I went to Hawksmoor in Spitalfields for a meal last night so I thought I'd write up a quick review. I'm a big meat eater, and I love steak so I was looking forward to it. I've been to many steak restaurants in the UK as well as abroad; places like Maze Grill, Gaucho, Kew Grill, and The Meat and Wine Company amongst many other smaller steak restaurants, and after reading about Hawksmoor here, I was quite excited. Of course I am no expert or food critic, just someone who loves eating good meat
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The fact that I found the restaurant a little noisy and cramped is just my personal preference. The service was very good and attentive without getting in the way. The menu (which is slightly different to the one on their website) has a great selection of cuts, almost too many to choose from. The friend I was with wanted the Bone-in Prime Rib, so we went for 800g cooked medium. No Beef Dripping Chips on the menu
, so just Triple Cooked Chips instead, and some Bone Marrow Gravy and Stilton Hollandaise sauces.
A short while later it arrived at our table. Firstly, I knew how much meat there would be with the bone adding to the weight of the cut, but I didn't want to be greedy so 800g was OK but I could have eaten a lot more. It was cooked well, a little overdone but only very slightly. The taste, the most important part, was nice. That's it. It was nice, and I was a bit disappointed with that. I ate it happily with the lovely chips, sauces and some mustard, and really enjoyed the meal but I was expecting a bit more than just nice steak (Please take into account that this is "nice" compared to steak at other decent steak restaurants. It was considerably better than the steak you'd get at your average restaurant or from the meat fridge at the supermarket).
For me, the overall experience at Gaucho is a lot better. From the slightly quieter more spacious surroundings, the warm breads you get to start with, the meat board they bring round and explain the various cuts, and the (in my opinion) more flavoursome steak. Another thing that I like at Gaucho is that on the menu they have a Sampler option; 300g of fillet, sirloin, ribeye and rump on one board. Perfect to share and to get an idea of the different flavours of each cut.
This is just my experience. I've no doubt that others will go there and have the most fantastic steak, something I wanted but I didn't get. I will go back, and next time I'll be choosing a different cut, perhaps the Chateaubriand which I originally wanted anyway. I hope that I then see (or perhaps taste) just how good it is
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Overall, for a steak restaurant, I'd give it a solid 8 out of 10.