The love I bear for a good steak spans far and wide. My earliest memory of Westfield in Shepherds Bush includes being a regular eater at The Meat and Wine Company as it was previously known. Give or take one or 5 steaks later and when the staff know your order when you walk into a restaurant, you know you have been there one too many times!
Even as The Meat and Wine Co, they had always served halal meat, however following a certain amount of attention from an infamous Sheikh, the restaurant dropped the Wine from their name and introduced the halal section of the restaurant.
So last week, my family and I wanted to go out for a meal. However, as my sister has a 2 month old munchkin (who by the way is the cutest thing since Big Bird from Sesame Street… although I might be slightly biased!) so choosing a restaurant suitable for a baby, a buggy and a blogger was not easy to find. The Meat Co was the one of the only restaurants we could find that was accessible for buggies, was not embarassing when a baby started screaming at the top of her lungs, had baby changing facilities and tried and tested yummy food.
As we had all been to The Meat Co previously, it was a guaranteed good meal. What I love about The Meat Co is not only does it have a fully halal menu, but they also have a halal section where no alcohol or non-halal meats are served. Their halal certificate is also available to whoever wishes to see it so there are to qualms about their halal status.
The restaurant itself is fairly large with a bar area downstairs and a dimly-lit restaurant upstairs. Anyone who has been to the restaurant will know the little quirks of the restaurant that make it all the more special. Not that we care about the wine cellar, but most restaurants keep their wines hidden away, but The Meat Co’s decor boasts a tower of wines standing 10.5 metres, and if you’re lucky, you might even get a chance to follow a waiter in there!
The restaurant’t only branch in the UK, has clear roots embedded into it’s South African heritage, especially with some dishes donated £1.00 tot The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.
So we got there, ordered our drinks and starters and awaited our food. The Meat Co has a wide range of mocktails, and my usual taste of drinks is the mojito, or as called in The Meat Co, Mosquito.
Mosquito mocktail
However, a foodie friend recently told me that the Pina Colada mocktail was a game-changer and one of the best he has tasted, and when a foodie makes such a large statement it has some weight to it.
Onto the food, it’s always a tough choice when you come to The Meat Co for me, as much as a foodie as I am, I can’t eat much and a 300g steak makes it impossible for me to eat everything, which is such a shame because the breads and starters here are so delicious. However, when you’re in the presence of good food you give it a hell of a good shot. So we ordered the Salt and Pepper Calamari and Peri-Peri Prawns for starters to share between us.
Unfortunately, I popped to the ladies’ for a few minutes and when I got back, most of the starters were gone! Apologies, I should say I went to the toilets/restrooms/powder room not ladies’ as the restrooms are unisex! The first time I visited the powder room at the restaurant, I was baffled as to why there was a man coming out of the restrooms! Whilst in the restrooms, I had a conversation (as you do) with a lady who was rather irate about the unisex toilets, although I paid very little attention to her after she annoyed me by calling my niece a boy – she was wearing pink!!
Onto the mains finally! I have had a fair few steaks in my time (see my post on Cut at 45 Park Plane – Cut To The Chase), when in Rome, get a steak! On the steak menu, there are 2 kinds of aged meats – British Isles beef as well as North American Black Angus The patriot that I am, I went for the British 300g rib eye steak, my sister went for the British beef in the New Yorker. Both steaks were so well flavoured, so succulent and the meats were just exquisite. Both were cooked medium-well and to the tee I might add! The meats were just the right amount of medium cooked but still very juicy.
300g Rib Eye in British meat, cooked medium-well
300g New Yorker in British meat, cooked medium-well
Now, I haven’t been shy to say that I really don’t like burgers. However, I have to say, in recent weeks a few burgers that I have been forced to have has started to slowly change my mind. One of them is this bad-boy burger that my mummy ordered at The Meat Co:
Classic Burger 200g
There are so many options on the menu that I haven’t even tried, but the good thing about going on meals with family is I get to try a bit of everything from everyone (to their dismay) My dad went for the lamb, which wouldn’t be my first choice over beef, but in actual fact it was great! It was juicy, it was flavoursome and it was a good piece of meat!
Grilled Lamb Loin
After all that, I was well and truly stuffed as was the rest of my family. But no one can come in between me and one of my very favourite desserts.
You all know I have a bit of (understatement) a sweet tooth! No meal is complete without a dessert in my opinion. No matter how stuffed I am, a dessert is needed to cleanse the palette per se! My recommendation when it comes to dessert at The Meat Co, if you’re only going to have 1 dessert, make it the Madiba Charity Malva Pudding.
Madiba Charity Malva Pudding
The Charity Malva Pudding, as it’s name suggests donates part of the money from the dessert to Madiba’s Children charity. Aside from the philanthropist side of this dessert, this hot sticky toffee pudding with a dollop of vanilla ice cream topped off with sticky toffee sauce is one of my most favourite things in this whole world! My mouth is watering just thinking about it, I might have to return just to satisfy my taste buds.
Other desserts we ordered:
Dark Chocolate Fondant
Peanut Butter Cheesecake
Overall, I can’t stress enough what an easy win this is for a good meal, regardless of whether you want to go out for date night, spending some time with the family, or whether ti is for a special occasion. For me, the food is worth far more than the bill, whether you go for the steak or for anything else, the food at The Meat CO is one that is guaranteed to be good. Given that the service sometimes slips, but the waiters generally are so helpful and will do anything to ensure that the experience for every customer is great.
Did you know though, that The Meat Co have a loyalty programme you can sign up for that will give you 5% cash back loaded back onto their card every time they dine at The Meat Co. The loyalty programme also guarantees you table bookings at any time for 4 people! I’m sold, where do I sign up?!
Remember, head over to my Instagram account to find out how you can win a whopping £200 to spend at The Meat Co in collaboration with TLH!! I will be announcing the winner next week so stay tuned!!
Till then, if you have had any experiences with The Meat Co, I would love to hear from you!
The Meat Co, Shepherds Bush, London, W12 7GA
www.themeatco.com
Facebook and Twitter: @TheMeatCoUK