Steaks Galore, Parmesan Chips and Ice Cream at Boyds Grill & Wine Bar

Name: Boyds Grill & Wine Bar

Where: 8 Northumberland Avenue, London, WC2N 5BY, http://www.boydsgrillandwinebar.co.uk/

Cost: Hot and cold small eats are all priced at £5. Charcuterie and cheese platters for sharing between two cost £19.95. Grilled meat or fish main courses range from £14 to £50, with most being around the £15 to £20 mark. Side dishes are £4.

The wine list is comprehensive, with a focus on classic French regions, but with a good representation of wines from England, the rest of Europe and the New World. There is a good selection of wines by the glass. By the bottle, the entry-level white is a Solano Blanco 2014 from Galicia, Spain at £21.50. The red, at the same price point, is a Tarabilla Tinto 2014 also from Galicia. Prices ascend as far as the Cos d'Estournel 'Les Pagodes de Cos' 2009 at £192.50. 

About: Situated on the ground floor of the The Grand Hotel, Trafalgar Square, Boyds Grill & Wine Bar is set in a sumptuous room, dating back to the origins of the hotel, with black and white marble walls and floors, and a glamorous copper-topped bar in the centre of the dining area.

The menu, designed by Executive British chef Nate Brewster, features an extensive range of grilled meats, all cooked on a high heat, eco-friendly Synergy Grill, which claims to retain the natural juices of the meat and give it an authentic barbecue charred flavour.

Signature dishes include a Tomahawk rib steak, served with two sides and two sauces (1.2kg, £70 to share), and braised short rib sandwich with caramelised onion, rocket and jus (£10.95).

There is a range of British meats to choose for the grill, including British Wagyu beef, Scottish Black Gold beef, Welsh lamb, Suffolk pork and Norfolk black chicken.  For those with fish and seafood in mind, there is a selection of small plates and fish dishes.

If you get to visit Boyds Grill & Wine Bar, the Dessert Bar experience is not be missed – for £11.95 per person, the pastry chef will prepare (and demonstrate) up to 11 different types of ice cream and sorbet using liquid nitrogen, but more on that later.

What We Had: We started with a selection of small eats (£5 each) and a glass of fine Nyetimber Classic Cuvee 2010 (£10 per glass). The salmon tartare with avocado, mango and chilli was zingy, well seasoned and beautifully presented.

Equally good were the Mac n Cheese croquettes (with Wookey Hole cheddar), served with Boyds own bbq sauce. Crunchy on the outside but cheesy and delicious inside, I love Mac n’ Cheese in any shape or form, and these were no exception.

The duck liver parfait with crispy brioche, fig and mandarin meringue was also good – I particularly liked the citrusy, sweet meringue combined with the creamy liver parfait, a revelation.

I enjoyed the tongue-in-cheek fish and shellfish goujons deep-fried in beer batter and served with a curried hollandaise much like a posh chippy's curry sauce.

We were very impressed by the eclectic and surprisingly well priced wine list, we went a bit overboard on our choices. Accompanying our starters, we ordered 3 different whites: the Austrian Gruner Veltliner, Lossterrassen Weingut 2014 (£8.25 per glass) was a good example of its kind, with apricot and gooseberry flavours. The Croatian Primus Reisling, Bolfan 2012 (£7 per glass) was rich and off-dry, with green apple and mineral aromas. Best of all was the Puilly Fuisse 'Vieilles Vignes' 2014, from Domain Patriarche, Burgundy (£10.25 per glass) - made from 100% chardonnay, this was rich and concentrated with subtle tropical fruit aromas. 

The starters were followed by a scrumptious meat platter (all Boyds meat comes from British farms), including pork chop (£17), Black Gold rib eye, lamb hogget (£18), and Wagyu minute steak. Lamb is a sheep aged up to 1 year, while the hogget is aged between 1 and 2 years (over 2 years it becomes mutton). The hogget had a great depth of flavour while still retaining the tenderness of lamb.

Boyds gets its Wagyu from Sussex, where native cows have been crossed with Red Wagyu from Australia and the USA. The final product is a 28 day dry-aged, beautifully marbled and tender cut of beef.

Sides (£4 each) were assorted seasonal vegetables, Parmesan fries and triple cooked sweet potato wedges, served with lemon, thyme and Port jus, and a Béarnaise sauce (£1.95 each). The Parmesan fries were among the finest chips I have ever had the pleasure of eating - light, fluffy, crisp and cheesy all at the same time.

With the meats, we had an outstanding glass of Gevrey Chambertin 'Vieilles Vignes' 2011 from Domain Gerard Seguin (£67 per bottle). Refined and elegant, this had delicate redcurrant fruit and a surprisingly long finish.   

The Chateauneuf du Pape 'Le Calice de St-Pierre' 2014 (£47 per bottle) was altogether more robust as would be expected from this hot climate area, and more than a match for the richer meats, with black berry fruit and a good grip of tannin. 
  
One of my favourite red wines is Chateau Musar 2007, from the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon (£61 per bottle). This was an excellent vintage, with brambles, plums, leather, tobacco and just a hint of mushroom. 

After dinner, there is an option for diners to have the Dessert Bar Experience (£11.95 per person), where some amazing ice creams are rustled up to order.

The Dessert Bar experience includes up to 11 different ice creams and sorbets, from a mind-boggling array of fruit creams and purées, where guests are invited to select their favourite flavours. They are then mixed with liquid nitrogen at -190 degrees centigrade, to create an amazingly light and airy ice cream. The Dessert Bar Experience can also be enjoyed on its own, without any requirement to eat dinner at the restaurant.

We started with “Dragon's Breath” – a selection of flavoured, superchilled meringues that literally froze the breath, followed by the ice creams.

Some highlights were intensely flavoured and creamy blackberry and raspberry ice creams. The Jack Daniels ice cream came on a classic vanilla base, while the lemon sorbet made with Limoncello was mouthwateringly refreshing.

We went on to have some increasingly unusual flavours - why go for vanilla when you can have smoked strawberry, smoky bacon, English breakfast tea, canned pork and picallilli, dill and cream cheese, and even smoked salmon and wasabi!

With dessert, we had a chilled and creamy cocktail of Baileys, Sambuca and Espresso that went down a treat. 

Likes: Trafalgar Square location, elegant dining room, fantastic chips, a great selection of grilled beef, Wagyu and other meats. The small eats are well made and very reasonably priced. Loved the Dessert Bar Experience!

Dislikes: None

Verdict: A perfect meal for me at Boyds Grill and Wine Bar starts with their Black Gold rib eye accompanied by the scrumptious Parmesan chips and a large glass of 2007 Chateau Musar. The Dessert Bar is an experience not to be missed, and is worth a trip to the restaurant in its own right. I cannot wait to return. Highly recommended.

Manhattan Grill Steakhouse, West India Quay

Name: Manhattan Grill West India Quay

Where: The ground floor of the Marriott Hotel, West India Quay, 22 Hertsmere Road, London E14 4ED, http://manhattangrill.co.uk/

Cost: Average spend is around £50 per person (not including drinks). There are 6 appetisers, priced from £6.50 to £15. Steaks are £24 to £34, with non-steak main courses costing £8 to £15, and side dishes at £4-8.   

About: The Manhattan Grill is a steakhouse in Canary Wharf, specializing in wet-aged USDA prime Black Angus from Creekstone Kansas, and dry-aged Scottish cuts from Inverurie – the birthplace of Aberdeen Angus steak.

Situated on the ground floor of the Marriot Hotel, right next door to the station, it overlooks the waterfront of West India Quay. The Manhattan Grill is an elegant restaurant, if a tad corporate in feel.

The dining room is long and spacious, with comfortable cream leather chairs, and an impressive open-plan kitchen.  There are floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the quay, and if the weather is fine, there are outdoor tables too.

What We Ate: We started with the seared black pearl scallops (£15). With a delectable pea puree and bacon grilled until crisp, the scallops were meaty, of great quality and well cooked.

Equally good was the baked blue swimmer crab cake, presented with soft flakes of fresh crab and a dressed green salad, served with a tartar sauce (£12).

For the main course, we shared two of their signature steaks: the Creekstone Kansas USDA Black Angus Rib Eye (bone in) 16oz (£34) and the Scottish Aberdeen Angus T-bone 20oz steak which was a whopper (£32.50).

Creekstone Kansas USDA Black Angus Rib Eye (bone in) 16oz at £34

The steaks were both delicious, and cooked medium rare as requested. They were evenly marbled and well-flavoured, generously encrusted in salt. The steaks were served with a selection of sauces, including horseradish, chimichurri and béarnaise. I am not one to leave food on my plate, but I must admit that in the end, we were sadly defeated by the enormity of those steaks!

Scottish Aberdeen Angus T-bone, 20oz at £32.50

The restaurant claims to feature a Montague grill that heats up to 650°C, a grill oven that is similar in concept to a Josper grill. The steaks though deliciouls could have done with a little more caramelisation in my opinion so the benefits of a Montague grill are still to be seen.

Meat comes from Russell Hume in Chelsea, who supplies to most of the Marriot group, while the USDA steaks come from Freedom Foods.

To accompany our steaks, we chose the sides of mac'n cheese (£4) and chips (£4). The mac'n cheese was cheesy and creamy, a perfect example of a long-time favourite. The chips were deliciously chunky with a crispy outer layer while fluffy and very soft inside just as I like them.

The JW Steakhouse is another American-style steakhouse located at the JW Marriott Hotel on Park Lane, London (reviewed here). JW Steakhouse serves some of the best cheesecake I have ever tried (allegedly the best cheesecake on this side of the pond), so I was sad not to see it as a dessert option on the menu at Manhattan Grill. I had no space left at this stage of the meal, but I could have been tempted by that cheesecake!

What We Drank: We started with a couple of cocktails from the G & Tea bar next door (they are all priced at £10.50) - the Londinium 75 (with Hayman's sloe and dry, lime, champagne and passion fruit syrup), and the Red Spy (with Hayman's Royal Dock, Southern Comfort, peach and raspberry puree, lime juice), both well made and strong.

The restaurant has an Enomatic machine, and diners are invited to sample wines between their starters and steak, to decide which wine to pair with their meat choices.

For the rib eye, the restaurant's recommendation is a Chateau des Laurets 2011, from Puisseguin Saint-Emillion. The restaurant has a special relationship with the Rothschild family, and claims to have the largest variety of Rothschild wines in Canary Wharf.

We were offered 4 tasting samples of powerful wines, but opted for the Chateau des Laurets (£62) - a classic Bordeaux. This was excellent  - still youthful and slightly purple in colour, it had plenty of black berry fruit, well-integrated oak and firm but supple tannins. It was a pleasure to drink by itself, but better still with the steak.

Likes: The restaurant has a small menu, but what they serve (judging from our visit) was of great quality and expertly cooked. The sommelier-led wine tasting with the restaurant's Enomatic machine is a good option I have not seen in any other London restaurant. I enjoyed sitting by the open-plan kitchen and watching the chefs preparing the steaks. The mac'n cheese was creamy, with a crispy cheese top, and well made. The service was efficient, friendly and well-informed.

Dislikes: The restaurant has a slightly corporate, hotel-chain feel to it.  Annoyingly, there is no free car-parking available at the hotel or in the surrounding area even at night, although there is a multi-story car-park available over the road for a fee (£4.60 for 2 hours or £6.20 for up to 4 hours), but you can ask for a small discount at the hotel reception before you leave.  

Verdict: Manhattan Grill is a local American steakhouse serving top quality beef and well-made seafood dishes. The menu is focused, well executed and priced. It is a good option for lunch or dinner if you find yourself in London's Canary Wharf. Recommended.

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. 

Meating in the City at Forge

Name: Forge

Where: 24 Cornhill, London, EC3V 3ND, http://www.forgedinlondon.com

Cost: Starters range from £5.50 to £8.50 while mains are priced from £11.50 for the Forge Burger or a ½ spit roast chicken to £50 for a 20-ounce (567g) tomahawk steak for two with all the trimmings.

About: After a £2 million refit of late Abacus Bar just metres away from the Bank of England, Forge opened in 2013 as a bar and restaurant specialising in flame-grilled meats.

With a zinc bar overlooking the grills, one of those intricate Victorian black and white tiled floors, long wooden tables, black painted ceiling with exposed pipes and cables, Forge has an eclectic style that looked better than it sounds. As most City’s bars and restaurants, Forge is closed on Saturdays and Sundays.

The menu is a meat lover’s treasure trove, with many items that grabbed my carnivorous attention including BBQ pulled pork with toasted walnut bread (£5.50), the cider belly of pork (£13) or the Coca-Cola glazed gammon served with a spit roast pineapple (£11.50), all to be tried on my next visit. All spit grilled meats are served with thick cut chips, apple and fennel coleslaw, chilli and coriander corn.

On the midweek evening we were there, The London Essentials band was performing, and they certainly knew how to work a room of City midweek diners and boozers into a frenzy, with a medley of hits from Michael Jackson, and Lulu to Dolly Parton.

There is a range of attractions throughout the week to tempt diners in. Mondays see a 2 for 1 offer on meats, on Tuesdays, cocktails are priced at £5 all night. Wednesday sees The London Essentials live band strutting its stuff, while on Fridays, DJs take centre stage to see in the weekend.

What We Ate: On the midweek night we ate there, we were lucky enough to meet Head Chef David Jordan and dine at the 6-seater Chef's Table for a ring-side view of his entire kitchen, including a blazing grill and spit roast.

We kicked off with the 7-hour, Coca Cola-braised Jacob's Ladder - a very tender and flavoursome beef short rib that was sweet and sticky from the Cola marinade, served with tangy mustard mayonnaise (£6).

We also had the tempura soft shell crab (£8.50) - this was crispy in a wafer-thin batter, and served in a tiny deep-frying basket on a fresh banana leaf, with confit new potatoes, and a little dipping bowl of soy and sesame sauce.

But the star of the show was undoubtedly the Tomahawk steak (£50 for 2). A richly flavoured Scottish beef supplied by Fairfax Meadow (David told us that only 16 of these steaks are supplied to the restaurant each week), this American-style cut was grilled, carved for us at the table, and cooked medium rare as requested.

Served with horseradish onion bhajis, a tomato fondue, watercress, confit red onion and thick cut chips, there was a wonderful beef jus to bring out the rich flavours of the meat. The Scotch beef was tender, thoroughly marbled with the softest of fat, and imbued with an unbelievable intensity of flavour from the rib against which it had been grilled.

For dessert, we had the signature strawberries and cream sundae (£6). With a generous serving of strawberries, vanilla panna cotta, vanilla bean ice cream, pistachio praline and cream, this was a tad disappointing as the cream tasted as if it had come straight from an aerosol. Better was a well made pineapple creme brûlée (£6) which was creamy and rich in vanilla seeds with a wonderfully crunchy burnt sugar topping.

What We Drank: There is a range of cocktails from £8.50, and unusually each has a number rather than a name. White wines start at £21 for a Vin de Pays d'Oc Marsanne-Viognier blaned. Entry level reds start with a Montepulciano d'Abruzzo for £18. If you are pushing the boat out, there are some very nice options like a Hermitage from Chapoutier for £100, and Champagnes like Pommery Brut and Moët et Chandon NV for £55 and £58 or Veuve Cliquot NV for £65.

We kicked off with a refreshing No. 61 cocktail, made from Aperol, Campari, Galliano, lemon juice and sugar syrup (£8.50).

To accompany the meat, we opted for a bottle of 2009 Barolo Enrico Serafino (£47.50). Ruby coloured and quite light in density, this had medium red berry fruit, and surprisingly youthful tannins, but satisfying length that stood up well to the meat.

Likes: There is top quality beef here, the menu is small but well executed. Cocktails and wines are well chosen, reasonably priced, and give a good range of options from affordable to modestly splurging. The venue is very convenient for London's myriad City workers, or indeed, only 20 metres from Bank station, for anyone else in London. If you have come in just for a drink, there is the popular option of a Forge burger for just £11.50, which is excellent value for the location.

Dislikes: It’s not really a criticism, but the fact is that Forge is predominantly a drinking spot in the City, with a restaurant tacked on the back. That means that the sounds of drinkers' revelling and music, live or otherwise, can be intrusive if a quiet or intimate meal is what you are after.

Verdict: A buzzing City bar and meat grill restaurant with a well thought-out and expertly delivered menu, I loved the Jacob's ladder and the soft-shell crab, but the Tomahawk steak was a thing of wonder. An excellent value option compared with other steakhouses in London. Recommended.