Probably too late for this (will you be reading this again?) but would love to hear more about the place in Tolosa. You on Twitter? If so tweet me @HawksmoorLondon.

Will

Thanks for the comments. I really feel I missed out on the cocktails and will defo try next time. So rare to find a decent mixologist, even in London.

As for food, next time I will be taking Chris Pople’s recommendation to just order a decent sized steak as part of a 3 course meal 1. cocktail 2. main course 3. wine.

I am also happy to be on a tangent to the rest of the world re: the penguin/skateboarder debate.

On price – Hawksmoor seems very fair value for the steak. Taking the meal as a whole, £170 for two is about what I have paid at many of the fine dining places in London, so the bar has to be set pretty high.

http://www.diariovasco.tv/index.html#frontaleID=F_VASCOTV&sectionID=S_VASCOC&videoID=19210

First, congratulations on an interesting blog.

As Will from Hawksmoor pointed out, the Monday £5 corkage deal is definitely the way to go for us wine lovers, although the wine list seems to be both better as well as better value since I last looked at it.

I think you are being a touch harsh in your criticism. Hawksmoor is a steakhouse, not a multi-Michelin style fine dining establishment. Relaxed and unpretentious yet professional service is exactly what I would expect. I find the waiters are always enthusiastic about what they serve and they do a lot better at wine service than most comparable places.

– Starters. The ribs are amazing, the others ok but nothing special. Still miles ahead of your stereotypical steakhouse offering (or Gaucho, spit!). If they could only add sweetbread skewers to the menu, I’d have no complaints.
– Meat. Brilliant, as you rightly point out. Expensive, but plenty of pleasure for money. Perfectly prepared, and clearly my second of third best beef experience ever (#1 is Pedro of Casa Nicolas in Tolosa http://www.diariovasco.tv/index.html#frontaleID=F_VASCOTV&sectionID=S_VASCOC&videoID=19210)
– Sides and extras. Eating the bone marrow is a transcendental experience, and the fried eggs are a great addition too. I’d find it difficult to not choose the mac and cheese as a side, although the red onion and tomato salad has been surprisingly satisfying in the past. The chips are perhaps not as great as many seem to think, but still amongst the best in the UK.
– Desserts. I’ve only had room for dessert once, and am not planning to let it happen again
– Service, yes, it’s quite casual as far as dress goes, but they are always friendly and obviously care about what they serve, which is pretty rare, especially in London. All in all, I think the service, ambience and simplicity of the food go very well together.

Finally, Hawksmoor is one of my favourite places for cocktails in London. The intelligent choice and the quality of execution impresses me more and more every time I visit. The BM (Bloody Mary) was delicious, heroically fiery but with an attractive sweetness from basil. The Zombie can only be described as very tasty, and could kill at a hundred paces. Having one is probably enough for the government to condemn you as a binge-drinker.

NB. I promise have no involvement with Hawksmoor or anyone who works there, it is just one of my very favourite places in London.

Thanks for the feedback. Firstly apologies for failing to wow, which definitely falls short of how we want people to leave. There are a couple of things that you and I differ on (in the skateboarder v penguin debate I prefer skateboarders – its pretty common in the States and I think the service style we have is one of the things people really like about us; i also happen to think we’re pretty good value – we certainly aim for a much lower mark up than most restaurants). I definitely agree with you about wine temperature though, and I think everyone else at Hawksmoor does too – we’ve just bought the basement which will give us much more storage at a better temperature and invested a lot of money in wine fridges. I think this should let us store wine at the ideal temperature all the time – I freely admit its been an issue to date.

Anyway, as Chris says if you’d like you could always come on a Monday for £5 corkage (see http://food.elitistreview.com/PermaLink,guid,a884a0b6-a5b2-4100-a146-1fea505ed9ad.aspx for example). Either way if you’d like to come down and have a glass of wine on me some time I’d be happy to get your thoughts on the new temperature …

Thanks again for coming, hope to see you there again soon.

I regret not trying the cocktails whose reputation seems to match the meat. Will do so next time.