Another steak restaurant looking to be the best in London, JW Steakhouse has set itself a challenge that few would relish. The competition challenging for that top table place is fierce and only last week, my STK London waiter promised me 'the best steak of my life', but he needs to get out more. I have further reservations here however as JWS is in, and part of, Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, a JW Marriott hotel, hence JW Steakhouse: this is rarely good news. The hotel-steakhouse arrangement is not one we have liked for either CUT at 45 Park Lane or STK London.  

Restaurant menus have been rotated from portrait to landscape while the online menu I'm looking at right now starts with dessert, then has wines by the glass, and then moves to starters, steaks, market potatoes before finishing with soups & salads, mains and sides. Are they trying just a little too hard to be different I wonder? 

On the starters, there's Kansas City Steak Soup which sounds kind of fun, so tempted, but with a steak coming for the main, even for me that's too much red. Jumbo Prawns sound appealing but priced at £25, they must continue to only sound appealing. I opt for the JW Iceberg Wedge with blue cheese and crispy bacon (£8 on my bill, shown as £9 on online menu). When it comes, it is, I must admit, the best Iceberg Wedge I've had put in front of me. From the moment it is set down, you can see it's the business, everything in great proportions, plenty of crispy bacon, big lumps of blue cheese, a smother of blue cheese sauce, and it tastes as good as it looks: the flavours of everything come through. How many such wedges appear in other restaurants all wedge, the blue cheese and bacon seeming an afterthought. This was served by a kitchen that cares, and a kitchen with pride.

For my main, I ordered the 14oz Ribeye which I was pleased to see came under the banner of 'Butcher's British Cuts' rather than USDA beef which is also a prominent feature of the menu. When my waitress delivers the plate, she insisted I cut through it before she left the table to ensure it was cooked how I wanted it (medium rare; I did, it was). Slightly caught off guard by this, on reflection, I think I like this approach, it's certainly a confident approach and displays a keenness for the food to please. 

The steak was very good and you could feel the quality of the meat, but somehow, it just missed out on being for me a truly memorable steak. Maybe it was a small seasoning issue falling it short on delivering the biggest flavours, or maybe it's a personal thing, for our preferred breed is without doubt Belted Galloway which we think has the best taste of all beef, here they serve Aberdeen Angus; if I had to guess, it would be that. I feel however I'm nitpicking, but if you're reading this post, I'm guessing you want to know.

Finally for dessert, it had to be cheesecake. I'm initially shocked by its £12 price tag, they claim it to be the best outside of America(!), but when it arrives, it did actually stun me in to silence. It's not a slice of cheesecake, it is a whole cheesecake. This could actually serve four people. They suggest you share it, they weren't kidding but if like me you don't, and if like me you can't eat it all (I'm at least pleased to say that), they offer to box it up for you to take home. £12 is actually very good value indeed for this. But is it the best cheesecake in the UK? No, but it is pretty good and there's a lot of biscuit crumb here if you like that in a cheesecake (I do). 

Two more things to mention. First, the service was excellent. Lots of staff, all working hard, working as a team and really seem interested in providing a strong customer experience with sincerity. Service was pretty much ideal. Second, JWS has understandably been accused of being expensive (which it is), but that needs context, for it is no more expensive than other prime steakhouses. My 14oz Ribeye was £29, my chips £4; at Goodman Canary Wharf, the menu listed 400g (14.1oz) USDA ribeye is £32 and chips are £5. I'm betting too that Park Lane rents are a lot more than Canary Wharf rents, highlighted by the fact that the 14oz Ribeye at CUT at 45 Park Lane is £46, chips a remarkable £7.
 
JW Steakhouse then is very good, and on Park Lane, it also represents value, really. The quality is there, the staff are good, the surround is comfortably and recognisably steakhouse. To be honest, we never return to a steakhouse as a rule because Goodman is our go to place if we want steak and we're not blogging. As for here, I still think Goodman is better, but I could imagine returning to JWS, and that's about as high a compliment as I can pay a steakhouse; sometimes, it's nice to be surprised (and if only for size alone, I will be thinking about that cheesecake for some time to come).

We visited STK London as part of our restaurant deal series: 7 days, 7 restaurants, 7 deals. 7 bargains? where we seek out value deals on the London restaurant scene.

The offer

£49 for a three course meal at STK including a glass of champagne. For the main, a ‘steak flight tasting experience’ is provided with 100g each of USDA certified sirloin, rib eye and fillet.

Booked with

Livingsocial.com

I could not see STK offering deals on other websites or directly on their own.

Why I chose it 

Intrigued by STK as London’s newest steakhouse. Unsure however if at £49 this really represented a good deal or not, or indeed, any deal at all.   

Downsides or drawbacks

The ‘deal’ can only be taken Monday-Thursday and Sunday. As I price up the ‘deal’, I am unsure that I have saved any money at all over the individual sum of the parts. Also, since registering with Livingsocial, I receive an email with an offer pretty much daily (Brazilian wax anyone?), a frequency sufficiently annoying to me to ensure I cancel my interest with them.

What I ate

- Crab salad, cucumber & horseradish gazpacho, pickled white radish
- USDA steak flight (100gr of sirloin, rib-eye, fillet), parmesan truffle chips
- cold chocolate fondant with blood orange

Food quality

For the most part, I didn't particularly enjoy the food at STK. You obviously go there for the steaks, but despite my waiter suggesting I was about to eat 'the best steak of my life', I found the steaks bland. Indeed, the steak I had at Marco Pierre White's Steakhouse just a few days prior was in my view better. Also, cutting my rib-eye steak even with a steak knife was a white knuckle job, not helped by a large sinew running straight through it, a real problem if the steak is just 100gr because it's then hard to avoid. My waiter did offer to have me another cooked up however (declined). 

The bread sounded intriguing, a home made bricohe style loaf with a blue cheese glaze, though I couldn't really pick up any cheese and the bread was far too dense. The crab salad starter, of which there was a lot, became monotonous too quickly and could have used a some textural variety and a better balance of ingredients. The dessert however was quite classy, I'm told that the pastry chef is ex MW at The Berkeley. The dessert then was easily the highlight of the meal.  

Food quantity

Each course provided ample food

Service 

Service was excellent. My waiter couldn't have been more enthusiastic about STK had he been the owner. For my time there, I felt like I had a new best friend. Full credit on service.

Meal deal verdict

My best guess is that I saved £10 with this deal, so c17% of the pre-service cost, so not the best deal I've had this week and lower than the saving I received at Marco Pierre White's steakhouse. Again, I took no additional drink with this meal which could have pushed the meal cost up to the £70 mark making it very hard to argue it's any sort of bargain. While I didn't enjoy the food, that is not I am guessing a function of the deal, rather, I don't think I'm a fan of STK. 

Deal score

3/10

Additional note on STK

I continue to think the branding 'not your daddy's steakhouse' is one of the strangest restaurant taglines I've come across.  And with sexualised imagery (see here) is it supposed to appeal to men or women? Maybe they know what they're doing, but on my lunchtime visit, it was mostly middle aged men, around half in suits. 

My waiter told me that at night however, the in-house DJ progressively increases the volume of the music as the night goes on and at the end of the night, they encourage guests to take off their shoes and dance on banquettes. Maybe it's not your daddy's steakhouse then, but going forward, I don't think it will be ours either. For those who have tried it, we look forward to comments on whether the disco-steakhouse theme works in your opinion and if you've not tried it, whether it appeals.

We visited Kings Road Steakhouse & Grill as part of our restaurant deal series: 7 days, 7 restaurants, 7 deals. 7 bargains? where we seek out value deals on the London restaurant scene.

The offer

50% off your main course when you purchase a starter or dessert also.

Booked with

TopTable

Why I chose it

What appears great about the deal is that it is simply a price reduction versus the regular menu, so I am expecting the same food as my fellow diners, I just expect to pay less.

Downsides or drawbacks

None apparent. I even utilised this deal on a Saturday.

What I ate

- 8oz fillet steak, triple cooked chips
- cheesecake

Food quality

I was totally impressed. I've been to the sister restaurant in the City where there were hits and misses on my visit, but everything here today was a hit. Most importantly, the fillet steak was really very good indeed, I cannot fault it one bit. Cooked perfectly, tender but flavourful, and with a nice char too, it really did tick all the boxes. Plenty of big thick cut chips, easy enough for two left me totally satisfied. The Bearnaise sauce, something which at the other branch last year was a disaster, was here exactly as it should be. The cheesecake meanwhile was hug slab so I didn't think I'd be able to get through it all but was much lighter than it looked but still rich and creamy. The only issue was that the biscuit base had gone slightly soft but I still enjoyed it.

A small negative is that the waiting staff are not all familiar with the menu, broadly, in a steakhouse, the focus is surely on the beef. There seemed to be a basic lack of knowledge in this area. The website tells me it is UK beef, dry aged on the bone for 21 days, something the waiters really should know. That said, I was delighted overall.

Food quantity

Steaks are regular cuts, chips and cheesecake came in a substantial portion.

Service

Service was good throughout the meal, I was treated very well indeed. Despite being on a deal, I had a great seat in the front of the restaurant, and despite drinking only tap water, they always filled my glass without me once having to ask.

Meal deal verdict

This is a stunning deal because it's the same food as if you booked with the restaurant but with the main at half the price. While the 8 oz fillet steak I ordered is on the menu at £28.50 (Goodman charge £34 for 8.8oz, so they've not marked up to mark down), my deal obviously gave a £14.25 reduction in that. With chips at £3.95 and cheesecake at £6.50, even with service, my bill came to £29.57 (I drank only tap water). My saving overall was 33%. This is of course a 'fixed' saving so the more you order (wine, starter, coffee etc), the higher the bill, the lower the percentage saved. Clearly however, if four people around the table each save £14.25, the total saving on an absolute basis, £57 remains most attractive.

Score

Deal score 7/10

Note: while excellent, the deal score is not higher because the maximum saving here is about 33% but for most will be less if additional items are ordered or a less expensive main chosen. At venues like The Square, the set lunch at £35 saves you a whopping £45 versus the a la carte price and in that sense feels a better deal.

If a chain of restaurants has managed to survive 25 years in the capital, you can reasonably assume that it's either a) very good, or b) past its sell by date; it's been about three years since our last visit to a Smollensky's (pre blog) and we wondered how it would now seem. The website meanwhile notes

Smollensky's is one of the great names in grill restaurants... [and] continues to operate with the same values that Smollensky's flagship restaurant... began with back in 1986...

1986 is a bit early even for us, but I do remember that visiting Smollensky's in the early nineties was still considered an exciting new thing to do for food and a night out. But back then, British food was really quite poor and an American based grill that cared about service and food could shake things up a little. Without doubt however, over those 20 years, food in the UK has been on an inexorable journey of improvement and whether you consider the competition to be Pitt Cue, Red Dog, Byron, Burger & Lobster, Goodman, Bodeans or even Bubbledogs, the formulas that worked in 1986 will need to be considerably updated if Smollensky's is to stand shoulder to shoulder with this new peer group. Sadly, for us today, it fell well short.

A starter of blackened shrimp with creole mayo and lemon wedge (yes, they advertise the lemon wedge on the menu) had no real impact leaving you to wonder if it contained any creole spices whatsoever. A crayfish and mango salad was nice enough, and pleasingly, the salad leaves were fresh and crisp, but a heavy hand on the Marie Rose sauce provided a challenge even for a sauce lover like me.

When the order for the burger was taken, we were asked 'how would you like it done?'. The right question, heaven, hope surges. But then when it was ordered medium rare, health and safety kicked in and we were told medium is as low as they go; hope plunges. The burger was better than expected (we now didn't expect much), but in playing the game 'if Goodman's burger is a 10, what is this on the naught to ten scale'; the answer was a four. Since there is a Goodman in Docklands just five minutes walk away, and a burger there costs £15, the question is actually important. A basic burger at Smollensky's costs £10.50 with £1.25 for each extra topping (including cheese) which means that this £13 burger is price comparable. The dip in quality versus a Goodman therefore is inadequately compensated by a lower price. Patty & Bun meanwhile price all their burgers below a tenner; enough said.

Our other main was the ribs. Among the problems here was that they had not been properly prepared. As About Barbecues & Grilling says

When cooking a rack of ribs, you want it limited to the actual bone section of the ribs. Well above the ribs is a section of meat filled with cartilage, little bones (the Chine bone) and connective tissue... you can also find it by looking for a long line of fat that runs lengthwise along the rack. 

As well as lacking basic BBQ flavours (it relied heavily on the sauce for that), and being dry at times, there was simply too much fat and connective tissue for this to be anything other than disappointing.

It left us wondering what the point of Smollensky's now was because it still feels to us like it hasn't moved on from its historical recipe for success. Maybe that recipe still works well with the mainstream, maybe there's enough office parties from the surrounding Canary Wharf area to provide bums on seats, or maybe Canary Wharf stacked only with restaurant chains is itself still years behind the rest of London's food scene. Whatever the answer, we personally would struggle to find a good reason to return.

Unintentionally, it turned out to be burger week on the blog. If we had to name our three favourite burgers in London it would most likely be, in no particular order, Patty & Bun, Goodman and MEATliquor, though the Goodman burger is the odd one out here in our view as it is a more mature burger, both literally and figuratively, as the beef comes from aged steak off cuts of the very same beef used for steaks in the restaurant. The result is a high quality patty that gives much the same tastes sensation in the mouth as if you were indeed having a proper Goodman steak.

P&B and MEATliquor tend to be messier affairs, everything melted to a singularity under the bun whereas the Goodman burger is cleaner, with cheese delicately melted on top of the patty while the lettuce, full slice tomato, onion and pickle are then added politely (and easily removed if you want purity). Add your own ketchup/mayo as you like it at the table. 

Eat the P&B burger and a little pool of fat and juices forms in the greaseproof paper in which it arrived; here there's a similarity for at Goodman, it too is so juicy it can get almost messy, but the bun does a remarkably good job absorbing the juices while holding its form until the last bite. 

Having eaten at P&B the day before (and loved it), the Goodman burger too stands the test of multiple visits and each time I have it, it is only ever totally satisfying. This is the Rolls Royce end of the burger market, a big bruiser of a patty, itself the best beef money can buy, and while a little pricier than P&B or MEATliquor, it's very clear where the money goes, and it's still cheaper than sister restaurant Burger & Lobster. In short, resampling the Goodman burger head to head with P&B, I love both, different burgers for different days. If you haven't had one yet, well, you're missing out. 

Our experiences at Hix's restaurants during our blogging years have not always been good, so as well as being a former tram shed, today's venue takes on the role of last chance saloon also. We already know the concept, basically steak and chicken, so we're fine with the format, and we know about the room and its imposing Damien Hirst centrepiece, but is there substance behind it? And, given our previous experiences, would service let them down even if the food is good enough?

Front of house was personable and while it felt like they could have been sharper in servicing the table, as we've said endless times on this blog, a smile goes a long way and so the overall friendliness of their approach left us happy with our time in their hands. One small negative with the environment however is just how close the tables are together, such that the back of your chair is often touching the one behind and personal space too often feels encroached upon.

Starters were the weak link of the meal. There's no choice here (which we knew) but instead, a trio of starters is brought out that is scaled to the size of the order. There is Hix's 'famous' fish fingers, which should have come out of the pan a little earlier, a beetroot salad, which was exactly as it says, but most disappointingly, a Yorkshire Pudding that despite having risen nicely from the pot, was still so dense, chewing was difficult and so dry, even the cauliflower purée it came with barely made it edible.

Things picked up with the main course. With three at the table, we ordered one large chicken (for 2 - 3 people, smaller chickens for one are also available, and a mid size steak to share. The chicken arrives at the table looking as if it is trying to do a headstand in a bowl of chips and the full leg to foot is left on for theatre. They subsequently offer to carve it for you at the table to make life easier. If this was the sole main course divided between three people you would in our view feel somewhat hungry after as it's not a big chicken, but pleasingly, it is a quality chicken and offered real flavour in the meat as well as a good crispy skin so making it as good a roast chicken as we've yet found in a restaurant. Chips (fries) were decent and the dish came with a pot of gravy so in total leaving us very happy with the chicken part.

Providing a little less theatre, they offer to slice up the steak too when it arrives at the table, and it too comes with chips with the addition of a bearnaise sauce. We found ourselves pleasantly surprised by how good the steak was and with a moreish bearnaise, overall, we're delighted with the mains. The Tramshed website talks about the steak being dry aged in a Himalayan Salt Chamber for five weeks where 'negative ions from the salt counteract positive ions from the meat' and is sufficiently aware that this sounds a little too close to feng shui to add 'there is a lot of science and technique behind this totally natural process'. Regardless, we really enjoyed the mains and had just a small amount of food left over for which a take home bag was provided allowing us to remember again the next day how good the steak was.

It's the first time we've left a Hix restaurant thinking that a return there is almost inevitable, though our plan of attack on our next visit would be to ignore the so-so starters and go straight to the excellent main courses, again ordering both chicken and the beef. And with the room too quite something, especially the Hirst centrepiece (regardless of whether you like it or not), if you're entertaining friends from out of town, the experience has a sufficient wow factor to leave the restaurant a talking point for some time after. Third time lucky then for a Hix restaurant on this blog.


Return to homepage

Previously

Hix Oyster & Chop House

Hawksmoor's new offerings just keep getting bigger and their fourth restaurant, off Regent Street, seats around 250 people; just to see it is somewhat mind blowing, especially when you think that MASH has also opened a 350 cover steak restaurant two minutes walk away. Meat eating Londoners, it would seem, have never had it so good. Throw in for good measure an additional couple of hundred seats at Brasserie Zedel, also close by, and the area around Piccadilly Circus has become the behemoth restaurant epicentre of London.  

But while several prominent reviews have already lavished praise on the new Hawksmoor (and indeed my steak at Hawksmoor Guildhall just two weeks ago was, as documented in this blog, divine), our meal at the new Air Street branch ranged from lacklustre to sadly disappointing. On a table of three, including a prominent chef, we were all in agreement on this. 

Key to the failure here was the steak, the very thing that I had loved most about my previous Hawksmoor experience. While the words 'juicy' and 'steak' are essentially bedfellows in the English language, on this occasion, they appeared to have fallen out and be sleeping in separate rooms. Our ribeye steaks (x3 medium rare), while having good flavour, simply lacked the normal juices you'd expect in a quality piece of meat, making the steaks feel dry in the mouth and hard to chew, requiring a good dollop of an accompanying sauce to stand in as a substitute; that is simply wrong.

The more I thought about this however, the triumph of taste at Guildhall, and the down in the dumps experience at Air Street, the more it made me believe that the answer most probably lay in the mathematical concept of 'variance', or what could be described as 'how far things are spread out'. Hawksmoor, through its four restaurants, has around 600 covers in total I'd guess, so serving potentially 1,200 people every day. In turn, they might serve up to 7,000 steaks in a week equating to around three thousand kilos of beef. 

The 'average' steak at Hawksmoor is probably, generally, brilliant, but with numbers served so huge, over the course of any week, there will likely be material variation around that average: some steaks perfect (and perfectly cooked), some closer to duds. And while it might not be the case here, logically, the bigger the restaurant, the greater the risk that the average declines, while at the same time, the variance increases as consistent quality becomes more difficult to control.

On our main course, the triple cooked chips seemed stale, the Stilton hollandaise appeared to be a sauce with only trace elements of Stilton, and the steak, as noted, was simply hard work. Maybe it was variance, maybe we got unlucky by eating on a Monday, or maybe it's still too early for such a mega-restaurant to have properly found its feet. The unthinkable is that Hawksmoor has now grown simply too big to deliver the quality it did when it was a single and phenomenal steakhouse just three years ago. Whatever the answer, our meal here was, sadly, underwhelming from start to finish. 

In a game of food-word association, if I said Danish, you might say 'pastry', or perhaps 'bacon', but few I would guess would venture 'steak-house' as their reply. But here we are, Denmark's leading steakhouse house company has opened a 300 cover restaurant in the subterranean space next door to Brasserie Zedel just off Piccadilly Circus. 

The name MASH, rather than referring to their love of potatoes done in a certain style, is rather an acronym for Modern American Steak House, and the group behind MASH already operate four similar steak houses under this brand in Denmark. At the time of writing, the restaurant has been open less than a week and we're taking advantage of a 50% off food soft opening offer. While there were one or two service hiccups, nothing major, and overall, for a restaurant open less than a week, it was a pretty good showing by the team. Staff are enthusiastic and attentive and keen for genuine feedback on the operation; many are over from Denmark temporarily to oversee the launch with some even permanently.

Much of the room is in an art deco style with columns and lighting, while furniture serves up red leather seating and dark wood tables. Given that Goodman were similarly non American aiming for the American steakhouse look, there's some overlap in design, which also extends to the glass walled beef ageing room, though here, it is more of a design feature because with 300 covers (plus another 50 at the bar), they would get through the displayed beef in a single service I would imagine.

We start off with the MASH hamburger, which comes with chilli fries. On ordering, there's a little confusion by the waitress of how they're able to cook the burger (not medium rare it seems), she suggests rare is possible but we think she meant well. We chalk that to soft opening credit. 

The burger is a little underwhelming when it arrives, the bun strangely flat, giving it the appearance of a well filled panini; the density of the bun also doesn't really suit. The patty itself is quite nice, the usual fillers on top and well melted cheese all positives, but we ended up saying overall: this burger would be quite nice at... a stadium... a high street fast food joint... a motorway service station. It is simply not however the quality of a Goodman/Hawksmoor burger that presumably MASH must see as their natural competition. Maybe this is how burgers are in Denmark.

But it's the steaks that MASH will thrive or die by, so what have we got? There's basically four country offerings: Uruguay (NY Strip, Ribeye, Fillet), Danish dry aged (sirloin, ribeye, long bone ribeye), American (various) and an Australian Wagyu. Interestingly then, no British beef. I think that might be part of their USP, after all, why be a Danish steak house and do exactly what Hawksmoor are doing with their Yorkshire Longhorns.

The Danish beef is dry aged for 70 days and we opt for the Long Bone Ribeye (500g with bone) which is priced normally at £42. Given the 50% discount for soft opening, we also try the Australin Wagyu (200g) which normally is 'reasonably' priced at £50: CUT at 45 Park Lane for this charge £82 for 6oz (170g).

Sharing the two steaks between us, it comes to the table in a pan and both are carved at the table. The Wagyu is so juicy it's like chewing a wine gum, it almost bursts in your mouth. So pretty good and perfectly cooked, but generally we have a preference for dry aged beef. Here the Danish steak is decent, somewhat under seasoned and a pinch of salt added at the table improved it no end. But is it an improvement on British beef though? For us the answer is no, so while good, the most recent ribeye steak we've enjoyed (British beef at Hawksmoor) was in my view better.

There's chilli fries that come with the hamburger and twice cooked chips but the chips we didn't like. Dry and without charm, we left them almost in their entirety. This I'm sure will be changed in due course when customer feedback is taken on board.

A side of Caesar salad was uninspiring.

The macaroni and cheese however was very good indeed and we were chasing the last of the macaroni around the bowl. This was the best of the sides we tried.

The regular price of desserts at £10 seems somewhat expensive. Both follow the same formula, a slab of cake paired with ice cream on biscuit crumb. The chocolate dessert, while rich, was not actually that satisfying with the expected intensity from the chocolate absent. Cheesecake was better however but prices do seem too much for a reasonably basic offering.

With MASH so ridiculously large, even with seating for 300, there's plenty of space. Tables are large and comfortably situated so you don't have to listen to other people's conversations which we also liked. What was really nice (on our visit at least) is that with the restaurant not full, tables that could accommodate four people were laid up for two so you even have a lot of physical table space.

MASH is a good restaurant and they will undoubtedly do well, though filling something so large night after night will test even London's appetite for steaks surely. Admitting too that this is the soft opening, some things will change in time (let's hope it's the chips), though the beef, surrounds and service are good enough to justify this being a quality steakhouse. But in our opinion, the overall offering falls a little short of the market leaders who offer, quite frankly, an experience that would be hard to improve on. MASH might get there in time, but they have a little way to go.

Joseph Stalin, not usually noted for his wit, is reported to have said that the punishment for the crime of bigamy is two mother in laws. While we have certainly enjoyed Hawksmoor from the early days of the blog, we have over the past year become somewhat wedded to Goodman. However, today I again found myself in Hawksmoor (Guildhall branch) and the ribeye steak there was simply superb, as good as any. I fear that I have become a steakhouse bigamist.  

Despite recent City redundancies, the Guildhall branch was effectively 100% full for a mid week lunch service and the room buoyant with suits, almost hard to fathom in current times. Tangential to this however, the acoustics are terrible and the noise levels made a regular conversation so difficult you had to lean in to your guest to hear what was being said: that is my sole criticism of the lunch.

It's a mostly similar menu to the other Hawksmoor outlets and it looks appealing in its entirety, with bone marrow, pork belly, and potted beef & bacon with Yorkshires being starters that would all go down exceedingly well, but alas, today, there was no time for long lunches, so straight on to the main event.

My friend and I were of the same mind, a medium rare ribeye with the stilton hollandaise, and to avoid having to choose between beef dripping chips or triple cooked, we took one of each. The cattle breed here is the Yorkshire longhorn and I can't fault the steak in any respect, I think it was a close to perfect as steak gets. It's a steak you end up longing for and almost uniquely memorable.

Which of the chips you prefer is purely a matter of personal preference, though we were again agreed, the skinnier beef dripping chips came out on top having taken on the fatty umami flavour of the dripping, but the fuller figured triple cooked chips were still very good and great for mopping up steak juices or left over stilton hollandaise. 

Hawksmoor and Goodman are, in our opinion, the two very best steakhouses in London (and the UK) by some margin. Previously however I considered them like Coke and Pepsi, you strongly leaned towards one or the other, and we have, as noted, leaned towards Goodman. But unable to fault the steak here today, I find myself loving them both, so becoming a steakhouse bigamist no less. And the 'punishment' for steakhouse bigamy being what? Twice as much steak I guess; tasting as good as it did today, then bring it on. 

It's a monster drive from Baddidarroch to Edinburgh but I admit it feels good to have the car pointing South again. A last minute change of plan has given us a two night stay in Edinburgh and we both agreed on how to use our new found free evening: steak night. But asking Twitter where to get a good steak in Edinburgh, there was no real consensus. Kyloe was suggested by some and on checking the website it proclaimed itself as 'Edinburgh's first gourmet steak restaurant'. Well, I'm sold then, Kyloe it is.

Located at the end of Princes Street in the Rutland Hotel, Kyloe has taken the steak theme to heart with cow hide seating and, if you like cows, amusing artwork on the wall. Indeed, no one can accuse Kyloe of taking itself too seriously, there's half a cow poking out of the façade of the building while the other half, the rear, protrudes its rump into the dining room. Staff meanwhile excelled in delivering friendly approachable service and made us feel most welcome; everybody smiled too, which can only make the experience more enjoyable. The post dinner comment card invites you to 'fillet in' so this is very much a place where you can let your hair down and have a good time.  

The menu is a touch above many steakhouses in the cuts they offer that include amongst others Bavette, Onglet and Feather steak as well as the usual rumps, sirloins, fillets and T-bones, while ingredients are largely, possibly entirely Scottish. The beef is Angus, dry aged 21 days for the most part, though there's a rump steak available that's 45 day aged. 

Of course, the challenge they are going to face is in comparison: our home territory of London is now blessed with many a great steak house, and it will be impossible not to compare. That said, prices at Kyloe are somewhat cheaper than what you are now paying in London for the same fare and this needs to be taken in to account.

Starters offer a number of decent options and despite scallop overload, Kyloe's offering of Shetland scallops with braised baby gem lettuce, bacon lardons, peas and onions actually sounds reasonably good, but I can't. Local oysters and seafood cocktail are not enough of a test but lobster tempura sounds ideal. When it arrives, it's pretty good, the lobster, from down the road at North Berwick (home of The Lobster Shack) is of course good as Scottish lobster always is, and the ginger dressing adds a nice tang. If there's a criticism, it's that the batter is just a little soft.

Spoiled for choice on the steaks then, but a T-bone is not so often seen on menus, such that I couldn't resist (500grm, £32). Accompanying this were skinny fries and a red wine and Stilton sauce. It was pretty good, my dining companion certainly enjoyed his steak with no complaints. I'd note two things where I thought things could though be a little better: first seasoning, this should have been a lot bolder to really bring out the flavours. Second, possibly being picky here, but it felt that a higher temperature grill would impart a significantly enhanced char to the meat whereas in fact there was little by way of char at all here; I wonder if the charcoal burning Jospers in London have conditioned me towards that extra little bit of smokiness too that's imparted to the meat during cooking. Not to get carried away however, I did enjoy it. 

With a decent house red (£20) and sides hardly costing the earth (£2.50 for most) a full house when we were there testifies to local popularity. Lucky enough to have eaten at London's best however, it would be wrong not to acknowledge that there's a gap in quality between the two, for there is. Kyloe might not care for London is not exactly close by (and so a substitute product), and Kyloe's prices are lower, so if the question is value, the waters are muddied. Relevance can therefore be debated but Kyloe are actually very close to delivering Edinburgh a truly great steak house, they just have to take the final step, but that of course is only if they want to, business is doing just fine as is.



Visit Kyloe website

Previously we visited The Albannach, Lochinver

Next stop: Castle Terrace



Location map for Kyloe