STK is based in the ground floor of the awfully swanky Me hotel in Aldwych. “Not your Daddy’s steakhouse” is their rather interesting slogan and although this place seems to be appealing to the ladies, on our Monday night visit it was mainly filled with middle-aged blokes in suits.
The dining room however was beautiful – a purple glow filled the air and the clubby music in the background gave it a pleasant atmosphere. I’d heard (and our waitress confirmed) that on the weekends, after a few Margaritas the female diners often get up on the tables and start dancing. I do hope they give ’em a good Dettol afterwards! The tables that is.
A brioche roll smothered in a blue cheese butter and served alongside a chive oil got things off to a good start. The roll was warm and the herby oil was an unusual but surprisingly enjoyable companion for it.
The menu wasn’t cheap, but then steakhouses never are. Steaks varied from £16.50-£60 and were mostly American USDA Prime which boasts high degrees of fat marbling.
We both went for the cheapest available; the 150g feather steak (£16.50) which was a bad choice on my part as I knew it would never fill me up – and it didn’t! It was however beautifully cooked and the quality was sublime. The house BBQ sauce served with it wasn’t quite as enjoyable however – it had a touch of the Harvester about it.
The top three parmesan truffle chips (£4.50) were really tasty and full of their said flavouring but the ones at the bottom of the pile sadly hadn’t been sprinkled with any cheese whatsoever leaving them a bit bland.
The broccolini (broccolini?) and ginger butter (£3.75) was devoid of its promised ginger flavour and also sat in a pool of murky looking water at the bottom of the dish which wasn’t entirely pleasant.
The mac and cheese (£5) came out luke warm so had to be returned to the kitchen and even then it came back at more of a tepid rather than a hot temperature. It was pleasant enough but could have done with a crunchy topping to add to its richness.
Service was very charming and our American waitress was the sort of person you’d gladly spend your whole meal talking to. But I think it was the food that let down the whole experience for me. If you want to get the proper STK experience I would probably recommend spending a bit of money and getting a proper steak and going on the weekend when there’s people dancing on the tables. If you go on a sleepy Monday night and get a tiny steak like we did, you might find it all a tad boring.
5/10
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