Growing up in a quiet little town in North West London has been interesting but not the most adventurous of places when it comes to good restaurants, we have 2 dessert parlours and a handful of decent restaurants within a 10-mile radius. And having halal food was a different story altogether, I remember a time where there was only 1 halal Chinese restaurant and that was it. Fast forward a few years and Hatch End has a few halal offerings now. The newest of which is The Steak Restaurant, who have recently gone fully halal with the help of The Halal Dining Club.
What I love about the restaurant is that they now offer a separate halal menu, that means not only is their meat halal certified, they serve mocktails, desserts with no meat gelatine and more than that use utensils and chopping boards and all the food is cooked in separate pans and pots! The restaurant has been around for as long as I can remember but the recent refurbs have made it one of the swankiest places in Hatch End.
We were greeted with edamame beans and cranberry bread. As they’re still in the teething stages of their halal menu they didn’t have a mocktail menu but created some lovely mocktails for us.
For starters we ordered the salmon ceviche – I have to say I love ceviche but this starter was so good, I could have been sitting in a Michelin starred restaurant and it would’ve tasted the same!
For mains I ordered the rib eye thick cut (cooked rare of course) which is their signature cut, and mark my words when they say thick cut they mean thick cut! I was huge!
The steak was so well cooked, but it was huge and for £25 such great value for money too! The meat was so thick that I could barely only eat half of it, if that. I always have my steaks medium rare and I just love it. I know a lot of people won’t agree, but if you haven’t had a steak rare or medium rare at the very least have you even lived?! But to be honest, this was cooked more on the medium or medium well side than rare and would have loved it to be a little more rarer.
At this point I was too stuffed to have dessert, which is a rare feeling for me. We persevered however and decided to share the apple pie between us.
It was huge!!! How is this one person’s dessert??!! Although it was light, and so creamy. I wasn’t expecting it to be that good but After that fat steak, a light dessert was needed to cleanse the pallet.
Overall, the menu at The Steak Restaurant is vey simple, but so effective. The simplicity of the menu is compensated in the food, which is exactly how it should be. The quality of the food almost makes you forget you’re actually in a small family owned restaurant in Hatch End. And by the end of it, it almost feels like you’ll be lumped with a huge bill, but actually it’s great value for money. More than anything else, the service was great, one of the best I’ve had for a while. Although it has to be said, as I looked around the restaurant on a week night, all I could see were retired-aged English couples. I’m hoping the new halal status at the restaurant will enable more people in the area to come and eat out in the Hatch End area too! Finally a place in NW London to match the likes of Meat & Co and I’m so excited that it’s literally a 2-minute drive from my house!
Food – 8 out of 10
Service – 8 out of 10
Atmosphere – 4 out of 10
Experience – 7 out of 10
Overall, giving The Steak Restaurant a total TLH score of 7 out of 10.
Address: 316 Uxbridge Rd, Pinner, HA5 4HR
Website: https://www.thesteakrestaurant.com
Halal Status: There is a separate halal menu, but alcohol is served at the restaurant
Closest Station: Pinner (Metropolitan Line) or Hatch End (Overground)