Steak

Blacklock is a meat/chops restaurant in a Soho basement, where an old Soho brothel used to be. The restaurant was founded by 3 Hawksmoor steakhouse group veterans and so they know the importance of good meat and good cooking. The chops come from The Warren Family in Cornwall and are cooked pink. The restaurant is named after the Blacklock foundry in America’s deep south, antique irons from which they use to press the meat on to the grill.

Blacklock has become very popular since it opened a few months ago, and expect queues when you come here after a certain time. We came here around 6pm and then the restaurant was not full, but it became very full at around 7pm. It was located in a basement and I could not find it at first, I kept walking past the entrance a few times and just could not see where the entrance was, it is not very obvious, you need to know the number of the street to find it.

Hixter is a restaurant owned by Mark Hix and just like his other restaurant Tramshed focuses on chicken and steak but the menu is definitely broader than at Tramshed. There are now actually 2 Hixter restaurants one in the city (Devonshire square, where I went) and one in Bankside (the area that is seeing more and more restaurants open these days). Mark Hix is a famous restaurateur and a food writer (I have and use one of his cookbooks) and he has now 10 different restaurants in London (I have reviewed a few).

I loved the restaurants I visited and steaks I had when I was in Argentina a few years ago and I have been trying to find a restaurant in London to replicate this ever since. I was walking past Buenos Aires restaurant one day and it said it provides the “ultimate Argentine experience” and so I wanted to give it a try. Buenos Aires restaurant group was established in June 2007 and today has 8 steakhouses across London and south-east England (I guess the moment when I learnt it was  a chain I should have lowered my expectations). It was founded by Cristian and Linda Barrionuevo.

I usually don’t follow trip advisor’s recommendations about restaurants, as I tend to find that the top rated places can sometimes be a bit bizarre cafes and small places I would not want to have dinner in , but in this case I did find 3t Quan Nuong restaurant through tripadvisor. I was googling restaurants in Ho Chi Minh city and one page led me to another and not long afterwards I was looking at 3t restaurant and reviews on trip advisors, where this is ranked as the 40th best restaurant in Ho Chi Minh city. The reviews described 3t Quan Nuong restaurant as a grill restaurant where you cook your own meat and fish in front of you and that sort of intrigued me and I was ready to go there.

I have an American Express credit card and in January as a loyalty thing they sent me a voucher with £50 off if I went to eat in the American steak restaurant The Palm. The offer was valid until the 30th of April, and I totally forgot about it until the 29th of April, Monday, and as my boyfriend and I had nothing planned for the next day we booked a table for 7pm in The Palm for dinner to spend our dining card