For a quick mid-week treat this week, the girls and I headed central to Flat Iron Soho for some seriously good steak. As with most 'cool' London restaurants these days, you can't book (don't get me started on how annoying that it) so we took our chances and skipped out of work as quickly as possible to get there early.
As it happened, being 6 of us, we all arrived at different times. When the first of us arrived we were told that we couldn't go on the waiting list until we were a full party, but we could be put on 'the-list-before-the-waiting-list' - whatever that means.
About an hour later we were 5 of our party of 6 and we couldn't wait any longer, so at about 7.30 we went back only to be told that if we got put on a table of 6, 'they couldn't guarantee that one person wouldn't walk off the street requiring the final space at our table' - we figured we'd take the risk *rolls eyes*. We were then told by the really helpful* guy at the door that we wouldn't be able to wait for our final friend to order. Great, we'll order for her, seeing as there's only one thing on the menu...
*by no means helpful
Once we'd finally been shown to our table, however, the service was worlds different from the jobs-worth on the door and we were told that of course we could wait 15 minutes for our friend, and we were asked would we like to drink while we waited.
The slightly sour taste left by the doorman so clearly trying to toe the PR line and create a queue was quickly dispersed when we caught sight of the menu and our attention was diverted by the awful task of trying to choose our sides and sauces to go with our classic flat iron steak.
While we waited for our final member we munched on salty popcorn served in a mug and deliberated over the choice of drinks (alcoholic and non).
We finally made our choices (sharing chips, creamed spinach and tomato and mozzarella aubergine and I had horseradish as my sauce while the others had bernaise) we were incredibly quick to be served!
Without a doubt the 'best-supporting-dish' award goes to the creamed spinach - I could have eaten this all day!
The steak was cooked perfectly (above - rare) and even though I was full I could have eaten the whole thing again!
They say you always have room for a change - so Han and I shared a caramel chocolate mousse which we sprinkled salt on top of to bring out the taste of the caramel - simple perfection!
Although they probably need to work on their customer relations on the door, if you look past that (and have the patience to wait) then Flat Iron is a real hit - especially as that whole meal including a glass of wine came to £20 each!