Great steak?
Although my friend and I were off to shaky start by first being ignored by staff as we waited for an eternity at the entrance before we were greeted. When finally we were acknowledged we were led to one of four empty tables, the waitress seemed unsure that any of these tables were available, at which point, we were abandoned, and left to hover (unintentionally) intimidatingly over other diners.
After a little more of a wait, we were seated at the original table. When finally seated and relaxed I took the time to savour my surroundings - Wigmore Street has some of my favorite restaurants there. The buildings are all amazing in their own right along Wigmore (just North of Oxford Street) and this trickled down impressively to the interior of Black and Blue. High ceilings always float my boat and the tasteful, solid interior gave confidence back after the shambolic start of our experience there.
The only thing worse than general food envy is steak envy. When your dining pals have all got what appears to be piece of cow that was delicately removed from the moo creature after an extended stay at the Sanctuary and all you have is a tiny gristle laden (my mind returns to Red's steak at Savoir Faire Yelp evening) steak that even your dog would take a look at and return happily to his rubber chew toy. So, as ever, I oscillated between choices...
Mmmmm Rib Eye is gooood, mmmmm, mmmmm, but Filet is better, mmmmm, but ooooh looook, T-Bone, oh, but I'm not hungry enough for all of that meat, mmmm, oh look, Rump on the specials board, it is always really tasty, mmmmmm, but Filet is going to be brilliant, but if I get a T-Bone it is more for my money, mmmmm, but.... ENOUGH! Mark and I both went for Rib Eye. He said it was great last time.
After an impressively short time, my medium as opposed to medium-rare steak surfaced. I chose mine to be topped with fois gras which proved to be a tasty addition. Chips accompanied the steak on the plate and a side salad was divided between us.
Hmmmm.
Where. To. Begin...
The steak was average at best - one side was nice enough, but the other side was decidedly chewy for both of our meals.
The chips were pretty useless. They were reminiscent of the chips that Wetherspoons serve, only with less taste and overcooked to harsh crunchiness.
The salad arrived with what appeared to be Tesco value cheese grated over it. Great. Especially if you don't eat cheese like myself.
The Argentinean red however, was impressive and was pretty good value.
Our bill was £75. Pretty steep for average steak frite and a bottle of plonk.
The best part of the evening was that one of the adjacent tables seemed to have the ability to teleport the cast from American Psycho there. The three of them (I really hope they were called Bateman, Price and McDermott) obviously thought that the meal would have been too cheap and would have gotten an eight o'clock res at Dorsia next time. Good idea. read more