Telephone: 020 7352 0088
Address: 311-313 Fulham Road, London SW1
Dinner for two, including wine and service, £50-£60
Given how much we journalists adore lists - the best of, the top 10, the greatest ever - it would be grossly hypocritical of me to criticise a list produced by another publication. But hey, why should I let a little thing like hypocrisy get in the way of a good point? A couple of weeks ago, the relatively new and often sparky Restaurant Magazine produced a list of the world's 50 best restaurants, compiled from the opinions of 50 people interviewed down the pub, or something like that. It was as arbitrary a selection as any of these lists ever are. I have, for example, been to only two of those in the top 10 and neither deserved their listing. At number eight was the Ivy in London, which is a great place. The room is pretty, the food is assured and the service exemplary. But one of the top 10 eating houses in the world? Nah. I think even they would agree.
The other one, listed at number seven - and I love how fabulously international this is going to make me sound - is a place in Mendoza, Argentina called 1884. It is a grand restaurant housed in an old winery and I agree that the atmosphere is really rather special, with its open courtyards and terraces. However, I suspect it only made the cut because the compilers didn't want to leave out the entirety of South America. It is essentially just an expensive joint (grossly so, compared to the privations being experienced by the local economy) servicing the expense account Johnnies of the European wine industry who come in to town to buy up ballsy Argentine reds for the supermarket trade. 1884 is good. Perhaps even notable. But one of the best? Again, not by a long chalk.
That said, I did eat a stunning steak there, though of course, if you can't get a good, bloody steak in Argentina where can you? As a certified and certifiable carnivore, I have long craved a repeat experience. Unfortunately, a really good steak is hard to come by in Britain. I suspect that's partly because we are reluctant to pay the high prices a fine steak demands. There is, for example, a pub near where I live in south London which is currently offering a 20oz T-bone steak at £7.95. The state of the animal that's coming off doesn't bear thinking about. It probably died sometime back in the 70s, almost certainly of natural causes. In Tajikistan.
One way to keep the prices down is to shift the meat in bulk, which is what a new and very promising venture on London's Fulham Road is able to do. Sophie's Steakhouse and Bar is named after its co-founder Sophie Mogford, daughter of Jeremy Mogford, who himself founded the Brown's chain, though it can't hurt that it's also the same name as every young blonde-haired woman within a two-mile radius of the site. At last the myriad Sophies of Fulham have a place they can literally call their own. Apparently, the intention was to create something that mirrored the great steakhouses of Chicago. I've never been to one so I have no way of judging. But it looks fine judged on its own merits: the large space of bare brick walls, naked bulbs and simple, scrubbed wood tables had a jolly, purposeful buzz the night we went, even if the noise made by the local clientele sounded a lot like farmyard braying. (It may already be obvious, but I'm not that keen on Fulhamites in their Gucci knickers; they probably wouldn't like me either.)
There's no booking, but we didn't have to wait long in the bar area before being shown to our table. Service is equally brisk, while still managing to be friendly. The menu is straightforward and good value: salads for starters at around a fiver, a mixture of grills, pies and sandwiches for main courses, many at less than a tenner. I began with the Caesar which, for the money, was an exceptionally generous heap of good romaine, proper crumbled Parmesan and some solid, meaty anchovies. My steak-mate, Rich, began with the Cornish crab salad, an equally generous serving of both white and brown meat.
And so to the steaks. All the meat is sourced from selected farms in Scotland and northern England and aged for a full 28 days. If there's a criticism it's that the choice is short. There are just three steaks on offer here: a 10oz rib eye at £9.95 and an 8oz fillet or 10oz contre fillet at around £15. I would have liked to see a longer list of weights and perhaps a few on the bone. There's nothing I like more than to eat dead cow with my hands. (In case you're wondering, I did say that to goad the vegetarians.) Perhaps the T-bone steaks will come in time. I asked for my contre fillet to be served medium rare and that's exactly what it was, crisp on the outside, pink to purple within. A great piece of steak, served with a fine Béarnaise sauce and good rustling chips.
Rich asked for his fillet to be cooked medium which is, of course, a crime against good meat. The cow had been killed twice. Still, they did as he asked and he was as approving as a man with no taste can be. We finished with a shared crème brûlée which was more than serviceable. There's a short but very keenly priced wine list, starting at £10.95 a bottle and with a good choice by the glass. What more can I tell you? Great salads, great steaks, great chips, good wine. A simple formula which could quite easily be rolled out as a chain. I hope it happens. Is it one of the top 10 best restaurants in the world? Of course not. It's much better than that. It's a real steakhouse.
Contact Jay Rayner on jay.rayner@observer.co.uk.
