Flat Iron

Former Fat Duck chef Charlie Carroll originally started Flat Iron as a temporary pop-up on the top floor of The Owl and the Pussycat on the hip Redchurch Street in Shoreditch. Although his permanent restaurant has since found a space on Beak Street in Soho, he brought the hipness along with him. Set over three floors, Flat Iron is filled with eye-catching design touches. Think mini meat cleavers in place of steak knives, reclaimed iron lamps from Smithfields, more meat cleavers decoratively dangling on exposed brick and plenty of cast iron - mostly applied in the picnic bench/canteen style seating. It is Smithfield steakhouse meets Soho den by way of one of East London’s most stylish streets. Flat Iron is another no-bookings establishment and while they do cram customers in (we’ll get to that later) you should be prepared to wait. However, pagers are handed out so you can head down to the basement cocktail bar or off site altogether to await your summons. We’d recommend the cocktail bar, for the fact that the atmosphere in the dim downstairs den was our favourite part of the place.

The gimmick – if you can call it that – at Flat Iron is the steak and salad for a tenner claim. There are two dishes, the signature flat iron steak or an off-menu special. We stayed true to the place and opted for the namesake steak. A chunky, narrow strip, well char-grilled on the outside and a juicy pink within. Good meat. Not crazy-good, but £10 steak good. But £10 is really just your starting point. Extras ramp up the price; if you want dripping cooked chips, add £2.50, if you want greens, add £2.50 and if you want sauce, add £1. Our bill comes to £40 for two including service and a bottle of craft beer each, which is a reasonable price to pay for what we’ve enjoyed.

One thing we didn’t enjoy was the seating. The welded iron picnic style benches look good but either the people sitting next to us were utterly unaware of boundaries or the seats are just too tight. Banging elbows with strangers might be some people’s idea of a lively atmosphere, but not this guy’s. If you can wait for a smaller table, then do. Or go with a group and enjoy the close quarters, good steak and Soho buzz.