Green Door EC3

A middle-market steakhouse, handily located in the heart of the City, and already doing very good business.

All forty-plus British readers will recall Berni Inns: the steakhouses which defined ’70s high street eating. If you fall into that category, you can stop reading at the end of this paragraph. This new steakhouse, in the heart of the City, is for all intents and purposes a Berni Inn for our times, and a pretty decent one too.

Still with us, then? OK, the Green Door – which turns out to be a more upmarket manifestation of the Aberdeen Angus chain – offers a menu dominated by good steaks (some from Argentina, some home-raised), served with good chips.

The setting is comfortable but not cool, smart or trendy. The service is perhaps a touch on the matey side, but notably cheery with it.

Such straight-down-the-line mid-market eating places have until very recently been a bit of a rarity, in high streets everywhere, let alone in the heart of the City, which may be part of the reason the Green Door already seems to be doing great business.

That’s not to say that it‘s a business sort of place: it’s too noisy and informal for that. It is, however – at least on the experience of our visit – the sort of place where middle-aged lovers can engage in public displays of affection without anyone else apparently noticing.