You BEAUTIFUL steak you

Whenever a restaurant solely focusses on cooking one thing, you know it has to be relatively decent or pretty soon they will go out of business.

I have to admit, I'm a big fan of any place that does choose to put all its efforts paying homage to one thing: Chicken Shop, Le Relais de Venise, Dirty Burger, Burger & Lobster (OK two things), and now to add to the list: Flat Iron.

When you get that steak craving in London I have always thought you can pretty much go two ways: flash the cash and opt for the tenderest steak Gaucho has to offer on their display board, or head to one of many Angus Steakhouses in Leicester square and sit amongst the tourists clinging to their recently purchased goody bags from M&M World. 

Flat Iron however, one of the ever increasingly popular restaurants where you cannot book, has been offering both good quality and reasonably priced steaks since it first opened in 2012. £10 will get you a flat iron steak from Flat Iron's very own herd in Yorkshire and a side of salad. I'll be honest, I think the side salad was merely there to bring a bit of greenery to the plate and if you opt for any of their side dishes, I'm pretty sure that poor little pile of leaves will be pushed to one side.

The flat iron steak is a shoulder cut of beef that is not often seen. It's cheaper than many but still full of flavour (if not slightly tougher). The restaurant offers other cuts on the specials, but first timers as we were, we ordered the star of the show, along with two sides: chips cooked in beef dripping and creamed spinach. 

I've always liked my meat fairly rare, and the older I've grown, the rarer I like it, to the point where it almost has a pulse. So to my delight and not long after we ordered, out comes an almost breathing piece of beef, sliced and laid across a hot plate encased within a wooden board. 

To the side of my steak lay a minuture cleaver (you can also buy these as a souvenir), slightly OTT but it is the restuarant's trademark logo and actually adds to the experience.

Of course you don't really need the cleaver as your steak comes sliced, however if you are anything like me, you'll end up cutting each slice to savour every last bite.
My steak, although rare (verging on blue), had a slightly charcoaly taste on the outside, finished with a sprinkling of sea salt so that each bite was slightly different from the last.

The creamed spinach was a devilishly good accompliment, in fact I could have had a bowl just of that. It's green, so ticks off one of your five a day, but it's also incredibly indulgent, with a hint of nutmeg adding flavour to an otherwise dull veg.


I was disappointed with the chips. Don't get me wrong, they tasted great, but in this day and age, if you're serving chips they have to more than just sound like they are going to be amazing. Double cooked, triple cooked, beef dripping - I've had them all. Yes these were good chips, greasy good chips. Just not amazing chips.

But of course you don't go there for the chips. And if you are prepared to wait up to an hour (thankfully in a nearby pub if you'd like), then you should definitely visit Flat Iron at one of their two central London locations for the steak (and creamed spinach). 

Yelly-fi-felly-food-belly x

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