Right, it’s time for my new favourite restaurant review – Hawksmoor Air Street! It is no big secret, I am a foodie, I loooove food, and I love good food even more! I admit this, and I make no excuses for my size 16. Well, I have been lucky enough to have experienced some really nice food in the last few months, so I sure am going to catch up with blogging about it and sharing my thoughts – maybe someone will find them useful!

If you are a meat lover like me, and if you enjoy a good steak on occasion, you simply must go to Hawksmoor! In my humble opinion, they sure do know what a good steak should look and taste like! Just before Christmas, me and hubby went to Mayfair for an evening of festive classical music concert in St James’s Church Piccadilly (oh, what a fab evening that was, and I can blog about that later). Well, we did not fancy sitting through the two-and-a-half-hour concert feeling hungry – and potentially having the belly gurgles interfering with the beautiful classical music – so, with plenty of time to spare, we took a leisurely stroll along the beautifully lit Regent street, dodged around the numerous tourists, thinking over what kind of food we fancied that night. Let’s face it, Mayfair is full of good restaurants, but we needed to find somewhere special we have never been to before.

Beautiful Christmas lights of Regent Street

The Mayfair branch of Hawksmoor is situated in quiet Air Street, away from the chaos and never ending hustle of Regent Street and Piccadilly. We have taken a calculated risk of not booking a table in advance, as it was still relatively early in the evening (around 6pm) on a weekday, and we were not disappointed:  the maître d’ has found a suitable table for us and we did not even have to wait. As we ascended the stair case and walked to the main dining area through a spacious bar, it soon became apparent that there was no shortage of space in the grand Art Deco hall: it is enormous!

The building in which Hawksmoor is based is a gorgeous Art Deco haven: I loved the theme throughout – from the stained windows to the light fittings, beautifully dim lighting and dark wood with plenty of emerald green leather interior. A very special place. I had to borrow a photograph of the interior from DrinkUp London’s website as it sure was dark there for my iPhone’s camera.

This photo is taken from Drink Up London

Although the place looked very grand, we were surprised to see that the waiters were mostly young men wearing jeans and t-shirts – no aprons – looking very casual, but that, in my opinion, adds to the charm of the place: it is so different! They were all very friendly and cheerful, and very helpful throughout our visit.

As we had around an hour to spare, we opted for items from Hawksmoor’s Express menu and our choices were pretty similar: we both ordered Potted beef & bacon with Yorkshires for starters, rump steak with chips for mains, though we went for different sauces: I chose Béarnaise, whilst hubby loves his Peppercorn sauce.

Sweet cheeks cider is very cheeky

As we waited for our starters, it was good to discover the Cotswold cider with a difference: it was flat and pink. A nice refreshing drink which, surprisingly, did not make me instantly drunk – unlike the usual bubbly ciders!

Starters

And then the starters arrived: oh, wow, the presentation is so good! Shame about the poor lighting, but it does give an idea of the intimate atmosphere that shrouded around us.

Cute jar of meaty goodness with deliciously rich gravy and amazing Yorkshires!

At first, I was puzzled about finding the best – and not too messy – way of eating the starter, but my hunger and lack of care for good manners as a result of feeling quite hungry soon took care of the puzzled state and (shhhh, I did not tell you that, though). It was lip-smackingly good: very flavoursome meat, not salty at all, went really well with the crunchy Yorkshire pudding, and the rich onion gravy was really tasty and, I cannot believe I am saying it, not too oniony. The starter portion is quite generous: I actually felt pretty full by the time we finished our starters, and I began to wonder how on Earth am I going to eat my main course…

Main Course

And then the steaks arrived: beautifully cooked (I like them medium-rare), juicy and flavoursome. I managed the steak and chips just fine, I hate wasting food, especially meat: the animal gives its life for us to be able to eat it. The Béarnaise sauce was really good – it complimented the meat rather than overpowering the unmistakable steak taste. You’ll ask what’s the big deal with triple cooked chips? I don’t know, they look like normal chunky chips, but I can tell you this much: they were super crispy! So, yes, good chips they were too.

Delicious juicy rump steak drowned in Béarnaise sauce with triple cooked chips

Pudding

Although we felt pretty full after the starters and the main course, and we never normally get to this stage, we decided to go wild and get something sweet to finish off the meal. Sticky toffee pudding was far too attractive an option for me, so that is what I went for, and hubby liked the idea of Peanut Butter Shortbread with Salted Caramel Ice Cream – he is nuts about peanuts 🙂

Well, what can I say? Both desserts were delicious. Simple.

Peanut Butter Shortbread with Salted Caramel Ice Cream

My sticky toffee pudding with clotted cream was very sweet, but the reach cream has balanced the sweetness out so well – it is a classic combo for a reason!

Sticky Toffee Pudding with clotted cream

Feeling heavier in our bellies but lighter in our wallet (Hawksmoor is no Harvester in that respect, that’s for sure), but very happy, we gently strolled towards Piccadilly, looked at some more beautiful festive lighting in Mayfair, peeked into London’s most beautiful shopping arcades, we eventually made it in time for the concert at St James’s Piccadilly.

Be assured, there were no hungry gurgley belly sounds coming from within us during he concert that evening, as we had a wonderfully satisfying dinner that night.

Hawksmoor restaurants are worth raving about, I think, I can see myself now why people keep going on about it being one of the best London’s steak houses. And I will be sure to go back there again!