London: Amazing steaks at Hawksmoor

Before we went to London, AC and I were drooling over AC’s Hawksmoor cookbook, so when we got hungry on Tuesday night, and Hawksmoor on Air Street apparently was the only restaurant with a table available, it didn’t take long before we decided to slip inside.

Hawksmoor is a huge restaurant and the menu is for people with a huge appetite, so we loosened a few buttons before we sat down, ready for a nice and calorie-intensive evening.

The days where you could read about mad cows in every newspaper are long gone and bone marrow is back on the menu in London’s restaurants. Both AC and I were curious about what that white substance would taste like, so we ordered a “Grilled bone marrow with slow-cooked onions” to share. In came a big bone split longitudinally with onions on top. The marrow tasted very fatty and is definitely not anything I’d order in the future, but at least I’ve tried it now.

Hawksmoor is world famous for its fabulous steaks, so the choice of main course was rather obvious. To accompany the steaks, we ordered Beef Dripping fries; French fries cooked in the fat from the steaks. Unhealthy? Probably. Tasty? Definitely!

AC had pepper sauce along with her steak while I had béarnaise. The beef at Hawksmoor comes from UK-bred free-range Longhorn Cattle. All that fresh air and green grass had really affected the taste in a positive way and apart from the Kobe beef I had in Tokyo a few years ago, my 400g rib eye at Hawksmoor is the best meat I’ve had for a very long time.

400g is a lot of meat, and when I was about halfway I was well aware that I could either continue my personal “girl-versus-food” project, which would probably mean that I had to spend an hour or so gasping, lying on my back, waiting for digestion to kick in, or I could stop with my dignity intact, but with almost 200g of steak left on the plate. Although the first option was tempting, though, I chose to stop while I was still able to button my pants. Dessert? Forget it. I would have needed gastric expansion surgery to squeeze down just the tiniest pudding.

My London Blog

Hawksmoor 5A Air Street, Mayfair, London