We at the Arbuturian like to see ourselves as patriotic in all the best of ways; low-key pride in our country (even if current situations can make it rather harder) and a particular delight in its culinary traditions are some of the things that make us (lightly) happy to be British. And going to a restaurant that specialises in the most of our nation’s cuisine is one of the ways in which we become all Union Jack-waving and proud. Here are a few of the very best places to take a summer lunch or dinner and gently hum “I vow to thee, my country…”
Hawksmoor Air Street
Anyone heading to one of London’s most reliably excellent steakhouses will know what to expect, and I don’t think that there has been a time in the dozens of meals I’ve had in them when I haven’t begun my meal with a Shaky Pete’s Ginger Brew – a so-called ‘turbo-charged shandy’ – and rounded things off with a sticky toffee sundae. Yet the restaurants have now introduced a special lunchtime menu, which is designed to be a lighter and less budget-intense option, which includes things like a steak and bone marrow pie (which sounds delicious, if belt-straining), a steak sandwich and even a steak salad.
But I remain a traditionalist and steak frites are ordered, as they must be; it comes served with bone marrow and if you order sides of creamed spinach, Stilchelton hollandaise and bearnaise sauce, it makes for quite the lunchtime repast, especially if you wash it down with a well-chosen bottle of Rioja. The Air Street branch is one of Hawksmoor’s finest, trading in the City’s more boisterous atmosphere for a Manhattan-esque sense of chic; you half-expect to see Don Draper waft in holding a martini, and no doubt he’ll be just as delighted by the medium-rare steaks, too. For more information, menus and bookings, visit www.thehawksmoor.com.
Gillray’s Steakhouse & Bar
When is a steak not a steak? When it’s a ‘Redefine Meat’ beef flank, is the answer. The thriving industry in faux-meat has now reached an apogee of achievement, and the mighty ‘The Westminster’ offers an intriguing carnivorous substitute, made from natural fats and vegetables and tasting, if not quite like the rib-eye of your dreams, certainly a lot more like the beef that you might enjoy at a conventional table. Not, of course, that this fine South Bank steakhouse, nestling within the County Hall hotel and named after the 18th century satirist James Gillray, eschews conventional steak; a very fine bone-in T-bone is a fascinating study in compare-and-contrast, allowing diners to sample the Redefine Meat and the old-fashioned option alongside one another.
Yet when you’ve moved away from asking existential questions about meat, there are plenty of other delights here, too. They have their own house gin, and a strong one of those to accompany a starter of chilli fried squid with squid ink mayonnaise comes as de rigeur, while a robust garden salad and Maldon salt and rosemary chips are a must in anyone’s book. And if you’ve somehow still got room after two different kinds of meat, then the blood orange knickerbocker glory that concludes the meal is a thing of beauty and wonder. If you were a humourist, you might almost say that it redefines the pudding, too. Gillrays, Westminster Bridge Road, London, SE1 7PB. For more information and bookings, please visit www.gillrays.com.
The Shed
Any true connoisseur of British wine, spirits and food should know the Gladwin brothers’ empire, which stretches from Soho to Wimbledon, and specialises in the best possible dishes and ingredients, much of which is sourced from the brothers’ farm in Nutbourne in Sussex. The original restaurant The Shed, which acquired a hip cachet almost immediately after it opened in 2012 which it has maintained for the past decade, sits snugly in a tucked-away street in Notting Hill, and – as the name implies – is set in a converted shed, which leads a pleasingly rough and ready ambience to what might otherwise be an upmarket and expensive restaurant.
Everything that you’ll eat and drink here is superb, as you’d expect from the Gladwins, whether it’s a starter of scallops and crab bisque – which looks as if it’s bijou for £12 – or a rosemary and garlic roasted pork chop, which comes with savoy cabbage and has an almost wholesome aspect to it; it’s hard to imagine such a thing being done better. If you don’t order a glass of the Gladwins’ own sparkling wine – the nutty vintage – then you will be missing out, and an especially fine banana old fashioned comes as the perfect end to what will, inevitably, be one of the most rus in urbe meals that you can imagine having in London, or anywhere else for that matter. The Shed, 122 Palace Gardens Terrace, Kensington, London, W84RT. For more information and bookings, please visit www.theshed-restaurant.com.
