Review: Flat Iron

August 20, 2012 3 Comments

@flatironsteak Craft butchery, remarkable steak, residency above The Owl & Pussycat (@34redchurch). steakiswhatyouwant.com

So, I’m certainly not the first person to have written a review about this Shoreditch Pop-Up. That makes writing this post harder and with 6 days left for those of you that have not experienced the joys of Flat Iron yet, read this then go, go, GO!

Back to the story… I’d been wanting to visit for a while, but hadn’t found the time. Wait a minute, you don’t care about when, why, how I eventually got there, you just wanna know about the food…!

There were three of us dining, which meant, 3 steaks please. We asked to have them done however the chefs recommended because of this we expected the meat to be rarer when it came to the table but I’d say it must have been the rarer side of medium-rare. There is a choice of 4 sauces, I’m not a fan of Horseradish but we wanted to try them all so we went for the remaining three, Bloody Mary, Béarnaise and Peppercorn, each at an extra £1 to the £10 steak (which includes salad).

My favourite sauce was the Béarnaise, creamy and classic, the Peppercorn was also lovely, a thinner texture to the Béarnaise. Bloody Mary was the most extraordinary of them, much fresher, cool sauce with a classic Bloody Mary kick – I thought it was nice but the flavour was too overpowering matched with the steak.

So, the steak. The steak. The juicy, tough flat iron steak. Absolutely delicious. I’ve only ever had flat iron steak once before, in a restaurant chain in France that only served flat iron steak and frites, that was bloody amazing and is a food memory I’ve never replaced. Until now. For those of you who don’t know what flat iron steak is as oppose to steak, steak, here’s the wiki definition:

Flat iron steak is the American name for the cut known as butlers’ steak in the UK and oyster blade steak in Australia and New Zealand. It is cut with the grain, from the shoulder of the animal, producing a cut that tastes good, but is a bit tougher because it’s not cross-grain.

For our sides, we chose one portion of fries and roasted aubergine. The fries are listed in the menu as Dripping Cooked Chips – having read other foodie reviews my hopes and dreams of actual dripping, cooked, chips had been prematurely shattered. These were standard chips, fries – nothing fancy, which I’d expected so wasn’t at all disappointed but thought it was a necessary heads up for you guys. The Roasted Aubergine on the other-hand was lush! I wanted a lot more of it, the photo above does not do it justice – the aubergine was roasted in tomato, basil and parmesan. I’m a fan of the vegetable anyway, being an item in my weekly shop I definitely want to get my hands on that recipe.

As we went on a Tuesday, we didn’t go wild when it came to the cocktail menu. I had the Strawberry, Basil and Earl Grey Collins which was just to my liking, refreshing with a tea after taste. There is a selection of 6 alcoholic cocktails as well as a couple of mocktail versions. Beers were mostly local and the wine selection was decent.

Attention to detail at Flat Iron is perfect, the design of the menu is fantastic, the tea-lights floating in water filled glass jars were beautiful additions. The cleavers, instead of a table knife are great and ease the eating experience. The service was impeccable and considering it’s a pop-up restaurant where you’re unable to make reservations, which means punters queuing out the door I was impressed that we weren’t hurried out the door for someone else to take our table once we’re paid.

If I did spend my blogging life reviewing restaurants, this would be in my top 10.

Details

ADDRESS – Upstairs At The Owl & Pussycat, 34 Redchurch Street, London, E2 7DP

OPENING TIMES – TUESDAY – SATURDAY, 6PM – 10PM

WEBSITE – steakiswhatyouwant.com

TWITTER – @flatironsteak

FACEBOOK – www.facebook.com/FlatIronSteak

UPDATE 21/08/2012

CategoriesFood & Drink, London
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