Rick Stein is my kind of foodie – he travels the world getting very enthusiastic about delicious food and great experiences. I adored his latest TV series where he went around India for three months in search of the perfect curry. Over the course of several episodes he explored the regional variations, trying to get an understanding of what Indians see as the quintessential dish. Using authentic ingredients and techniques he’s captured his findings in a wonderful new book – Rick Stein’s India.

The book itself is very extensive, covering everything from street food to that rarest of dishes – an Indian dessert. Every dish has a thoughtful introduction, explaining the background of the recipe. The ingredients are easy to find in any indian supermarket, but if you don’t have one of those on your doorstep you might struggle! As in all things – the internet is your friend and several popular online spice merchants even have Rick Stein sections now. In order to give the book a proper workout, I tackled four dishes simultaneously inside two hours.

Naan

One of my favourite things about Indian food is the variety of breads – I’ve tried making naan in the past and ended up with an inedible rock hard dough. Rick’s recipe is relatively straightforward, though the dough ends up very loose – I used my Kenwood to knead it, but you’d definitely struggle to manage it by hand. Once left to rise you simply bake it in a dry frying pan, letting it singe slightly on each side to give it the appropriate smokey note. It took a couple of attempts to get the thickness right, but the end result was delicious.

Tarka Dal

The quality of vegetarian food was one of the key revelations of my own trip to India. I ate some stunning lentil dishes and I was really keen to give this a shot. It’s very easy to do, with the tarka (a fried garnish that’s drizzled on at the end) being the only challenge. Do be careful not to overcook the lentils – I followed the timings carefully and was only just safe. I really liked the final dish, it had a lovely earth tang.

Aloo Gobi

Potatoes, cauliflower and spice – what’s not to like? Another relatively easy dish – this worked really well. I really like chilli, but the amount the recipe suggested was almost too much for me, if you don’t like your meal breaking you out in a sweat i’d halve the amount of chillis and chilli powder.

Chicken Pulao

I didn’t have the strength to tackle the more complicated biryani, so I settled for it’s simpler cousin. You make a fragrant stock and then poach the chicken thighs in it. Once cooked through you set them aside and briefly fry the raw rice before throwing everything back together and letting it gently cook. It was absolutely delicious – I’m not a big fan of tumeric so I might switch that for saffron in the future, but it was still really lovely.

Trying to define Indian cuisine is a pointless exercise – there’s endless regional variations and nuances. Rick Stein offers a way in here, a way to tap into that gorgeous medley of spice and texture. It’s the tip of a very wonderful iceberg. While it may not be that authentic, it’s an awful lot of fun. There are hundreds of recipes to try here and once you’ve got the basic ingredients (and a healthy batch of his excellent garam masala mixed up) you can manage most of the dishes with relative ease. The variety makes it excellent for a dinner party, especially if you need to cater for those awkward vegetarians. Break out the spices and get cooking!

Rick Stein’s India by Rick Stein, RRP £25, is published by BBC Books and is available from all good booksellers.

British culinary heritage gets a bad rap. While the French can hark back to the golden years of Escoffier and Careme – us Brits tend to think of our past kitchen exploits as bland and over-cooked. In recent years several chefs have made an attempt to revisit this view and popularise some of the many unappreciated traditional dishes. Fergus Henderson at St. Johns has been cooking unusual bits of animals for years and Dinner By Heston Blumenthal gave Ashley Palmer-Watts the chance to showcase how great our food history can be. Situated amid a triumph of British architecture, the Gilbert Scott Hotel in St. Pancras is the perfect place to show off our food.

The Gilbert Scott Book of British Food collects an array of these great british classics, as interpreted by Marcus Wareing and Chantelle Nicholson. The book is split into several categories, covering cocktails, starters, mains, desserts, brunch and afternoon tea. The recipes use standard ingredients which you shouldn’t have much any sourcing, they’re measured in a sensible fashion and the methods are relatively straight-forward to follow. Like many of my favourite books they’ve chosen a really broad range of recipes with plenty of quick dishes while their ‘chef’s table’ section will challenge even the most confident home cook (the less ambitious can just enjoy drooling at the gorgeous photography). So far, so good – what do the recipes actually turn out like?

Bacon Olives

A deceptively simple dish that has the advantage of being very easy to prepare in advance – perfect for a hectic dinner party. It’s herby sausage mix, wrapped in bacon and served with a simple salad. The end product tastes really nice – I loved the honey/mustard dressing, it’s a great foil to the pork, but it does feel like it’s lacking a little something. A bit of black pudding crumbled over the top and a fried quails egg would transform the dish.

Suffolk Stew

I picked this because if uses one of my favourite meats – mutton. A nice gentle simmer gives it the chance to soften up and release all that wonderful gamey flavour. The recipe is easy to follow, though I found straining out the meat before you reduce the sauce a little fiddly. You need to make sure you buy (or prep well in advance) your pearl barley as it takes over an hour to cook from scratch but only goes in the pot for the last few minutes. Regardless of my pulse dilemmas – this is an excellent stew. I love that it avoids the classic beer or red wine – letting the flavour of the mutton show through.

Caramelised Banana Bread

Another dinner party dish – this is very easy to cook in advance and finish between courses. Made from layers of brioche, cooked banana and custard it’s a wonderfully British dessert. The quality of the banana is absolutely key – if it’s not mostly black it’s not ripe enough. While I really enjoyed the buttery, custardy goodness – my test subjects weren’t all fans but if you really like bananas then you should be fine!

I’ve only scratched the surface of the book but I’ve really enjoyed it – traditional British cooking represents a different kind of challenge to the way we prepare food now. Next time you’re doing a dinner party, instead of scouring the four corners of the globe for an exotic theme, why not pick something a little closer to home?

The Gilbert Scott Book of British Food by Marcus Wareing and Chantelle Nicholson, RRP £25, is published by Bantam Press and available in all good bookshops.

Pizza is a wondrous thing. From the dodgiest takeaway to the swankiest trattoria there is a whole spectrum of deliciousness. For Italians it is almost a religion – the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana sets stringent rules on the preparation of a “proper pizza” from the ingredients to the cooking method – all is set in stone. When in Italy, eating pizza outside Rome and Naples is like eating cornish pasties in Newcastle – not necessarily the best idea. Pizza in London has for years been a similar experience – the preserve of Pizza Express, Dominoes and Pizza Hut, but no longer – a raft of independents have sprung up offering a vastly superior product.

Pizza Pilgrims represent the dream for many foodies: throwing in the towel on “proper London jobs” they went to Italy – bought a little van and went on a literal pilgrimage to that greatest Italian culinary gift – the pizza. Having mastered the art they returned home to London and setup their stall on Berwick Street Market.

After much critical acclaim (and providing many excellent lunches to this blogger) they’ve finally made the jump to bricks and mortar. Perched on the corner of Dean Street – cheekily opposite a huge Pizza Express, their first restaurant is immediately welcoming.

The sizeable queue snakes down the road outside – the fact that people are prepared to queue an hour for something most have delivered hints at the quality of the product. They’re happy to serve drinks in the line and on a busy Friday night we were seated pretty quickly. The staff are wonderful – they practically reek enthusiasm, loving the challenge of running Soho’s newest star.

Inside the decor is cut from the same cloth as most new trendy eateries – though they definitely get points for using a fusball table as an actual table. I also really like the fact that (our table at least) was really well lit – you can see the food you’re eating!

Their menu is pleasingly spartan. A handful of thoughtful, authentic choices with carefully chosen ingredients. The drinks menu is similarly sparse – go for the house red, not only is it available by the litre, but it’s has a lovely rustic quality with enough body to stand up to a decent pizza.

We ordered two – their signature nduja and a ‘friarelli and salsiccia’ bianca (a pizza with wild broccoli and fennel sausage, without the tomato sauce).

So what’s the pizza actually taste like? Heavenly. Their oven does a marvellous job of baking the pizza – turning it from raw dough to puffy crisp perfection in seconds. The crust is divine, with just the right hint of smokey char. It’s quite a salty mix, but it really works to show off the flavour. The toppings were brilliant – the nduja has just the right kick, the tomatoes are sweet yet tart and the mozzarella is brilliant. I love the bianca – without the tomato you get a very different experience, something creamier and more delicate.

They offer a handful of desserts – we went for vanilla gelato with salt and olive oil (strange, but rather nice) and a Nutella pizza ring (a real guilty pleasure – don’t tell the Italians).

They’ve managed to turn what many see as a commodity product into something unique and special. The whole experience is wonderful – relaxed, comfortable and very very tasty. It’s like going round to a friends house. Just a friend that happens to cook the best pizza in London. Go.

Brixton is recovering from an unsavoury reputation and at the forefront of this is food. South London is teeming with young professionals with plenty of disposable income and an insatiable appetite for trendy grub.

The covered markets in Brixton have been transformed into a Mecca for the aspiring foodie. Great butchers nestle alongside independent coffee shops and catering suppliers. Given that it’s so close to the tube there’s no excuse not to go, but what should you try when you’re there?

Honest Burger
These guys have been on my ‘to do’ list for a while, colleagues have raved about their high quality burgers and delicious chips. Their Brixton outpost is small and intimate, with the seemingly ubiquitous school stools and aged wood decor. I ordered their signature burger and a homemade lemonade.

The burger was well cooked (if a little over the medium-rare they advertise) but the beef was really good quality, sourced from the excellent Ginger Pig. The bun was great, light and soft but with enough body to hold together. The fillings were stellar – it’s definitely worth going for the bacon. The whole burger hangs together well, is possible to eat neatly and certainly beats out places like Byron.

The chips are cooked skin on and served with rosemary salt. They’d been well fried with a crispy exterior and a light puffy inside. It was much better than similar offerings from Five Guys, though they were crying out for some really nice homemade ketchup.

Honest Burger do great work, as a burger experience its up there with Shake Shack, MEATmarket and Patty & Bun. The independent burger scene is going from strength to strength and the results are so much better than the high street chains – branch out!

Wishbone
We’ve had gourmet hotdogs, gourmet burgers and gourmet pizza. It was only a matter of time before someone did gourmet chicken. Wishbone is a relatively new restaurant that offers good quality fried chicken in a trendy bar environment. Again you’ve got the retro bar stalls and aged wooden tables.

I ordered a batch of their buffalo wings – five nicely sized wings with a blue cheese dip. They took a little while to arrive and when they did the smell of raw vinegar almost made me choke! The sauce is very sharp with far too much acidity. This is almost offset by the blue cheese but it doesn’t really work. It’s a shame – the chicken was cooked beautifully, moist with a lovely crunchy skin, but the sauce lets it down.

Franco Manca
Pizza is a simple thing – in Naples you’ll be lucky to see anything other than the margarita – bread, tomato, cheese and basil. It’s simple and delicious. Several pizza restaurants have opened recently offering something more authentic than the traditional takeaway and more exciting than Pizza Express.

Franco Manca is at the forefront of this movement, their Brixton market location is spread across two units. I can understand the need to keep tables free, but sitting single diners with other groups when there are empty tables seems a little mean. Their menu is simple and uncomplicated – a handful of pizzas and some interesting wines. I ordered their organic house red, an unusual italian wine which showcases strong mineral flavours rather than fruit, it was delicious!

The pizza I went for was their basic margarita. It’s a decent size and has the authentic puffy crust you’d expect from a traditional oven. The dough was good but a little bland – Pizza Pilgrims have a fantastic dough with a lovely salty sourdough tang. Franco Manca’s just tasted a little flat in comparison! The tomato sauce was fine but the mozzarella could have been creamier.

That’s not to underplay their pizza – it’s a step up on pizza express and in a whole different league to a takeaway. But compared to what Pizza Pilgrims can achieve in the back of a van, it’s a bit of a disappointment.

Conclusion
Brixton is going from strength to strength – the revitalised market is the perfect breeding ground for new and exciting restaurants. While there is certainly still room for improvement from Franco Manca and Wishbone, Honest Burger makes it worth the trip on it’s own.

It is a fair point that most British people have no need of a barbecue cookbook – we don’t need recipes to tell us how to burn meat outside. Big supermarkets are happy to provide ready prepped dishes which you can incinerate to your heart’s content.

American’s have a very different view – what we call barbecue, they call grilling. Barbecue is something else: the slow cooking of meat, in a lower temperature, normally with smoke. It’s a cuisine that’s making a splash in London, with both John Salt and Pitt Cue Co providing heavenly introductions to it. When the latter announced they were doing a cookbook I had to give it a look.

The book is beautiful – full of mouth watering pictures and tempting recipes. Recipes are split into broad categories – meat, drinks, sides and the like. There are helpful introductions to each chapter and section – talking through the techniques and giving advice on ingredient selection.

The recipes themselves are not for the faint of heart – you’ll be making spice mixes from scratch and several seemingly simple recipes rely on combing other, more complicated ones. For example – the barbecue sauce requires 24 ingredients. Almost all the meat recipes rely on smoking – slow cooking the food in a barbecue at a much lower temperature than direct grilling. While this is a fabulous technique, it does mean that it takes a long time – up to 18 hours.

Given the level of effort involved I wanted to do this properly – get good ingredients and follow the recipes to the letter. When my sister asked me to cater her house-warming I was happy to oblige!

I trialled a number of recipes – making the smoked beef ribs, chipotle and maple chicken, chipotle ketchup, barbecue sauce and vinegar slaw. The ingredients are easy to get hold of, but I recommend visiting an asian grocer/supermarket for the spices – it’ll be far cheaper than Sainsburys given the quantities involved!

Smoked Beef Ribs
I was really keen to make these – I love beef ribs and when cooked properly they’re the perfect blend of beefy taste and melting texture. The spice rub was relatively straightforward and I smoked them for the appointed time. I had a bit of trouble keeping the temperature steady – but the ribs are very forgiving. I cooked them the day before and just warmed them through on the day, while it definitely worked they were far nicer fresh off the grill.

Chipotle and Maple Chicken
This is quite an involved process with brining, marinading, smoking and grilling. I have to admit I skipped the smoke, warming the chicken through in the oven, but it was nonetheless delicious. The brining makes the chicken very moist and I loved the sweet spicy sauce.

Chipotle Ketchup
I had some issues with this recipe – they specify 250g of chipotle peppers which is an insane amount. They either mean fresh chillies (which aren’t chipotle) or some kind of chilli paste. I ‘ad-libbed’ and went with bell peppers and a handful of chipotle. The result was delicious – it’s rich, smokey and with a serious kick.

Barbecue Sauce
This uses the chipotle ketchup as a base and builds on it. The result is sweet, sticky and rather lovely. I like it’s complexity and completeness. No one flavour stands out above the others they all mingle into a smokey whole.

Vinegar Slaw
I followed the instructions pretty exactly and the quantities seemed massively out. Instead of feeding six people it could have fed twelve! Thankfully it was really tasty and went well with the pulled pork I made (using Felicity Cloake’s recipe). It’s tangy, sharp and adds some lightness to the meat feast.

I’ve barely scratched the surface of the cookbook – I really need my own smoker to be able to fully appreciate them. While it might be out of reach for a lot of cooks – there are certainly recipes which can be adapted and brought to delicious completion by any keen chef. If you fancy a challenge – fire up the barbecue and get cooking, your efforts will be rewarded!

Pitt Cue Co. Cookbook is published by Mitchell Beazley and available in all good book stores now. RRP £20

I get restaurant recommendations all the time, but when two people raved about Brindisa on the same day I decided it must be worth a visit. It took me a little while to sort out but I’m glad I did.

Most people’s experience of tapas will be somewhere like La Tasca. There’s nothing wrong with the reasonably priced chain, but if your meal is going to feature little ingredient centric dishes then the quality really needs to shine. Brindisa have a speciality shop in Borough Market as well as several restaurant outlets around London. They offer a range of dishes with carefully sourced produce and clever combinations. Their Soho branch is intimate with lots of little tables scattered around the maze-like layout. Service was friendly and, on a Sunday evening, we didn’t have to wait.

I normally order something like a Rioja with tapas, but at a friend’s urging I branched out to a Verdejo. It’s a delicious fruity white grape that could stand up to the meat dishes and worked beautifully with the fish. On a hot summers evening it was delightfully refreshing.

We got through a pretty broad range of dishes – the charcuterie was nice, the salads provided a lovely fresh element but could have done with more of their headline ingredients.

The real stand outs were the pork belly and the scallops. The pork was beautifully crisp and very neatly presented, I like the beetroot which adds a sweet element, though a touch of acidity would have been nice. The scallops were perfectly cooked, sweet, still slightly raw in the middle and full of delicate salty flavour. The pancetta adds a great textural contrast and the cauliflower puree works well. The lamb cutlets were really nice – they’d cooked them hot enough to give a smokey note without taking it past medium-rare.

For dessert I went with the Spanish chocolate cake with lemon-thyme ice-cream. The cake was perfectly nice (if a little small) and the ice cream was pretty good, but the bit I enjoyed the most was the excellent Valdespino PX Sherry they recommended with it. What’s not to like about alcoholic, liquid Christmas pudding?! I’m getting a bottle as soon as possible.

Brindisa offers something a little more authentic and interesting than La Tasca, they have a great range of dishes which are designed to be shared. Grab a few friends (even a few vegetarians if you have to) and start working your way through the menu.

I like America. I like American food. There’s something faintly naughty about pouring maple syrup on a pile of bacon and pancakes, about tucking into a milkshake the size of your head. I’ll admit it has its faults – their attempts at beer are often laughable and they are a little too fond of the deep-fryer – but none of this dulled my enthusiasm when I heard two of New York’s finest were opening their first European outlets in London this week.

Shake Shack

Danny Meyer is a genius. In one of the toughest, most cynical cities in the world he’s created a wildly successful restaurant group based on hospitality. I visited two of his restaurants in New York without even realising the connection but was immediately struck by the genuinely warm welcome, the fantastic service and the knock out food.

Shake Shack is fast food – imagine McDonalds but with soul. They pick great ingredients, freshly prepare them with staff who are paid a good wage and love their jobs and served with a quirky personality. It’s a great experience – there’s a reason I took a day off work and queued for an hour (along with a horde of other fanatics) to sample their wares!

For the Covent Garden store they’ve maintained most their US menu, but with some clever modifications – they offer a cumberland sausage in their hotdogs and they use paul.a.young chocolate and St John’s bakery products in their desserts.

So how does it taste? Spectacular. The burgers are great – a soft bun that still holds together, tasty beef and a really fresh flavour from the toppings. There’s spice, there’s texture, it’s damn near a perfect burger. The chips are good too – I wasn’t a fan in the states, but these seem crisper and the optional cheese sauce is noticeably better.

The hotdogs are delicious, I adore the cumberland sausage – I’ve never been a fan of the American style beef dogs, they always seem very processed. In their defence – the Shack-ago dog is the best american style i’ve tasted but you can’t beat british pork.

The milkshakes and ‘concretes’ are the star of the show – delicious frozen custard crammed full of great toppings. I tried both the Union Shake (chocolate with brownie) and Drury Lane Jam (vanilla, biscuit and jam) and couldn’t decide pick my favourite.

Five Guys

This is another place i’ve already sampled the other side of the pond. It opened – some might say cynically – the day before Shake Shack. It’s a big unit near Leicester Square station with more seating down stairs. They’re known for their toppings, all of which are available free. Like Shake Shack they pride themselves on using fresh ingredients and employing staff who care.

Annoyingly they’d run out of hot dogs when I visited so I was limited to the burger – I asked for it ‘all the way’ which gets you most of the toppings. The burger is okay – compared to the ‘shack I found it quite… greasy? The bun is nothing special and the fillings lack the freshness of their rivals.

My biggest complaint is with the chips – they’ve been single cooked and badly. They’ve left the skins on, which is fine, but to prevent them burning they’ve had to cook it so gently that it ruins the texture.

One thing I do like is the drinks machine – it’s a Coca-Cola vending machine that can do 100+ flavours – fancy raspberry diet coke? It can do that. Frankly it’s worth a trip just to try out!

The decor is very American diner and the music is a little loud for my liking. The staff are perfectly friendly but they lack the genuineness of the ‘shack.

Conclusion

To me it’s not even a contest. Five Guys isn’t a bad burger joint – its a marked improvement on McDonalds and offers something different to the GBKs and Byrons of the world – but Shake Shack is just in a different league. The whole experience is great, from the minute you see the menu to the minute you – dolefully – finish your last bite it’s just better. Go, try them for yourself, and see what I mean.

I’ll admit it. I’m a fan. I’ve been to Shake Shack in New York – I went twice in one day. I went to Blue Smoke and loved it before I even knew Danny Meyer was involved. I’ve read ‘Setting the Table’ and found it fascinating – how a small, service focussed restaurant manages to replicate itself on a much bigger scale.

There isn’t anything really like Shake Shack in London. It’s a fast food chain – Burger King with a cheeky smirk and a chef who knows what he’s doing. They serve Burgers, Hot Dogs, Milkshakes and ‘Concretes’ – frozen custard with different toppings mixed in.

When I heard they were opening in the UK I was really excited. I followed their teasing updates on twitter and as soon as the launch date was announced I booked it off work. Which is why, at 9am, I emerged into the bright sunlight outside Leicester Square tube and walked down to Covent Garden.

The doors were opening at 10am but a queue had already formed – the guy out front had been there since 5am. I took the fourth place and it quickly got much longer behind me. Members of the Shake Shack team came out to chat to us while we were waiting and gave us ‘Shack Shades’ and natty wristbands. When we got peckish they brought out some coffee and doughnut concretes – St Johns doughnut and Monmouth coffee – heaven. The queue was really friendly, most people were bloggers or at least very passionate about their food (you pretty much have to be to queue at 10am for a burger).

As the hour approached, the staff gathered inside for a pep-talk and several photographers gathered outside. With an Apple-style countdown the doors were flung open and in we went. I placed my order (one shack burger, one cumberland hot dog, a union shack and cheese fries) and picked up my pager. You then go round to the lovely covered market area and wait for it to buzz. I grabbed a table with the rest of the guys at the front of the queue and there were some nervous looks as we waited to see whose order would be ready first. When my buzzer went I nearly sprinted to the counter – I was going to be the first member of the public to be served by Shake Shack in Europe.

I took my tray back to the table amid many envious looks and tucked in. The food is incredible – the Smoke Shack combines a great bun with fragrant, crisp bacon, a juicy beef patty and wonderfully fresh toppings. There’s a great combination of textures and flavours – I particularly liked the slight chilli hit. The fries are crisp and light – markedly better than the ones I tried in the states. The hot dog is great – I love the cumberland sausage, it’s so much better than the american style frankfurter. The concrete was lovely – rich, chocolatey and with lots of toppings mixed in.

Shake Shack royalty were there in force. I got a photo with founder Danny Meyer, had a chat with Mark Rosati (their culinary director) and spoke to their CEO and CDO. It was really nice to see them taking the effort to speak to their customers.

Having enjoyed my first hit I went round for a second trip and picked up a particularly stylish t-shirt at the same time. I sampled their lemonade (delicious), the shack-ago dog (good, but I prefer the cumberland) and the Drury Lane Jam (vanilla, jam and biscuit concrete – heavenly).

There was a great atmosphere, everyone was very friendly and it was fab to see so many people genuinely passionate about food, service and hospitality. Shack Shack is never a ‘one off’, I expect they’ll open a second venue in London shortly, and I expect it’ll be a huge success. Go there, wear something with an elastic waistband, and eat the entire menu. It’s all good.

Single item restaurants are everywhere these days – I applaud the attention to detail and the passion that it requires. But if you’re betting your whole restaurant on one throw of the dice it has to be perfect. Le Relais du Venise just isn’t.

Based on the Parisian original, this outpost near Marylebone high street is a little piece of France. The waitresses are appropriately attired, the tables are tiny and jammed together and the décor is perfect – it could be Pied du Cochon behind the Louvre in Paris. The menu is very simple, just one choice – they serve an entrecote steak with the house sauce for £21. It comes with a simple salad as a starter and piles of French fries. The wine list is almost as short with three or four red and a token white. I opted for a medium priced Bordeaux and was pleasantly surprised.

The salad is lacklustre. It’s some simple leaves, doused in a mustardy French dressing with a few walnuts. You don’t get the feeling that they’ve taken a lot of care with it. The bread was also a bit anonymous; it missed the texture and flavour of the authentic French stuff.

Next came the main event. Don’t be alarmed at the portion size, it’s served in two stages. You get half the steak to eat while they keep the remainder warm – once you’ve cleared your plate they bring out the rest and top up your chips. The steak was blue, as ordered, but the grill wasn’t hot enough to give it a decent char. The beef didn’t really stand out and the peppery sauce could have done with more kick. The chips were perfectly nice but are a little under-seasoned.

For dessert they allow you a little more freedom, it’s French classics from Tarte au Citron to Creme Brûlée I had a ‘Gâteau du Relais’ – a thick gooey slab of something like a ganache and a lighter, brownie style cake. Both were delicious.

The service was polite and friendly  – I almost missed the disdain you’d get from a proper Parisian restaurant. What lets them down is the food – if you only do one thing, it has to be incredible. The cooking and ingredients were just average – you’d get a similar quality steak somewhere like Café Rouge. When there’s challengers like Flatiron a few minutes’ walk away it becomes very difficult to justify a visit. As a concept, it’s fun but as an experience, it doesn’t really deliver.

If there are two defining trends of Soho restaurants in the last couple of years, they are razor sharp focus and a warehouse/canteen aesthetic. One restaurant that combines both of these elements is Flat Iron.

Their menu is almost exclusively limited to the eponymous steak – drawn from the shoulder of the cow and often called a ‘Butlers Steak’ – it’s a little tougher than rump or sirloin, but with a lot more flavour. Early on a Tuesday evening they were relatively busy but we were still seated quickly at a communal table. Apart from the meat, they also offer a few sides – we shared some lovely asparagus and very generic chips. They have a short wine list – all designed to go with the steak and available in carafes, but they don’t use wine glasses which feels a little odd. They do get extra points though, for presenting the menu with a bowl of popcorn and a jug of water – if there’s one thing I loved about American eateries it was the ubiquity of table water.

When a restaurant does something so simple it lives or dies on the quality. The steak was carefully cooked and nicely presented on a metal slab. For £10 it represents good value even if the side salad is a little lacklustre.

The burger was an unexpected delight – good beef, well minced and deep-fried. I came in a St. John’s bun with cooked onions and lashings of béarnaise sauce. Delicious!

They only offer one dessert – a salted caramel mousse which is served at the table straight from a cream whipper, a trick I’ll definitely be borrowing at some point! It’s not just about the presentation – the mousse is rich and catches the right balance between salty and sweet.

It doesn’t look like ‘single concept’ restaurants are going to die out anytime soon – they’re broadly good at what they do, but when the star of the show was an item that’s not normally available (the burger) they should seriously consider expanding their focus just a little.