Tuesday 7 July 2009

Hawksmoor.



After the wedding we planned on meeting up with our friends, Neil, Emma, Will and Nina for dinner at the Hawksmoor. Being pregnant the idea of eating an overcooked steak did not appeal so I had emailed them in advance to see if I could get special dispensation to get the burger instead.

But oh no, no special treatment for the pregnant lady.

It's the only time this ploy has failed. I was told via email that if they allowed me the burger they would have to allow other people the burger and then chaos would ensue, so they suggested that I have a rib-eye done medium well instead. To be dissed in such a way would normally result in me giving a place a body swerve, but, because it's HI's favourite place for cocktails and it was relatively convenient, I made the booking anyway.

So after a couple of very good handmade lemonades at Pinchito People we found ourselves at the bar at the Hawksmoor round about six. The nice barman noticing my prominent bump, straight away set-to whipping up a non-alcoholic cocktail for me, whilst HI plumped for a Millionaire.



My cocktail was lovely and refreshing-guava, lime and pineapple flavours came through.



It was followed by this strawberry delight



The others joined us at the bar and ordered some cocktails too, we were so busy catching up that we didn't actually take our table till seven-thirty. The place was not yet full but it is London, and it got busier round about nine. Our waitress was rather surly I have to say, I think she thought that her tip, which was added to our bill with out our asking, was going to be a paltry one when she heard that we were not having starters. She perked up a little when we order about 6 sides, puddings, coffee, and many more drinks. She had an annoying habit of asking my husband if he wanted another cocktail everytime she came to the table, which could be perceived as being attentive but if you know how potent these cocktails is a bit dangerous, and smacked of wanting to take advantage of a group of slightly tipsy people, of whom I was not one.

Anyway, griping aside, onto the food. I was disappointed by the chips, they are triple cooked but I found them to be a bit under done on the inside. Stravaigin and Crabshakk do better chips if you ask me. The others decided to try out the Porterhouses, one at 850g the other at 700g both done medium-rare. Much to my annoyance I did not take a photo of what looked to be a mighty fine piece of meat. The silence that ensued confirmed that it was as tasty as it looked. Will had order envy as he had gone for a rib-eye medium-rare which did not compete with the Porterhouse. I asked for my rib-eye medium-well as instructed only to be told that it would have to be done well-done, I think to avoid me having any chance of coming back and suing them for food poisoning, so I just ate what I was given like a good meek pregnant woman should.



It was ok, not too chewy but by then the fun had gone out of it a bit.
The puddings that followed were associated with happy noises but I did not part-take as I was suffering from protein overload. I do like the Hawksmoor primarily for the cocktails, but as I anticipated it's not really for pregnant people, but then again, not many places are.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I REALLY want to go to Hawksmoor - all those photos of steak... I suppose a mocktail is not a good substitute if pregnant...