After hearing many reviews of Hawksmoor I finally went last night – thankfully with friends not clients. With accolades of ‘best steak in London’ ringing in my head I was really looking forward to a good meal. Palm and Goodmans have disappointed to the point where I was beginning to think Gaucho as the only viable steak house in town so to be let down so badly by Hawksmoor rankled somewhat.
To be fair it was a busy service with every table full but this should be no excuse to a professional organisation. The service was average at best. We had ordered some oysters to keep us going whilst our starters were being prepared – they arrived shortly after my scallop ( 1 scallop on a blob of champ for £13+) but before the further 5 minute delay for one of my friends lobster. The staff were apologetic and promised not ot charge for the oysters – fair enough.
The steaks eventually arrived – the plates were cold, the steaks were at best warm, the mushrooms were tepid, the spinach the same. The chips were hot however so that was ok… My fillet (£30) for some reason was stringy and cooked medium rare as I had requested – well the top was medium and the bottom rare. The rest of the party suffered no less. The 55 day aged rump – obviously aged in the supermarket fidge – was hard work according to my friends and although tasty, not worth the effort. The chips were nice…
We had a quiet word with the manager after eating and he was most apologetic and again removed some item from our bill. But this is not the point, the problems we experienced were really basic stuff – hot plates ain't hard.
Its a real shame as I was looking forward to this all week. Will I go again? Not sure. I would generally give anywhere a second chance and put it down to bad luck the first time. However £50 for steak, chips and veg stings a bit in the shabby end of Commercial Street. Guess its back to Gauco then…

After having several great meals in the Anchor & Hope I was very keen to try the Canton. Not in the most fashionable part of town admitedly but pretty easy to get to by tube and well worth the effort. We started off with a couple of glasses of one of their guest ales whilst sitting outside watching the world go by, before heading in to discover the delights of the restaurant.
Unfortunately like most of these gastropubs there is no booking facility and on the evening we were there the (very friendly) bar chap suggested we sit down by 7.30 to ensure a table – he wasnt wrong. On a random wednesday evening, every seat was taken by 7.45.
The starters I am sure will become legendary – although billed as a bar snack: Haggis toasties or Foie Gras toasties! I kid you not when I say that they are a work of genius. Obviously cooked in one of the fabled Breville sandwich toasters and served with an excellent chutney or (my preference) some HP sauce. Very rich, very tasty, very good.
Mains were a selection of gastropub standards. We chose from the specials board – 7 hour lamb and a chicken and taragon pie. The lamb was meltingly tender on a bed of lentils and was quite simply superb. The pie :- chicken, white wine, cream, taragon, suet crust – job done. Enough food for 7 people was polished off in record time by 5 of us, although we did forego any vegetable sides, and all washed down with a few bottles of an excellent Spanish red.
Service was very friendly all round with the chef popping out to have a word later in the evening.
All in all – just bloody great. Go there. Tonight. Before too many people find out about it and you have to queue.