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Galician beef on a black plate on a marble table with red wine at Lurra, one of London’s best steak restaurants Lurra [Official Photo]

Where to Eat Incredible Steak in London

The city’s prime beef is right here

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London’s steak culture is not that of America, Argentina, Italy, or France, but an amalgam of them all, these days anchored by a seriousness and commitment to provenance and welfare that is a credit to the city. The advent of supply lines in the Lake District and Cornwall, in particular, as well as a willingness to try and evolve new sources of meat, like retired dairy cows, has pushed London’s beef past its prime and into something even better. From no reservations steak to plush, nostalgic steakhouses, and Colombian churrasco to Italian Fassona beef, London’s best steak restaurants take one exemplary product and make it something of their own.

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Blacklock Shoreditch

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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.

London’s best Sunday roasts: Blacklock steakhouse’s spread of steaks, lamb chops and pork chops Blacklock [Official Photo]

The Quality Chop House

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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.

A steak served and portioned with sauce and confit potatoes at Quality Chop House, one of London’s best steak restaurants Quality Chop House [Official Photo]

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.

Steak at Brat in London Benjamin McMahon

Le Relais De Venise L'Entrecote

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Institutions go by formulas, rules, and rigmaroles that can either feel inclusive and transportive or arch and starch. Le Relais is the former. Sit down; order a perfectly good salad; order a perfectly cooked steak with rustling frites and a doubly herbed up bearnaise (look, it’s not really a secret sauce); have a second round of steak; maybe order a dessert. That’ll do cow, that’ll do.

Steak, fries, and herb sauce at Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote, one of London’s best steak restaurants Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote [Official Photo]

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.

Galician beef on a black plate on a marble table with red wine at Lurra, one of London’s best steak restaurants Lurra [Official Photo]

Cafe Boheme

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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. 

Steak frites on a white, monogrammed plate at Cafe Boheme, one of London’s best steak restaurants Cafe Boheme [Official Photo]

Goodman - Mayfair

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The first item on this Mayfair steakhouse’s menu is Japanese wagyu, which can portend obnoxiousness and not messing around in equal measure. At Goodman it’s the latter, with both British grass fed and American corn fed steaks available and a hefty blackboard of specials for those wanting to go off piste.

The Guinea Grill

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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.

The beef counter, with rib eyes, chops, and sirloin steaks at the Guinea Grill, one of London’s best steak restaurants Guinea Grill [Official Photo]

CUT at 45 Park Lane

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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.

A steak cooked medium rare and sliced off the bone, with the bone to the left side, presented on a white plate, at Cut, one of London’s best steak restaurants Cut [Official Photo]

Hawksmoor Borough

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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.

Steak in a cast iron dish on a brown, wood restaurant table at Hawksmoor, one of London’s best steak restaurants Hawksmoor [Official Photo]

Flat Iron

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It started with the £10 steak, but Flat Iron deserves praise for quietly and subtly reinventing multiple elements of its offering, from extending its range of cuts to revamping its cooking process, now employing a plancha-like set up across a grill for maximum searing and brushing its steaks with a mixture of Normandy butter and aged beef drippings. For a spontaneous steak, this is the place to come.

Flat Iron Steak’s London menu expands with Shoreditch restaurant on Commercial Street Flat Iron [Official Photo]

Leños & Carbon

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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.

Tomas Jivanda/for Eater London

Sophie's Steakhouse, Chelsea

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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.

Steak on a wooden board with a pot of bearnaise sauce at Sophie’s, one of London’s best steak restaurants Sophie’s [Official Photo]

Macellaio RC Battersea

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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.

Best butchery restaurants with sustainable meat in London: Macellaio RC Macellaio RC [Instagram]

Arlo's Balham

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Since the demise of Hawksmoor’s Foxlow sister brand, neighbourhood steak has waned, but Arlo’s picks up the mantle in Balham with keenly priced, extremely well cooked bavette steaks in sizes fit to feed a hungry person, a hungry family, and just about any other permutation in between. “Trenchers” — little pieces of bread designed to soak up beefy juice, are a masterstroke.

steak at Arlo’s, one of Balham’s best restaurants Arlo’s [Official Photo]

Blacklock Shoreditch

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.

London’s best Sunday roasts: Blacklock steakhouse’s spread of steaks, lamb chops and pork chops Blacklock [Official Photo]

The Quality Chop House

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.

A steak served and portioned with sauce and confit potatoes at Quality Chop House, one of London’s best steak restaurants Quality Chop House [Official Photo]

Brat

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.

Steak at Brat in London Benjamin McMahon

Le Relais De Venise L'Entrecote

Institutions go by formulas, rules, and rigmaroles that can either feel inclusive and transportive or arch and starch. Le Relais is the former. Sit down; order a perfectly good salad; order a perfectly cooked steak with rustling frites and a doubly herbed up bearnaise (look, it’s not really a secret sauce); have a second round of steak; maybe order a dessert. That’ll do cow, that’ll do.

Steak, fries, and herb sauce at Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote, one of London’s best steak restaurants Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote [Official Photo]

Lurra

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.

Galician beef on a black plate on a marble table with red wine at Lurra, one of London’s best steak restaurants Lurra [Official Photo]

Cafe Boheme

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. 

Steak frites on a white, monogrammed plate at Cafe Boheme, one of London’s best steak restaurants Cafe Boheme [Official Photo]

Goodman - Mayfair

The first item on this Mayfair steakhouse’s menu is Japanese wagyu, which can portend obnoxiousness and not messing around in equal measure. At Goodman it’s the latter, with both British grass fed and American corn fed steaks available and a hefty blackboard of specials for those wanting to go off piste.

The Guinea Grill

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.

The beef counter, with rib eyes, chops, and sirloin steaks at the Guinea Grill, one of London’s best steak restaurants Guinea Grill [Official Photo]

CUT at 45 Park Lane

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.

A steak cooked medium rare and sliced off the bone, with the bone to the left side, presented on a white plate, at Cut, one of London’s best steak restaurants Cut [Official Photo]

Hawksmoor Borough

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.

Steak in a cast iron dish on a brown, wood restaurant table at Hawksmoor, one of London’s best steak restaurants Hawksmoor [Official Photo]

Flat Iron

It started with the £10 steak, but Flat Iron deserves praise for quietly and subtly reinventing multiple elements of its offering, from extending its range of cuts to revamping its cooking process, now employing a plancha-like set up across a grill for maximum searing and brushing its steaks with a mixture of Normandy butter and aged beef drippings. For a spontaneous steak, this is the place to come.

Flat Iron Steak’s London menu expands with Shoreditch restaurant on Commercial Street Flat Iron [Official Photo]

Leños & Carbon

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.

Tomas Jivanda/for Eater London

Sophie's Steakhouse, Chelsea

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.

Steak on a wooden board with a pot of bearnaise sauce at Sophie’s, one of London’s best steak restaurants Sophie’s [Official Photo]

Macellaio RC Battersea

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.

Best butchery restaurants with sustainable meat in London: Macellaio RC Macellaio RC [Instagram]

Arlo's Balham

Since the demise of Hawksmoor’s Foxlow sister brand, neighbourhood steak has waned, but Arlo’s picks up the mantle in Balham with keenly priced, extremely well cooked bavette steaks in sizes fit to feed a hungry person, a hungry family, and just about any other permutation in between. “Trenchers” — little pieces of bread designed to soak up beefy juice, are a masterstroke.

steak at Arlo’s, one of Balham’s best restaurants Arlo’s [Official Photo]