The
Grill on the Market
Date of Visit: 21st
October 2013
Ambience
I have been here a few times
before and the atmosphere is always good, regardless what day of the week it
is. It is always buzzing with people and
there tends to be live music in the later hours of the night (mainly using the
large piano which is permanently situated in the foyer area).
Dimly lit surroundings and booth
like seating areas reminds me of the set-up of Browns. Being a school night, the restaurant had a
good mix of intimate couples and larger parties. They even have a semi private area which was
booked by a party to celebrate their birthday.
Food
This place has a good selection
of drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.
I tried a Strawberry and banana based smoothie which was lush as it had
real strawberry bits in it and a Raspberry, peach and orange based drink which
was nice in taste but a little off-putting in aesthetics (think orangey liquid
with red bits in it).
I was a little disappointed to
see the scallops had been removed from the menu in the starters section and
even more disappointed to hear there were no oysters today (apparently they
only get deliveries if the oysters were of a certain standard). From previous visits, I recall the oysters to
be fairly big and very fresh.
Anyway, we ended up ordering a
sharing platter and mussels with chorizo for starters. The sharing platter consisted of Calamari,
duck spring rolls, lemon flavoured chicken skewers and fish cakes served with 3
dips (hoi sin, sweet chilli and a sour cream).
The squid was soft (i.e. not chewy at all) but it wasn’t fried very well
(I suspect the oil wasn’t hot enough as it wasn’t crispy in the
slightest). The spring rolls were ok but
the chicken skewers were a strange flavouring.
The fish cakes however were good; albeit being a little salty. The mussels used to be very good at this
place too but on this visit, they were small and a tad over-cooked. At this point, we are wondering if the chef
had changed since it had been about a year since we last visited.
For mains, we all opted for steak
since this was our recommendation and it did not disappoint. Forget Gauchos, the steak here is fairly
priced and is of good quality and normally cooked well. Most of us had fillet steak cooked at
different levels (rare, medium and medium-well) but the T-bone was also
tried. Everybody applauded the steak and
how it was marinated well and was easy to slip down the throat (e.g. no jaw
aching chewing). I personally opted for
a fillet cut, cooked medium but it was pretty rare (the rarest I’ve eaten) but
I didn’t send it back because whilst it was blood red, it wasn’t bloody at all. I added baby scallops, crayfish and prawns to
my steak as an additional topping but it wasn’t that great value or tasty in my
opinion. Each steak was served with
chips/potatoes of your choice and we ordered a few sides which included
asparagus, garden greens and a side salad.
You could also order sauces but frankly, the steaks don’t need sauce but
they were good for dipping the chips =)
Service
The service was very good – fast,
efficient and the server was knowledgeable of the menu. At no point did we have to wait long for
service; needless to say, we gave a good tip on top of service charge. Happy
days!
Summary
So the starters were a little
disappointing and not the normal standard of Grill on the Market (at least not
what we’ve experienced in the past) but the mains were excellent and the
service was great so it would still be one of my recommended restaurants especially
if you are a fan of steaks.
The steak is definitely the best I’ve
had in London. Locanta in Birmingham
used to be just as good for steaks but unfortunately, the standard dropped
considerably since they changed hands.
Next on my list to try at this
restaurant is the wagyu beef burger which is also reasonably priced at under
£20. We will be back =)
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