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.
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.
the (somewhat loud) dining room
ribeye steak
beef dripping chips
the business
RSS Feed