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Tuesday 27 January 2015

Beef, beef and more beef at MASH London

Beef, beef and more beef! We can’t get enough of it at the moment, with steakhouses, burger joints, chicken shacks and BBQ’s all ingratiating themselves onto our eating out guides, bringing us meat from Argentina, Uruguay, New Zealand, America, Scotland and Scandinavia among others. We drink red wine with fine steaks at the likes of Hawksmoor, 34, and Gaucho, but we also spend hours collectively queuing for root beer and burgers at the plethora of pop ups and no-bookings hotspots including MEATmarket / MEATmission / MEATliquor, Honest Burgers, Hache, Patty & Bun, and Dirty Burger etc. We all seem to be going gaga for cow on a plate and for this, I am eternally grateful. 
Uruguay Fillet 200g - £30 



MASH still feels relatively new to this cavernous basement space in Soho, but having opened in 2012, it’s definitely overcome any growing pains it may have feared! It’s a beautifully masculine dining room and bar, with low lighting, dark wood and brass trimmings, a sea of cosy booths and a vibe that would be equally befitting of a business dinner as it would a date or catch up with friends; it attracts celebs, sports folk, and regular folk like me by equal measure, and it’s luxurious without being inaccessible. Rarely does such a place straddle such a myriad of social gatherings or clientele, but here we have it…I don’t know what else to say about the matter really! 

You can be modest or you can go wild with your steak, with a menu ranging from £25 for a standard steak & chips to £75 for a 200g American grade 9+ sirloin from Grand Omaha. Be aware though, you are ordering simply steak (nothing else but a plate of steak), so if you want sauces, sides and/or salads, you must order separately for an extra £4.50 per dish (each portion is big enough to share between two, so there’s no need to go overboard). My Uruguay Fillet (£30 for 200g) was tender, cooked exactly to order (medium rare incase you were wondering!), succulent and flavoursome. The BĂ©arnaise was precisely what it needed to be, the chips crispy and well-seasoned; the creamed spinach was rich and bone marrow sympathetically cooked to bring out the best beefy flavours (I spread mine on like a flavoured butter!). 

Service was also precise, friendly, welcoming, knowledgeable and efficient, which is immensely pleasing in such a large restaurant that, as I’m sure you can appreciate, gets rather busy. I got lucky with a 50% discount from all food (promotion for those of you who can find a friend with a birthday in November), but without this, I suspect this would not have been a cheap meal, even without the wine! Starters are all under £10 (unless you opt for the ½ lobster!), and the steak is offered at whatever you’re willing to pay for it. It’s worth it, but be prepared to spend a bare minimum of £50 - £70 per person for a 3-course meal, with a glass of wine. If you love good steak, there’s not too much to moan about here. 

 Meat, meat, oh glorious meat! 

Thank you and goodnight.

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Guns n Roses: Cherry wine, rosemary & lavender syrup, Californian sparkling wine - £11.50