Rianne Shlebak
Staff Writer, London
Rianne has been searching for London's best sweet treats and eating every thin-crust pizza in sight since 2019.
LDNGuide
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, these are our favourite London spots to eat a big, juicy piece of meat.
No rating: This is a restaurant we want to re-visit before rating, or it’s a coffee shop, bar, or dessert shop. We only rate spots where you can eat a full meal.
Evenings at Daffodil Mulligan start with Kerrygold-washed Jameson aperitifs and excellent steaks, and end in the basement bar, Gibney’s, preferably with live music and a few new friends. If that doesn’t sound like a good time to you, we should probably part ways here. The dining room at this Irish spot in Old Street is sexy, in the kind of way that a blacksmith’s workshop might be—black walls, candles throwing shadows, and hunks of meat cooked over open flames. The steaks are sourced from Ireland and they’re the thickness of decently sized novels, with caramelised crispy crusts, and come with a portion of chunky onion rings.
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Fine Cut Butchers in Bermondsey is the place to go if you’re a meat-lover. As the name suggests, the restaurant is tucked behind one of London’s best Brazilian butchers, through an almost-secret door. With a narrow strip of patioed floor and a small charcoal grill that the waiters will occasionally tend to, it feels like a backyard in São Paulo. The standout dish is a “starter” of picanha: perfectly cooked rump cap, with a mountain of creamy, crisp-on-the-outside cassava chips and fried onions.
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.
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The Guinea Grill is a crèche for signet rings and tourists in Mayfair. The plaid carpets bring to mind country estates and family crests, food is dished up silver service-style, and diners with flushed cheeks contemplate a post-pie nap in their cushioned chairs. Veganism hasn't reached this historic British spot yet. Low cholesterol and restraint are also foreign concepts. So come ready to take down an excellent 16oz sirloin steak from the restaurant's own meat fridge. It’s all criss-cross scorch marks, a glistening cap of fat, and juicy meat.
A New York-style steakhouse on Maddox Street, Goodman has a chalkboard scrawled with the day's specials, a menu of fillets, strips, and rib-eye steaks, and leather booths that say, “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 wagyu brisket bao, and rib-eye steak that comes with chimichurri on the side. Come for the steak, and stay for the tuna tartare and tacos, and Chilean sea bass iron pot.
When you’re in Knightsbridge and looking for something more affordable (and delicious) 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 rib-eye, picanha, fillet, and striploin steaks for £44 per person. Order some triple-cooked chips on the side, and focus the rest of your stomach space on the meat.
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, and 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 always come sitting in their own smoky juices. Bread is, of course, an absolute necessity for mopping up said juices.
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.
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Sometimes you want steak on the move. We understand, we have a pretty showstopping iron deficiency too. For a quick and really quite delicious weekend steak moment, The Beefsteaks has 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 the naughty meat-themed messages written in lipstick on the mirror in their dining room, to their fantastic £27 per person ‘all in’ option that involves a heady mix of beef, snacks, sides, and chops, Blacklock should rank highly on your list of go-to places for a steak. They’ve also got locations in Covent Garden, the City, Shoreditch, and Canary Wharf, but their feelgood Soho spot is our favourite.
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From spots where sizzling picanha is king, to cafes flogging freshly made, cheesy pão de queijo, to modern fine dining.
Pub burgers, smashburgers, and cheeky double patty numbers, these are our favourites.
Bone marrow, baked beans, and bowls of sponge pudding—this is where to eat the finest British food in London.
Staff Writer, London
Rianne has been searching for London's best sweet treats and eating every thin-crust pizza in sight since 2019.
Senior Staff Writer, London
Heidi has been excessively eating cacio e pepe and writing about it since 2018 and accidentally over-sharing since birth.
Editorial Lead, London
Jake has always been in London but still makes a wrong turn in Soho. When he isn’t in a restaurant, you’ll find him eating Taytos in a pub.
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Sinéad lives in London. She spends her time eating tacos and Guinness cake and explaining that she is not named after Sinéad O'Connor.