CAU - Carne Unica Argentina (An Argentinian Steakhouse)

Name: Cau (Carne Argentina Unica)

Where: St Katharine's Dock, 1 Commodity Quay, London, E1W 1AZ, www.caurestaurants.com

Cost: Small eats are priced from £3.75 to £7.95, burgers from £10.95 to £11.95. Steaks range from £14.50 for a 220g cut of rump, to £38.50 for a 600g cut of top rump, while the Cau feasting plate, with 1.2kg of meat for sharing between two, weighs in at £84.95. Aside from steaks, there are fish, pork and vegetarian mains ranging from £9.95 to £15.25. Sides are £2.95 to £3.95. 

Cocktails are all priced at a reasonable £6.25, and the wine list is mostly Argentinian, but with entry level options including a Yecla Macabeo white and a Finca Valero Carinena red, both from Spain, and priced at £17.50 each.    

About: The sister restaurant to the Gaucho group, this chain of restaurants is a less ostentatious version (no calf skins on the walls or chairs here), but serving a similar quality of Argentinian beef. It has branches across the UK.

The restaurant overlooks the lovely St Katherine’s Dock by the Tower of London, making for a beautiful setting. Inside, the decor is simple, with charcoal grey floor tiles, white chairs and black wooden tables, and walls clad in corrugated sheets of shiny white plastic.

On the evening we were there, the restaurant was busy with a mixed clientele ranging from City types to 20-something diners.

What We Ate: From the small plates menu, we started with the salt and pepper squid (£5.95), served with chilli and spring onion, and chipotle mayo. This was very good, crispy but with deliciously tender squid.

Also good was the belly of pork tempura (£7.95) -  meltingly tender pork belly in a thin crispy batter. Delicious as it was, it had little resemblance to tempura, being made with a standard fish-and-chip style batter rather than a superfine crispy tempura batter. It was served with 'CAUchup' - a spiced tomato ketchup with a dominant, perhaps excessive, flavour of cloves.

Moving onto mains, tempting though the other options were, we plumped for the 1.2 kilo Cau feasting plate (£84.95), and what a feast it was! With 400g each of lomito, asado de chorizo and tira de ancho cuts, it was easily enough for 3 or even 4 people. The lomito is a fillet of rump, said to combine the flavour of the rump and tenderness of the fillet, and was served at Cau with a delicious blue cheese sauce. The asado de chorizo was a sirloin steak in a churrasco marinade of smoked paprika, aji molido (crushed chillies), garlic and parsley. This was a good cut of beef, although I thought it was a little overpowered by paprika. The tira de ancho was a spiral cut of rib-eye, marinated in chimichurri and grilled slowly. Perfectly cooked, medium rare, this was excellent, and my favourite of the three.

To accompany, we had some very good, triple-cooked thick cut chips. The truffle mac'n'cheese had a delicious truffle aroma, but the macaroni was sadly lacking in both cheese and salt. For dessert, we had the churros (£4.95) - Argentinian-style doughnuts, dusted with cinnamon sugar and served with dulce de leche.

Dr G opted for the alfajores ice cream sandwich (£5.95). This was a dulce de leche ice cream sandwich made with Argentinian cookies and desiccated coconut. The dessert was intensely sweet but authentically Argentinian, and reminded me of desserts I had a few years ago in Buenos Aires.

What We Drank: We shared a bottle of Andeluna 1300 Malbec 2014, Mendoza, Argentina. £29.50. This was a full-flavoured, straightforward wine with plenty of blackberry fruit, soft tannins and an easy-drinking finish.

With dessert, we had a glass of Susana Balbo late harvest Torrontes 2010 from Argentina (£5.50 for 50ml). With honey and jasmine on the nose, this sweet white wine had luscious sweet fruit but I thought it lacked balancing acidity. The Zuccardi Malamado Port-style Malbec from Argentina (£4.50 for 50ml), had a lovely weight of intense, sweet blackberry fruit. 

Likes: The quality of the beef served at Cau is very good, the pork belly tempura and salt and pepper squid too. Service was friendly, well- informed and entertaining. There is a lovely view over St Katherine's dock. 

Dislikes: The only snag we had during this meal was the mac’n’cheese.  I love this dish when it is well made, but Cau’s lacked flavour and needs looking at I think. 

Verdict: Cau is a casual restaurant serving good quality, well-cooked beef at reasonable prices.  Cocktails are also commendably affordable. Great service and location. Recommended. 

JW Steakhouse Revisited (And It is Still a Treat)!

Name: JW Steakhouse

Where: The Grosvenor House Hotel, 86 Park Lane, London W1K 7TN

Cost: An average of £75 per person plus service. From the standard dinner menu, starters range from £8 to £27, main courses from £16 to £44 (for the Tomahawk rib eye steak), and desserts from £7 to £14 (for the fabulous cheesecake).

About: Having visited JW Steakhouse in October 2013 (reviewed here) and thoroughly enjoyed my meal there, I looked forward to returning a couple of weeks ago to try their new seasonal menu.

JW Steakhouse opened in 2010 at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Mayfair's Park Lane, and is one of the few restaurants of its kind in London featuring grain-fed American USDA certified beef from Creekstone, as well as grass-fed Aberdeen Angus from Macken Brothers of Chiswick.

The menu, not surprisingly, is focussed on steak. The restaurant is situated on the ground floor of the hotel, which opened in 1929, and after extensive renovation was opened as a JW Marriott hotel in 2008.

Despite its fancy location on Park Lane, the restaurant has a rather casual and laid-back feel about it akin to an American Steakhouse. It is frequented by hotel guests and Londoners alike and on the night we were there, the place was full.

The restaurant has one of those super-duper Montague Legend Radiant Grills that sears meat at 650°C, giving a perfect and even seal and juicy steaks with fantastic flavour.

What We Ate: I rarely mention a restaurant’s bread basket in my restaurant reviews but I could not let the JW Steakhouse’s Parker House Rolls go unreported. These feather-light, buttery rolls with a crispy shell and crusted with sea-salt were utterly delicious. They date back to the 1870s when they were invented at the Parker House Hotel in Boston, where they are still being served.

Knowing that we would be having a very meaty dinner, we opted for the Seafood Platter for 2 (£28) to get things going. With a selection of rock oysters, jumbo shrimp and lump crab, this was a delicious and refreshing starter, accompanied by a delicately sweet Mary Rose sauce made from tomato chutney and mayonnaise.

For the main course, we decided to compare grain-fed American versus grass-fed British beef. We chose the American USDA Porterhouse Steak (£59 for 800g – a serving for 2) that came with a very well-made Béarnaise sauce. The steak was excellent, thick but tender, well-marbled and richly flavoured, the meat was cooked rare just as requested. This was a fantastic steak.

We ordered the British Rib-eye (£32 for 400g) with an optional topping of Oscar lump crab, asparagus and Béarnaise (£8 extra). This was again very good and beautifully cooked, but in my opinion, it lacked the richness and intense savoury qualities of its American cousin. We would have been completely happy with the British Rib-eye had we not just tried the USDA Porterhouse though.

The magnificent lobster mac ‘n cheese which we had at our last meal at JW Steakhouse (and probably one of the reasons for our return visit) was unfortunately not available on the night. Instead, we shared a Cheddar Mac 'n Cheese (£6). The texture was just right - neither watery, nor too dry, and with plenty of nutmeg.  The only pity was that, for my palate, the cheese used to make the sauce could have been a bit more robust.

We also had the Iceberg Wedge with Blue Cheese and Crispy Bacon (£9). This was delicious, with salty blue cheese & bacon contrasting so well with the refreshing lettuce.

With our steaks, chips were just too tempting to miss. So we ordered a portion of Fries with Truffled Salt (£5). These were excellent and crispy although the flavour of truffle was not totally obvious to me.

For dessert, there was no doubt in our minds but to go for the restaurant’s signature Cheesecake (£14). Described in their menu as “the best cheesecake this side of the pond”, this is indeed no exaggeration. This heavenly creation is a must-have I remembered from my previous visit. It is magnificently creamy and rich, but also light due to the use of soured cream that gives it a refreshing acidity. The cheesecake is for 2 people although it is far too much to eat in one sitting. The staff are well used to that and have specially designed carriers for diners to take the cheesecake home safely to enjoy for breakfast.

What We Drank: We shared a bottle of Paul Jaboulet Crozes Hermitage Les Jalets 2010 (£38).  This was a very good match for the beef, with powerful blackberry fruit flavours and plenty of tannin. Given that it is available from The Wine Society for £15, a mark-up of only just over 2 fold for a Park Lane hotel seemed very good value. The entry-level red wine is £34.

Likes: Excellent quality USDA and British beef, expertly cooked. The most delicious cheesecake I can remember. Great wine selection, with a very reasonable mark-up.

Dislikes: Having a TV constantly showing sporting fixtures was the only downer. Prices are on the steep side.

Verdict: Top notch steaks, a fantastic wine selection and excellent service make JWS one of the best steakhouses in London. A perfect meal for me here would be their USDA Porterhouse steak, the lobster mac 'n cheese, followed by the signature cheesecake - all unmissable. Very highly recommended.