Zelman Meats
You know that feeling when it comes to the end of the week, and you haven’t made any plans, there is no dinner at home, and you just want to go somewhere local but aren’t sure where? Well, that was us last week. We were feeling steak with no frills attached and required no more than a 10 minute drive, so on the whim, BW suggested Zelman Meats. Huh, not a bad idea at all.
Zelman Meats is the sister restaurant of quite a few popular restaurants: Burger & Lobster, Beast, Goodmans, just to name a few. They specialise in, of course, good quality steaks with their Knightsbridge location having a constant supply of halal meats. It ticked all our boxes: nothing fancy, on our doorstep, and oh so delicious, steaks!
We found the restaurant on the fifth floor at Harvey Nichols, just past Burger & Lobster, and got seated. It was fairly quiet for 8pm but I didn’t mind too much on this occasion. We got ordering!
The Food at Zelman Meats
Upon seeing the available steaks, I opted for the picanha steak, which is also known as the rump cap. The picanha arrived cooked to a delightful medium-rare, with a thick ribbon of fat attached and a side of chimichurri sauce.
First things first, the steak. It was great; succulent and tender, with enough flavour from the fat cap to compensate for the lack of marbling. The fat was quite tough, sorry fat lovers, as it is a naturally harder fat and is not fully rendered whilst grilling. The chimichurri sauce was average and needed more of a punch in flavour. Overall, it was a very good steak; not the best but a good contender for the top.
Since becoming a teeny bit more informed about steak, I’ve since avoided fillet steaks. Of course, they are lean, tender, and buttery soft, but without the fat, it really is a flavourless (and expensive) cut.
Wanting to keep his streamlined figure, BW opted for the fillet steak cooked to a medium well. I know, I know, I just went on a whole spiel about what makes a good steak and BW went and did the opposite! However, his fillet was cooked really well; incredibly soft with a good beefy flavour, but not enough to really stand out. The picanha fared better, in both of our opinions.
A Zelman special made using wagyu beef, candied beef bacon, and a great amount of cheese; all sandwiched in a cute little brioche bun. The beef patty was tasty with the pockets of fat adding a burst of flavour, as well as the candied beef bacon adding a subtle sweetness to the burger, but I would have liked there to have been some more seasoning. A very good burger, otherwise.
Large fluffy chips that had been cooked not once, not twice, but thrice – oh yeah! The second portion were topped with a delectably pungent truffle puree and parmesan shavings.
An entire broccoli that had been halved, charred, and topped with a chilli, anchovy, and garlic butter that had melted all over.
The total bill amounted to approximately £98 for three people, including drinks and service, so £33 each. Zelman Meats was a super reasonable good-quality steak dinner, in my opinion, especially when compared to other establishments that serve halal steak in London. Both steaks were cooked incredibly well, as well as the burger, and the accompaniments were fantastic too (be sure to go for the broccoli!). I’m just counting the days till I can get my next quick steak fix!
For Zelman Meats website, click here.
For other steak restaurants in London, read the following reviews:
