tasting. Our Margaret review and scores rate it near the top of the Sydney file. In 2026 it held the No. 2 place on the World's Best Steak Restaurants list and No. 1 in Australia for the second year running.
What to Order at Margaret
Start with Perry's blue-swimmer crab salad, the Thai-leaning plate he has cooked for thirty years: shredded crab, sweet pork, green mango, crushed cashews and a slice of red chilli for heat. For the middle of the table, the Copper Tree Farm beef is the reason the steak lists rank it, grass-fed, dry-aged, cut over coals and priced by weight. The woodfire lobster with sambal butter and the rotisserie chicken with smoked eggplant are the other two plates to build a meal around.
Finish with the Memories of a Mirabelle Tart, Perry's tribute to the date tart Lorraine Godsmark made famous at Rockpool. Pricing runs a la carte at the $$$ register; expect roughly A$150 a head before wine, more once the beef and lobster land. The wine programme is deep in Australian and French bottles, and the room reads the table before it pours.
When to Go and How to Book
Weekend dinners go first, so the easiest seat is a weekday lunch, when the same grill runs a shorter, lighter list. Our guide to booking a table at Margaret covers the release window and the bar seats kept for walk-ins. Double Bay dresses up; smart-casual is the floor.
The Smart Play
For a group, book dinner and order the beef and lobster to share; for two, take a weekday lunch and add the crab salad and one grill plate. It is a strong Sydney room for a milestone birthday dinner or for closing a deal over lunch, and it anchors our reading of the world's best steak restaurants. Set it against the city's other great seafood kitchens and against Aria's harbourside tasting before you commit the evening, and see the fuller Sydney dining guide for the neighbourhood picture. Menu-guide sibling: what to order at Le Bernardin.
View Margaret on Restaurants for Kings →
Related Reading
- Our full profile: Margaret review and scores.
- The wider city: Sydney dining guide.
- How to reserve: booking a Margaret table.
- The category: the world's best steak restaurants.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should you order at Margaret?
Order the blue-swimmer crab salad, the Copper Tree Farm beef and one woodfire seafood plate such as the lobster with sambal butter. Neil Perry's grill and rotisserie carry the menu, so the beef and the chicken with smoked eggplant are the plates to build around, and the Mirabelle date tart is the dessert to finish on. Our Margaret review scores each part of the room.
How much does dinner at Margaret cost?
Margaret is a la carte at the $$$ register, and a full dinner tends to land around A$150 a head before wine, more once the Copper Tree Farm beef and lobster reach the table, since the premium beef is priced by weight. Weekday lunch is the lighter, cheaper way into the same kitchen. Wine pushes the real bill higher, so plan the bottle before the beef.
Is Margaret a steakhouse?
Not in the American sense. Margaret is a modern Sydney grill room where beef is one pillar rather than the whole menu, alongside woodfire seafood, a rotisserie and Neil Perry's Thai-leaning salads. It earned its steak reputation from the Copper Tree Farm beef, which put it at No. 2 on the 2026 World's Best Steak Restaurants list. Read it as a woodfire restaurant that happens to grill exceptional beef.
How do you book a table at Margaret?
Reservations open online through the restaurant, and weekend evenings fill first, so book as far ahead as the calendar allows and aim at a weekday for an easier seat. Our full booking guide covers the release window and the bar seats held back for walk-ins. Double Bay runs a dressed-up crowd, so treat smart-casual as the minimum when you plan the night.