Great Queen Street – A Wonderful Return

There is something about the Great Queen Street Restaurant that gives me this feeling that I should only eat there in the colder months.

To me it doesn’t come across as a summer or spring eatery. It’s more suited to those darker winter cold months.

Could it be the dark interior, the dark furnishings or the fact that the menu is so winter, with big man sized pies and unxious stews and proper man cuts of steak. Or is it the oh so French wine list that screams to me of winter.

As you can tell I have only ever ate here in the winter months. I’m pretty sure I’ve never even seen a summer menu here. I wonder what it is like.

But as winter was well and truly upon us, the thought of the Great Queen Street came alive into my mind and I so had to return to see if it was as good as I remember it.

To cut a long story short. Yes it was. Nothing has changed in the year since I last ate here. The walls are still dark, the place is still packed and so damn cosy.

We sat a the bar this time, a new sensation on me, as it was jamming with groups of friends and couples staring longingly into each others eyes. The place has that affect.

Now what to order. This night we were lucky enough to see steak and chips for 2 on the menu. Were we in luck or what.

The steak in question was the Onglet, or to some the hanger steak. This offaly beefy cut, which has become one of my fave cuts from East London Steak of late. But more on that at a later date. Hopefully.

The steak was cooked to a perfect medium rare. Anything else and it would have been like eating a pair of old school shoes.

The chips were chunky and plentiful. The béarnaise sauce was tart and a faint taste of anise. I would have preferred tad more. But I’m just a real picky so and so. I think it was making at least 3 or 4 litres of hollandaise sauce a day for so bloody long that has made me so picky on it. But it was good, it wasn’t mine, but it was good.

Maybe The Great Queen Street has been doing good ales forever, but this is the first time I have ever seen them or ordered a pint. I always go straight for a bottle of heavy red to flow with my normally heavy wintery food.

As always The Great Queen Street restaurant is an underrated gem of a place that sadly I only ever seem to visit in winter. This really must change, but to the next cold snap.