A family get together so we decided to treat ourselves to Hawksmoor. Previously I’d been here for a quick-ish, quiet-ish lunch but this was a Saturday evening and it was heaving. Despite this the front of house from coat check to sommelier was Rolls Royce smooth.

The photo, I should emphasise, is not of the restaurant! It is of Nicholas Hawksmoor’s wonderful St. Mary Woolnoth by Bank tube. At a junction which contains some of the most significant buildings and monuments to be found in the City it nevertheless stands out as a bold, eye-catching work of genius. Hawksmoor Air Street on the other hand has a discreet door off Piccadilly Circus and lays opulently on top of a slather of Regent Street shops like a gastronomic Jabba the Hutt on his dais.

On the food front everything was cooked to perfection – delicious steak and each of the sides utterly yum. But beware, those treats come at a cost! Everything is itemised to the gram. And maybe I wasn’t in a Saturday night mood but the noise of the big, open room was fearsomely prejudicial to civilised conversation. Should we have chosen to have indulged in it that is.

6/10

To see which other restaurants I’ve visited in 2016 check out my GoogleMap

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