Choosing the steak directly from the restaurant’s selection immediately turns the meal into more than a standard order-and-eat review. The host settles on an 800-gram Galician blonde rib eye from a five-year-old cow, dry-aged for 60 days, while the staff explains the meat and guides the choice. That interaction establishes the restaurant’s high-end approach effectively, especially because the host also gets a look at the kitchen and the different cooking and resting levels used for the beef.
Service becomes an important part of the experience rather than background decoration. The staff is described as knowledgeable and welcoming, with Joanna particularly credited for setting the tone and helping with the steak selection. There is a fair amount of joking during these exchanges, but the useful details still come through: the beef is cooked medium rare, heavily seasoned, carefully rested and served alongside black pudding, beef-fat fries, tomatoes and shallots, plus cheese-and-black-pepper and red-wine sauces.
The steak itself produces unusually emphatic praise. The host highlights the substantial crust, tenderness, rendered marbling and intensely beefy character, while also detecting nuttiness and a flavor he compares to blue cheese. Those observations make the tasting more useful than simply declaring the meat excellent, because they give some sense of what prolonged aging and the chosen cut contribute to the experience. His conclusion that it is the best steak he has personally eaten is clearly presented as his own judgment rather than an objective fact.
Several supporting dishes receive enough attention to show that the restaurant is not relying entirely on an expensive centerpiece. The black pudding, topped with fermented chilli oil, combines a crisp exterior with an unusually creamy interior and becomes another standout. Beef-fat fries deliver both crunch and noticeable beef flavor, while the tomato-and-shallot salad provides acidity and freshness against the richness of the meat. A later clarification that the dressing contains sherry vinegar and orange juice is particularly useful after the host initially tries to identify its ingredients himself.
The sauces generate a slightly more complicated verdict. The cheese-and-black-pepper preparation complements the steak surprisingly well and reinforces some of the cheese-like flavors the host already detected in the beef, while the red-wine sauce also earns praise. Yet he repeatedly acknowledges that meat this good does not actually require either accompaniment. That distinction strengthens the review: ordering the sauces helps demonstrate what is available, but the steak remains the unquestioned focus rather than becoming a delivery system for condiments.
Price is impossible to separate from the verdict. The special beef alone costs £156, and the final bill reaches £256.51 including service after additional dishes and drinks. The host makes no attempt to present that as ordinary restaurant spending, describing it instead as an exceptional luxury while noting that less expensive menu options appear to exist and advising viewers to check current prices themselves. His lack of regret is convincing within the context of his own experience, although the overwhelming enthusiasm leaves relatively little scrutiny of whether the meal represents good value for anyone who does not share his priorities.
Presentation is energetic, personal and unusually specific about the food, but it can become repetitive once the verdict is obvious. Variations of “incredible,” “best,” and similar superlatives accumulate throughout the tasting, and several points about the steak’s quality, the restaurant’s ranking and the expense are revisited multiple times. Still, the kitchen visit, steak selection, staff interaction, close examination of the cooking and full bill breakdown give the review enough substance to support the excitement rather than leaving it as pure hype.
Pros
- Choosing the actual steak with knowledgeable staff makes the restaurant experience unusually tangible.
- Detailed observations about crust, marbling, resting, tenderness and flavor explain why the beef impresses the host.
- Black pudding, beef-fat fries and the tomato salad receive meaningful evaluation instead of being treated as incidental sides.
- The host distinguishes his personal “best steak” judgment from the restaurant’s cited ranking.
- The complete price breakdown gives viewers a clear picture of just how expensive the experience becomes.
- Staff and service are evaluated as part of the overall meal rather than focusing exclusively on the food.
Cons
- Repeated superlatives make portions of the tasting commentary feel more enthusiastic than analytical.
- The restaurant’s claimed UK and worldwide rankings are repeated without explaining their source or methodology.
- Some ingredient speculation occurs before the host later receives clarification from the restaurant.
- Despite acknowledging the extraordinary cost, the review offers limited analysis of value beyond the host’s personal willingness to pay it.
A spectacular piece of dry-aged beef, memorable supporting dishes and highly attentive service give the host substantial reasons for his extraordinary enthusiasm. The repetition and limited interrogation of the restaurant’s rankings and value proposition keep the review from being equally rigorous throughout, but the food descriptions, behind-the-scenes access and transparent bill breakdown make the luxury experience unusually easy to understand.
