The Coal Shed, One Tower Bridge

Brighton steakhouse The Coal Shed (sister restaurant to Brighton’s The Salt Room) has opened its first London location in the plush One Tower Bridge development. This bigger and sleeker take on the original boasts a separate cocktail bar and a private dining room. Interiors are dark and moody, with deep brown walls and emerald green banquettes, while knowledgeable, chatty staff are buttoned up in dark blue shirts. Cuts of the day are written on blackboards to share among big groups, but when dining for two we’d recommend the à la carte. Starters prioritise the restaurant’s seafood offering with the likes of jerk salmon and Orkney scallop, but we were impressed by charred octopus, pepped up with Asian influences such as cubes of daikon and strings of kombu seaweed. For the main event, 35-day aged Scottish steaks come in sirloin and ribeye form among others, with our perfectly cooked fillet joined by accomplished sides, including crispy onion rings, thick triple-cooked beef dripping chips and delicious coal-roasted carrots topped with crème fraîche and sumac. If you’ve got any room left, we’d recommend the dessert ‘small plates’ – toasted marshmallows, doughnuts oozing with warm custard, and salted-caramel ice-cream cones. A strong and varied drinks list caters for both the frugal and big-spenders, while cocktails make use of the resurging classics, such as rum and gin. Head here on a Sunday to sample the ‘sharing roast’ with all the trimmings ­– watch out Hawksmoor, you’ve got competition.