Harden's survey result
Summary
“Proper steak venues” with “fantastic prime cuts for sharing” is how fans applaud Neil Rankin’s cocktail-fueled smokehouses: vibrant hang-outs featuring live-fire BBQ in the open kitchens that form the heart of each outlet (and with a selection of taco platters backing up the menu’s core of smoked meat dishes). Ratings have varied of late, though, and Paddington and Shoreditch branches closed in autumn 2024, now leaving only Soho, Covent Garden and the City. Top Tips – look out for Bottomless brunch deals; and the £15 steak frites lunchtime offer (in Covent Garden only).
Summary
“Fire-cooked” steaks, supplied from North Yorkshire, aged in-house and supplemented by “inventive” side dishes (tacos, parathas and more), are what put Neil Rankin’s BBQ group on the map, with its fifth site opening in Paddington Basin last winter followed by a smashburger spinoff in White City. But even fans can note that what “was once a firm favourite has declined” – service is often “a bit all over the place” and dishes can arrive “lacking genuine flavour”.
Summary
An “open-plan kitchen” complete with fire pit is the theme unifying Neil Rankin’s four-strong BBQ-group, which takes all its supplies of beef, pork, lamb and chicken from Yorkshire farmer Charles Ashbridge. Despite some favourable steak suppers being reported, ratings took a further dive in our latest poll, continuing last year’s themes of “chaotic” service and a feeling that the overall experience can “promise more than it delivers”. Lack of value, in particular, inspires repeated gripes (“plates were minuscule at ridiculous prices…”; “we joked that you needed a microscope to find the portions…”)
Summary
“Sitting at the counter with all of its theatre is amazing” at Neil Rankin’s “noisy, buzzy and fun” outlets, whose “really cool (well, hot) feature are the ‘fire pit’ cooking stations”, from which they offer “a great mix of meat dishes” (including rare-breed steaks), plus fish options. There were some “off days” reported this year, though: in particular, service has sometimes been “under pressure” or even “shambolic”.
For 34 years we've been curating reviews of the UK's most notable restaurant. In a typical year, diners submit over 50,000 reviews to create the most authoritative restaurant guide in the UK. Each year, the guide is re-written from scratch based on this survey (although for the 2021 edition, reviews are little changed from 2020 as no survey could run for that year).
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Restaurant details
Opening hours
Monday 4pm to 10.30pm; Tues to Weds 12pm to 10.30pm; Thurs to Sat 12pm to 11pm; Sun 12pm to 5pm
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