LDNGuide
Where To Go When You Just Want A Steak In London
photo credit: Paul Winch-Furniss
When that craving for a meat-heavy, three-hour-long, unbutton-your-trousers kind of meal hits, it’s good to know where to go. And it’s more than just the meat that’s important. It’s the sides, the sauces, and the ratio of serious-looking investment bankers to people actually trying to have fun. From a steakhouse inside a former brothel, to a market stall serving excellent steak and chips, here are our favourite London spots to eat a big, juicy piece of meat.
THE SPOTS
At Hawksmoor, all the meat is sourced from the UK and each steak is cooked to perfection. The Seven Dials location, in particular, has a huge basement room filled with the sounds of people eating red meat and having a good time. The seats are leather, the floors a dark wood, and there are columns pressed into the exposed brick roofs. In other words, it’s a decadent steak cave where no one will be able to see that you’ve got the meat sweats, or that you’ve ordered a third round of the Old Spot belly ribs.
Dry-aged beef meets open grill—The Guinea Grill in Mayfair is a love story we can get behind. This is a classic, wood-panelled, white tablecloth pub-restaurant where juicy porterhouses are paired with creamy pints of Guinness and big, bold reds. Post-sirloin and brandy peppercorn sauce, ward off the meat sweats with a waddle around nearby Green Park.
A New York-style steakhouse on Maddox Street, Goodman is a leather booth-filled spot where you’ll find a chalkboard scrawled with the day's specials, a menu of fillets, strips, and rib-eye steaks, and seating that says, “make yourself comfortable”. It’s not just the excellent cuts of steak that make this place great. It’s the extra chunky chips, creamed spinach, and mashed potato with caramelised shallots, paired with the cosy interiors, that make it the ultimate comfort meal. You can also request halal meat by calling ahead.
This high-end Peruvian spot isn’t a steakhouse. Coya is a foliage-filled bar and restaurant in Mayfair serving excellent ceviche, adorable baby brisket bao, and rib-eye steak that comes with chimichurri on the side. Come for the steak, and stay for the tuna tacos and Chilean sea bass iron pot.
When you’re in Knightsbridge and looking for something more affordable than Salt Bae’s notoriously pricey steakhouse, head to Zelman Meats. At this halal steak restaurant on the top floor of Harvey Nichols, you can get a sharing platter with every cut of meat for £53 per person. Order the lobster croquettes and some triple-cooked chips on the side, and focus the rest of your stomach space on the meat.
This Marylebone spot is not just a delightful mix of distant jazz, hubbub, cutlery clatter, and softly spoken, unshowy, super-confident service. The Argentinian restaurant is also home to one of the best steak experiences in London. Zoilo’s 400g Argentinian rib-eye, cooked medium rare, allows the natural beefy flavours to combine subtly with just the right amount of salt and flame. With steak this good, the chimichurri and cauliflower and cheese sides are almost unnecessary, but still absolutely welcome.
photo credit: Paul Winch-Furniss
Brutto’s chalkboard is an enticing list of eight or nine steaks, varying in weight, that are crossed off once ordered. When they’re gone, they’re gone. The Farringdon trattoria is one of London's best Italian restaurants and really knows how to cook a steak. Charred and tender with crystals of salt scattered on top, specks of pink flesh still clinging to the t-bone begging to be gnawed off. It doesn’t need anything else, but green beans or a salad on the side lets it speak for itself.
Although Brat, a Shoreditch restaurant with a Basque-inspired menu, is known for their whole turbot, it should be little surprise that it’s also one of London’s best restaurants to come to for steak. Their open-fire approach to cooking lends itself to massive juicy sirloin and beef ribs that, best of all, always come sitting in their own smoky juices. Bread is, of course, an absolutely necessary side to mop up said juices.
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Quality Chop House is a Clerkenwell institution that screams red meat and gout, given its Grade II-listed Victorian aesthetic and its British menu. Hereford bavette steak, bone-in rib-eye, a hunk of Sussex sirloin. The choice and size depends on how many carnivores are in your group. The more straightforward decision lies in their sides. Those famous, intricate, many-layered, crispy confit potatoes are an absolute non-negotiable order.
Ordering a steak off of a blackboard is a real mood. The mood being “I am a carnivore with a penchant for ordering experiences that make me feel like I’m in the countryside”. Smokehouse, a British spot in Islington, not only has an excellent blackboard menu and top fresh cuts of quality meat, they also have the perfect setting to enjoy it in. Think roaring fires, a bar with plenty of rich red wines, and that countryside pub look that will warm your cold little London heart. The meat offerings change regularly, but if the smoked featherblade is on, make sure it’s also on your table.
Sometimes you want steak on the move. We understand, we have a pretty showstopping iron deficiency too. For a quickfire and really quite delicious weekend steak moment, The Beefsteaks have got you covered. They serve steak and chips at Maltby Street Market and the prices are very reasonable. Of course, we could go on about how the beef is sourced and how it was bred, but all you need to know is that it tastes really good on a bed of hand-cut crispy fries, especially when both are drenched in chimichurri or béarnaise sauce.
Cheeky, cheeky Blacklock. This is a steak restaurant with a sense of humour, a distinct understanding of what constitutes a fun night, and a love for great deals. From their naughty meat-themed messages written in lipstick on the mirror in their dining room—let’s talk about chops baby, let’s talk about you and meat—to their fantastic £25 per person ‘all in’ option that involves a heady mix of beef, snacks, sides, and chops, Blacklock should always rank highly on your list of go-to places for a steak. They’ve also got locations in Covent Garden, the City, and Shoreditch, but their feelgood Soho spot is our favourite.
