Flat Iron

Flat Iron

17 Beak st, Soho

UPDATE:  Flat Iron is back with a vengeance now in Soho. Months on from their pop-up at the Owl & pussycat back  in August (read below) Flat Iron now have their own permanent set up, and what's more prices have remained the same. Still unbeatable value, and things have got better these chips are probably some of the best I've had in London. It's not a massive place, with under 30 seats, so expect a queue at peak times. 

As well as the dinning area there is a cocktail area downstairs, so even if you have to wait, it won't be out in the cold. Be sure to try their 'off-menu' doughnuts which were a treat for us for one of my friends birthdays, an unexpected but lovely suprise, on this point the FOH are brilliant. I can see me going here time and time again. It's hard to get bored of steak and chips especially this good and this cheap.

Flat Iron @ Owl & Pussycat

34 Redchurch Street

If you are going to do one thing make sure you do it well, and Flat Iron have certainly achieved that. A lot places are running simplified menus, and Flat iron certainly takes this to the extreme, serving up just steak, and only flat iron (a cut from the shoulder) at that.

Flat Iron have found home in the upstairs of the Owl & Pussycat pub, right near Shoreditch high street station. Got there at 6 and just missed out on getting the first allocation of seats, and were told we would have to wait half an hour. Luckily for us while waiting for drinks some seats had been freed up, bonus, I was starving and I could smell maillard reaction

If you want a private dining experience this isn't the place for you, with the place set out with a few long tables rather than the usual individual tables. This made for a lot better atmosphere, but depends on your taste.

While we 'decided' what to have we were given a cup of beef dripping popcorn, a nice touch and very moreish. After ours were finished we then ploughed into our neighbours'.
With a minimal menu to choice from, this didn't take long. Steak, medium rare and fries each please. Despite so many people within a small place and no designated seating plan, the service was really good and we got our drinks fairly quickly

Up close and personal

You do get a lot of bang for your buck here, for £10 this is incredible value. Normally you'd pay more than this in a standard pub for substandard quality beef. They've done alot of sourcing from different suppliers and it shows. I've not had the flat iron cut before, so can't really compare it, but the meat is cooked perfectly, it would be interesting to see if this is done sous-vide and finished on a grill, from the photos it looks as though they are seasoned post-cut. You don't get a knife, but you do get these quite awesome meat cleavers instead, there was a warning on the menu not to take these home as souvenirs.!As you can see the colour is perfect throughout the steak. My only gripe is that with the steak already cut up, it does get cold quite quickly. So while it retains it's flavour, it's more of a cold cut at the end of the meal.
The beef dripping fries were a good accompaniment, they had a good crunch to them, although slightly too much salt for me. The salad was fresh and the vinaigrette was very light and didn't over power the flavour of the steak. Our final bill came to about £30 for 2 people

You can't afford to miss out on a steak at this price this good. Get there early before the queues for the last couple of days. I hear they are doing Wagyu for £16 (200g).