February 2016

I love when I have a little time to smootch around London and discover new places. Let me tell you the story of how I stumbled upon Flat Iron.

A couple of weeks ago while whiling away a couple of hours in Covent Garden, I took myself on a walk to see what’s new or different. I came across what from the outside looked like a luxurious membership club or restaurant. It was the abundance of plants and trees, here below, that caught my eye. I crossed the road and took a couple of snaps.

Beautiful tiling. Love the blue and green combo.

You know how curious I am and something made me go inside to investigate further. I loved the decor and there was an ice stand as you entered (more of that later). I couldn’t quiet get my head around what this place was or what food they were serving. So I dug a bit deeper and started speaking to a manager. Well, they do steaks. Traditionally, steak house are rather pricey so I was on my way out again until I spotted a menu.

Nice distressed mosaic floor.

Free water.

Blimey, a steak and salad for a tenner! Really? Now I wanted to know more and so I found out that they have their own butchery during the week. How cool is that?

Well, I was on my own, it was lunchtime, there were spaces available, what could go wrong I thought to myself? Why not have a spot of lunch and try their food?

The butcher in the next window where they prepare all the steaks. Open from Monday to Friday. Not for the faint-hearted I’m told.

I was shown to my table. The first thing that happened was that they brought an enamel mug full of popcorn with beef fat. OMG, it was so yum! The best bit is that they replenish the mug….

Such a simple idea, but so effective!

The menu is more extensive with a variety of beef cuts (nose to tail eating is so underrated) and they also have special dishes (think they had burger that day) but I opted for a flat iron steak and salad for a tenner. Woohoo. The salad was lamb’s lettuce (love that, also known as corn salad) and the steak was much bigger than I anticipated. Here you go…

Flat iron cut – some say it’s the best cut of beef.

How cool is that meat cleaver?

I scoffed it all as you can see and it was really good.

There were more surprises once the bill arrives. First off, 100% service charge goes to the staff. A 10p donation is added (optional) and all donations are 100% matched by Flat Iron in aid of Macmillan Cancer Research. Thumbs up!

Now for the best part. They give you a token and explain that there’s a complementary ice cream for you on the way out. Now, THAT’S cool!

Here it is. Someone stands there all day and serves ice cream to guests who have finished their meal and are about to leave. Come rain or shine, you’ll get your ice cream.

The ice cream itself is salted caramel and they use Mast Brothers‘ dark chocolate for flakes on top.

And voilà, how yummy is that? And guess what, it tasted great too.

And should you be so full and choose not to have your ice cream at exit, they will give you this gorgeous little mini meat cleaver token to take away and hand back in on your next visit. Fab!

This newly opened branch in Covent Garden is their third and biggest one. You can’t book and there’s very little information on the website. It’s all word of mouth. I love how customer focused it is and how affordable they make it to have a good meaty meal out in posh surroundings. I’ll be back!
Be warned, on weekends there can be queues.