Gordon Ker’s homage to quality British meat is dependent on a special relationship with Cornwall butcher Warren’s — it’s one that brings value for money as well as impeccable meat. Proper dry-aged, grass-fed steak is always charred, juicy, and lightly funky. It’s as good as it gets, especially when accompanied by the crispiest dripping-fried chips, and surely London’s finest gravy. Chops — lamb and pork — either “skinny” or fat — and one of the city’s best Sunday roasts are worth trying on subsequent visits.

Quality Chop House is a specialist in rich, rustic dishes, many of which use first-rate beef (they butcher their own aged meat next door). Much of the menu speaks to the heritage of the site — once a Farringdon working man’s eating house — in a 21st-century accent. A range of aged cuts here are served with fine sauces and the kitchen’s very fine version of London’s famed confit potato.

Brat is most famous for its slow-grilled turbot, but for those in search of beef, there’s more from Philip Warren, either sirloin for smaller parties or ribs for those wanting to go all the way. Tomatoes are a strong side for those wanting to fully emulate chef Tomos Parry’s love of Basque grill culture, but smoked potatoes are a fragrant, buttery stand-in for the noble chip.

Lurra was serving dairy cow beef, grilled over wood until its rich yellow fat renders like butter, well before London decided it was cool. Still one of the best places for Galician txuleton in the capital, there’s also the option of a British dairy cow sirloin, which comes with a sprightly chimichurri sauce. Get the boquerones and sourdough with bone marrow before the main event.

A Soho institution reopened in January 2018. Cafe Boheme, a competent imitation French bistro on the corner of Old Compton Street and Greek Street, has been missed since its closure for refurbishment in 2016. The best thing on the menu are classics, like steak frites and escargots with smoked bacon and garlic, can be ordered until the early hours — the kitchen closes at 3am, making it an anomaly with peculiarly irony in what is one of the great centres of London night life. 

The Guinea Grill never shies away from large format beef, putting it front and centre in a glass cabinet at the Mayfair restaurant. It’s Scottish and grass fed here, with a serious list of options “to complement,” ranging from ox heart to perigord truffle.

CUT is for high-rollers who like beef. A blisteringly uncivil combination on any given day. Here is a menu that features the widest (and most expensive) selection of both Australian and Japanese Wagyu beef in London. Prices top out at £160 for a rib-eye from the Kyushu prefecture. Being broadly American and with chef Wolfgang Puck’s name above the door, there’s a range of USDA kit too. And, well, since it’s in London, it serves a comparatively (by its own standards, and for Park Lane) affordable £45 6oz Hereford beef fillet with a choice of salads.

Grass-fed, British cows are the star at Hawksmoor, whose mini steak empire is among the most characterful and consistent in the capital. Large-format cuts, chalked up on a blackboard, are the speciality, but there’s fillet, rib-eye, sirloin, and rump for those going solo. Chips are exemplary and side orders range from the greasy joy of bone marrow to half a lobster. Choose a fighter.

Here, in the arches of Elephant and Castle, the move is Colombian churrasco. Less a T-bone steak and more a dictionary-thick, grill-snogged slab, it remains rosy in the centre thanks to deft cooking, the blistered exterior hiding treasure. If wishing to add, there are two directions — more meat, with pork ribs and Colombian sausages, or patacones con todo: a plate of chicharron, shredded beef, shredded chicken, guacamole, farmer’s cheese, mayonnaise and pineapple sauce that would definitely do as a meal but here, on a menu of heft and generosity, is definitely a side.

At Sophies, which has been delivering the goods in Chelsea for 17 years, steak is to be shared. With beef supplied by Cornish butcher Warren’s, a blackboard details the available cote de boeuf, while porterhouse or chateaubriand cuts are also available for the hungry. Elsewhere, a changing butcher’s cut keeps the standards interesting, and a signature 10oz martini the sharpener of choice.

Macellaio — now with five London restaurants — specialises in Fassona beef from the Italian Alps. Here, costata (rib eye) and Fiorentina (T-Bone) are the steaks to order, with starters including Fassona beef heart, tongue, tartare, and carpaccio demonstrating a noble commitment to honouring the cow.