Oh. My. Heavens.
Picture the scene, a jumping Friday night, nine work colleagues who've already managed to cram in a couple of cocktails, and the anticipation of some Tomahawk steaks. The tension was high, it had been a long day, we were hungry, we were thirsty but, and this is a very important but, we had a table booked!
After some deliberation - the choice of beers is impressive - drinks were ordered, and we confirmed when our steaks would be ready. When you pre-order Tomahawk steaks (and you have to pre-order) they give you an estimated time for when it will be ready so we had a sense of when our food might be ready but, alas, for a few of us at my end of the table, it wasn't going to be soon enough so, OH NO!, we decided to order the Trinity Sampler between as a starter.
Oh. My. Heavens.
1/2 rack ribs, 1/4lbs of pulled pork, 1/4lbs of beef brisket - which you go and collect and they plop on a metal tray (it's a bit like getting your school lunch!) - were collected and very very quickly devoured. Well, that was after the first few mouthfuls which included a lot of 'Oh. My. Heavens' and eye rolls at the sheer deliciousness of each item. I'm not a big fan of ribs but as they smoked the meat, rather than dose it in messy sauces, these were perfect. The meat fell off the bone and was wonderfully moist. The pulled pork was probably my favourite, a nice spicy tang and some cripsy bits in there too. The beef brisket was very tender but a little dry but, and I can't stress this enough, I am being very picky!
And then it was time for the Tomahawks! Well, I say it was time, it was about 15-20 mins later than originally stated but one of the chefs had already told us they'd take a little longer as they were 'a little bigger than the usual ones we get'! It's fair to say that when they brought them out and placed them in front of us I did wonder, very briefly, if we'd bitten off more than we could chew!
The sides also arrived, I kept it simple and went with the potato salad which was ok but nothing special, but I did manage to try the macaroni cheese which was wonderfully cheese and nicely stodgy, and the beans which were a mix of beans in a tomato sauce which were ok. The star was definitely the grilled beetroot and goats cheese, I could probably eat a couple of portions of tihs on their own!
But to the star of the show.
Oh. My. Heavens.
I should point out now that I'm usually a fillet man. I know, I know, 'all the flavour is in the fat' but I have a bit of a thing about eating fat (bleuch) so tend to stick to fillet to be safe. After Friday night, I might have to revisit that!
The Tomahawk was medium rare and as much as it's a cliche, it simply melted in the mouth. It was moist, smokey, the crust had a nice salty kick, tender and absolutely delicious. Massively impressive given the sheer size of the cut of meat (it's presented with the bone for added 'woooooo' factor).
And yes, three of us managed to finish it so - if you skipped starters - I reckon two could take one down but both people would need hefty appetites!
Naturally I had space for dessert, peanut butter ice cream and cookies which I didn't eat all of but was pretty damn good. However, next time I think I'll skip any thought of a dessert as it didn't really add to the meal.
A couple of other things to note, the staff were excellent, accomodating, helpful and made the night a lot of fun, and the price. Admittedly we paid a deposit (£50 for the group), and got a 10% discount as one of our party is a Brewdog shareholder but somehow the several beers, starter, massive steaks, filling sides and sweet desserts still only cost us £25 a head!! I'm pretty sure they screwed up, they must've (if so, we are sorry, get in touch and we will sort it out!).
In short (and I know what you are thinking, WHY DIDN'T HE START WITH THE SHORT VERSION!!), delicious smoked meat, excellent beer, fantastic service, if you haven't been yet, GET THERE!
Or, perhaps I can just sum it up this way.
Oh. My. Heavens. read more