Bushey, Steaks & Grills Restaurant Guide

“Prime manages to feel special and cosy all at once” – a family-friendly steak specialist where the main event is dry-aged on the bone and “not cheap but well worth it” for a “special occasion choice”. This branch recently added a new canopied gin garden with heating in winter, and you can also check out a trio of siblings in St Albans, Beaconsfield and Berkhamsted.

2021 Review: A former boathouse on the high street, turned hotel and dining room, that remains of note for its “delightful food impeccably served in a not overcrowded restaurant” – though you’ll need to book ahead on weekends, when they also lay on a “good Sunday lunch”.

2021 Review: “Grotty-looking, but serving top steak!” – that’s been the trade-off for over two decades at this “intimate and special”, but simultaneously “fairly basic” little quirk of a bistro, in the backstreets near Olympia. “If you like good steak then this is as good a place to start as any: its excellent meat, cooked perfectly, takes some beating”, and is supplemented by an intriguing wine selection of well-chosen bin ends. The N19 branch is no more.

“Fab burgers with a posh turn” – including “awesome sweet potato fries” – still lead the charge at these Frenchified fast-food outfits, but they are transitioning into a brasserie group under the ownership of Hush Mayfair’s Jamie Barber. The 20-year-old original – a “great, cosy little spot in Camden” – and its Balham offshoot are all that remain as pure burger bars, while Kingston, High Holborn and Chelsea are now branded as brasseries with an extended menu to match.

2021 Review: Canalside in Paddington Basin, and with massive windows providing water views, this large bar/restaurant – occupying the high-ceilinged ground floor of one of the area’s blocks – has an attractive, if not super-individual, semi-industrial design. Feedback is limited on its gastropub-ish dishes, but suggests it does what it does well.

“Totally amazing in every way” – this Basque specialist in Seymour Village has a very short menu focusing on aged dairy beef ribs or whole turbot grilled over a wood fire, and is both “extraordinary, and eye-wateringly expensive” – “we spent well north of £1,000 for four, but it was worth it”. “The morel and black garlic croquetas are sublime”, too. Its sibling tapas bar Donostia is close by (see also).

2022 Review: “Really good burgers at very reasonable prices” used to win praise for this “cool” Marylebone butcher, deli and steakhouse (sibling to The Lighterman et al). We’ve rated it for its pre-pandemic performance, but it remains closed as we go to press in September 2021, so change may be afoot at some time in the future.

“So long as you don’t mind queuing and the fact that there’s just one item on the menu” – “entrecôte, salad, secret sauce and sublime frites” – this Gallic duo in Marylebone and the City can offer “a wonderful evening of no-frills dining”, and it’s an “obsession” to more ardent fans . “The only pressing question is ‘house red or Bordeaux’” – while the “hugger-mugger seating and bustle is all part of the charm”. The original Paris branch opened 60 years ago in a bankrupt Italian restaurant – hence the name.

“Small, personal and romantic, with serious food for meat fans” – an Argentinian venue near the Wallace Collection in Marylebone, run by chef-patron Diego Jacquet, who trained in his native Buenos Aires under the legendary Francis Mallmann and worked at El Bulli in Spain and Aquavit in New York. Top Tip – “set lunch is a bargain”.

“One of the best bangs for your buck in town” – this “well-priced” steak chain has a “sensible formula” and has “managed to keep standards up despite constant expansion” (its latest, 11th London site, opened in March 2023 in Kensington). “Surroundings are basic” and “their menu is very simplistic: you choose a cut of meat, sauce and sides – the cuts are cooked to perfection”, “chips are hot, the service is punctual” and “free ice cream at the end ensures happy faces when people leave”.

2023 Review: A candle-lit temple to the atavistic delights of consuming quantities of ribeye steak and king crab that’s “in fact very good, if grossly overpriced for what it is” (“£100 for a bit of crab!”). But spending big is arguably central to the ‘Beast Experience’ touted (tongue in cheek), on the website: ‘the place will make an impression on your client or whomever, and everyone will remember the occasion’.

Richard Caring’s American-style grill near the former US Embassy in Mayfair wins praise as “an all-rounder, with a menu to suit all tastes”; and as “a busy, vibrant place with attentive and knowledgeable staff”. “The wine list (book really) is endless and if you want to be extravagant, very expensive”… in keeping with the general approach.

“One of the best bangs for your buck in town” – this “well-priced” steak chain has a “sensible formula” and has “managed to keep standards up despite constant expansion” (its latest, 11th London site, opened in March 2023 in Kensington). “Surroundings are basic” and “their menu is very simplistic: you choose a cut of meat, sauce and sides – the cuts are cooked to perfection”, “chips are hot, the service is punctual” and “free ice cream at the end ensures happy faces when people leave”.

“Steak, steak, and steak are all brilliant” at Misha Zelman’s NYC-style grill-houses also praised for their “great wine pairings” and “knowledgeable staff”. With branches in Mayfair, the City and Canary Wharf, they are a particular business favourite, and had the edge on their arch-rival Hawksmoor in survey results this year. Meat is sourced from Scotland, the US, Australia and Japan, dry-aged on site and cooked over charcoal.

“Yes, it is expensive (if not by Mayfair standards) but it is a meat-lover’s nirvana in a great setting” – that’s long been the accepted view on this quirky, grill room (est. 1952) behind a Young’s pub, tucked away in a scenic central mews. “Old fashioned pies, mixed grills and excellent steaks” are washed down with an “impressive, if over-priced, wine list” and served in a quaint, period setting, whose “overcrowded tables are part of the experience”. In the last couple of years, though (even prior to the departure last year of well-known manager Oisín Rogers), ratings have been on the slide. Some “shockingly bad” cooking has been reported, alongside service that’s “so indifferent”; and the current impression is that they are relying ever more heavily on their “captive market” of local business-lunchers.

Fans do still hail the “fabulous meat” at Roberto Costa’s quirky Italian steakhouse group, but it has lost some of its red-blooded allure in recent years. “The restaurants look appealing and the menu looks promising”, but lower ratings bolster those who feel “the quality has dropped with expansion”, as it has grown to six venues across London (and a sister concept, Fish Game, opened in Canary Wharf in mid-2023); and at its worst, it can deliver “distinctly average steaks” at “steep prices”.