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best LONDON restaurants
British food is revitalised and refined at the wonderful city restaurant Marco Pierre White Steakhouse & Grill at LanesMarco Pierre White Steakhouse & Grill at Lanes sees a new collaboration between MPW and James Roberston, introducing a menu dominant in British classics. Boasting a smart location just off Bishopsgate, the Marco Pierre White Steakhouse & Grill at Lanes is a buzzy lunchtime restaurant as well as a popular evening dining room and is a big hit with the local city slickers. The entrance is easy to miss but once inside, the contemporary interior with a mix of mirrors, crystal light fittings and comfortable cream leather seating will certainly catch your eye. Marco's new menu is an all British affair where old favourites have been given that Pierre White touch of magic. The steaks are of a superb quality, where prime cuts, all naturally reared and traditionally matured are the star of the show. Choose from starters such as potted duck and Morecambe Bay shrimps or kipper pate with whisky and melba toast followed by spatchcock chicken with chipolatas or roast rib of beef with all the trimmings and finish off with a classic English pudding. Marco Pierre White Steakhouse & Grill at Lanes is an ideal restaurant for long lunches and intimate dinners and takes classic British cuisine to a superior level.
Square Mile Magazine, 25 March 2009
Formerly known as Lanes and run by Marco’s old maitre d’ at the Titanic, Marco Pierre White Steakhouse and Grill is more than a re- vamp of the old venue – it has been taken into the Pierre White blender and been spat out the other side as a re-invented gastronomic tour de force and premier venue for City lunches or after work post- drink bonding sessions.With a menu built around British classics the restaurant possesses in abundance my favourite things in a lunch venue – booths, white table cloths, great steaks and fresh British fish. There’s even those cool clocks on the wall that tell you the time in the world’s financial centres. Squint and you could be in an episode of Mad Men having a three Martini lunch in an early Sixties Manhattan steakhouse – except with shepherd’s pie as the special of the day. Heaven. And lots of fish starters.
I love a potted shrimp, and mine were the best I’ve ever tasted.
“They’re from Morcambe Bay,” said Marco proudly. And he was right to be proud. They were succulent morsels swept up from the wet sand and made jewel-like in their mace flavoured clarified butter. The T-bone steak was a tricky cut made succulent and the grilled oysters atop it, a traditional British taste combination, plump and a perfect counter balance to the meat.
With wines starting at a crunch friendly £15 a bottle and a 3 course set dinner on offer for £21, MPWS&G may be the City’s best friend for these times when men need meat and wine at a rate to please the bean counters. I can’t guarantee the company will be as good as mine was, but the food will bring comfort to anyone suffering recession blues.
Evening Standard / This is London, 11 March 2009
The original bad boy of the kitchen has beefed up what was Lanes Restaurant to turn it into the more macho Marco Pierre White Steakhouse and Grill. Central to the menu are Aberdeen Angus steaks, in two cuts and sizes (fillet 6oz or 8oz, or rib eye, 8oz or 10oz), with classic garnishes such as snails and herb butter or black pepper sauce. Steaks are from £18.50 to £29.50, with triple-cooked chips at £3.75. As for the rest, it seems to have been created with the City boy's boarding school palate in mind. Daily English specials include shepherd's pie, £12.50, plus standards like kipper pâté, £8.50, potted shrimps, £12.50, and nursery puds including rice pudding or treacle tart, £5.50.Time Out, Feb 3 2009:
We must have been some of the only people at work in the City on Monday but that didn't stop us having a superb lunch on the first day of Marco's new steakhouse as it snowed outside. We all agreed the menu read very well, lots of choices and some great daily specials. I had gravadlax with a delicious mustard sauce to start then Roast Beef with yorkshires and the works - absolutely fabulous. My clients had various cuts of beef and one a deliciously light looking piece of halibut.Salads with the main courses (every main comes with a salad) had a lovely double dressing, my friend's mash was first class, chips also good. Dessert on Monday was Eton Mess (no choice, varies daily or cheese) again very good. Room was comfortable, warm, light and welcoming. Staff were on their game (as you'd expect), I suspect one of them was the other owner James Robertson, and were universally smiley and professional. I will definitely be back, good value and quick service.
View London, Feb 11 2009:
Most of the starters are fish, seafood or vegetable based, a smart idea considering the meat feast that’s probably on the cards for the main course. The focus for the mains is steak, with nearly a dozen options ranging in size from a six ounce fillet to a sixteen ounce T-bone. A side salad comes with each steak, although creamed spinach, creamed potatoes and triple cooked chips are available.Although a £20 steak isn’t something that everyone can afford these days, those who can should make for the Marco Pierre White Steakhouse and Grill. Good for impressing a client who’d rather have steak and chips than haute cuisine.
Bloomberg, Feb 12 2009:
Marco Pierre White is a culinary giant. He arrives at his new restaurant, Marco Pierre White Steakhouse & Grill, looking fearsomely commanding with his flowing brown hair and his penetrating brown eyes.He’s aware this is a tough time to open in the City. "This has got to be a business canteen where people can eat well within a certain time at a certain price point. You can have two courses for about £17.50 or you can pay £35.50. That flexibility is important. Your choice. The future of dining out is honesty. It’s affordable glamour. We feed you. We’re not selling pictures on a plate.”
White is keeping it simple. Starters include a rich potted duck as well as kipper pate with whisky. At the heart of the menu are Aberdeen Angus steaks, at eight and 10 ounces, prepared in a variety of ways, including ribeye rubbed with powdered porcini mushroom. Each day there is a special, such as Lancashire Hotpot or fish & chips. There are also English desserts such as Cambridge Burnt Cream (alias creme brulee) and bread & butter pudding and a choice of three English cheeses.
This is not fancy dining where you know your meat’s life story, and neither are the prices so fancy that you’d care. It’s solid British food, better than you would have been likely to find in the northern England of White’s youth, in 1960s Leeds.