Blacklock is the restaurant I recommend the most. If you love meat (they source theirs from Philip Warren in Cornwall) then there are few better places to indulge in London. The fact they serve decent cocktails in proper glasses for just a fiver is an added bonus.

I was delighted then to hear of a third Blacklock – this time in Shoreditch. The space feels more grown up than the other two. Maybe because it’s bigger. There’s a bar. There’s exposed brick. It’s dark. It’s sexy. But there are windows.

The famed ‘All In’ (£20 per person) starts off with pre-chop bites; little bundles of loveliness atop circular crisp breads. Egg and anchovy, cheese and pickle, chicken and horseradish. All delicious.

The main event is a pile of skinny chops; beef, lamb and pork, sitting on fingers of flatbread which soak up the meat juices. What’s so impressive here is the fat is crisp and cooked through yet the chops retain a pink middle. Quite a feat as the chops aren’t thick. It’s masterful cooking.

You get two sides included, we go for chips, which have serious flavour from being cooked in beef dripping (YUM!), and 10 hour ash roasted sweet potato, the skin being crisp as anything. Chilli hollandaise (£1) and béarnaise (£2) are perfect chip dunkers.

There are big chops too with sizes marked up on the pillars like at Hawksmoor. We go for a 600g prime rib (£48). Seriously, there is no finer beef in London right now. We can’t finish it so take it home and it somehow tastes even better cold.

Blacklock ticks all the boxes, making a meat feast more affordable than at other, more traditional, steakhouses. Whether it’s a big or skinny chop, the quality of the meat and its precise cooking is what makes Blacklock so special.

Would we go back? Yes

TheBlacklock.com
We dined as guests of the restaurant