“The Rolls Royce of Restaurants”: Elvet Steakhouse

TD;LR: The quality of food and dining experience was lovely. Elvet Steakhouse scored a solid 4/5. Price range: £45 pp (exclusive of mocktails). Halal-friendly.

Earlier this week Elvet Steakhouse found themselves in hot water. No thanks to the member of staff left responsible for managing the restaurant’s Twitter account, a most condescending, grossly unprofessional response was given to a customer enquiring whether the restaurant would be participating in the Government’s ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ initiative.

FYI for my international readers – to help boost our economy in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the British government has endorsed the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme whereby a large number of participating restaurants are offering discounts if you dine out at selected restaurants between Monday-Wednesday in the month of August.

Elvet Steakhouse were not participating in the scheme. And they weren’t hesitant to let that be known.

I was surprised to read their response, I really was! Because I had dined there just two weeks prior with my family and I’d had a very pleasant experience. 

I’m therefore of the opinion that this undignified, very rude response might not be a total reflection of the restaurant and staff altogether because when I went to eat there, the waiting staff were so respectful.

I’ll explain what I mean by that in this blog as I share with my readers my review of Elvet Steakhouse.

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My Review:

Elvet Steakhouse is located on a busy high-road in Newham, East London. I visited the restaurant before the Twitter fiasco and before anybody had branded it the “Rolls Royce of Restaurants”. So I didn’t know what to expect from the restaurant when I went, neither did I have a sense of what type of customers this restaurant attracted.

All I had to go off of was aesthetics. And from the outside as I walked in, the place looked good. I can appreciate good interior design and this restaurant had it.

The décor inside was modern and stylish and the ambience was great. I could tell that despite the pandemic, business was booming because the place was packed. Even so, it was spacious.

I was seated on a table towards the back of the restaurant. But it didn’t take me long to spot a flower wall on the opposite side of my table. So I asked a waiter if we could switch tables because I wanted cute pictures with my family and he was happy to facilitate. 

Like many other restaurants, in a bid to prevent a rise in Covid-19, Elvet Steakhouse provided a barcode menu which one can scan using their mobile phone camera to bring up a digital version of the restaurant’s menu on their phone. It was an easy system to use and the menu was a decent one.

There are plenty of options in terms of what one can order. The main reason that we had decided to dine here was because we only eat halal food. That is our dietary requirement. And Elvet Steakhouse boasts premium cuts of meat and great quality steak while “serving only Halal food on your table”.

DRINKS:

Elvet Steakhouse are also known for their drinks. I love a good bar where the atmosphere is popping. That being said, I don’t drink alcohol.

That’s okay though because Elvet Steakhouse met me in the middle. They have non-alcoholic cocktail galore, a brilliant atmosphere and insta-worthy mojitos. (No really, there’s a section in their menu called ‘For the Gram’).

We all tried different cocktails/mocktails and absolutely loved them. I went for a cocktail called ‘Pretty in Pink’ and it’s one of those that are for the gram. You put a flower petal in your drink and smoke arises. My niece thought it was magic and it made her giggle.

‘Pretty in Pink’ has non-alcoholic gin, lime and mint in it. It tastes of berries and has a citrus-y smell to it.

The food hadn’t even arrived and I was already content with the drinks (it’s so difficult finding nice-tasting non-alcoholic cocktails in London – do you know long I’ve been waiting for a restaurant to come along and knock me off my feet with a good non-alcoholic cocktail? Long enough, aha)!

STARTERS:

It didn’t take us long to pick starters – my family like seafood. So we ordered some ‘Deep Fried Calamari’ and ‘Prawn Tempura’ for starters. Size-wise there was lots of calamari and as for the prawns, there were four pieces and they were some chunky prawns aha!

MAINS:

For mains, two of my brothers and I had steak. I went for the Argentinian Black Angus and got  a sirloin cut out of habit, as did one of my brothers. I was impressed with my plate and took a photo to send to my best-friend. This is what my steak looked like:

My other brother went for a fillet cut which is a little more pricier (but that’s because the fillet cut is the leanest and most tender of all the cuts). It’s a smaller size than the sirloin cut.

I didn’t take a proper picture of my brother’s steak but you can kind of see his plate and the size of his fillet steak in this picture (it’s the plate opposite mine):

We were all content with our steaks – they were cooked to perfection. My sirloin steak was chewy and full of flavour and decent sized. I got hand-cut chips to go with my steak and my brothers went with creamy mash. Like the absolute food-thief I am (I only steal from my brothers), I tried a bit of their mash. It was very nice and next time I go to this restaurant, I’m getting mash.

My other brother doesn’t eat beef. It doesn’t matter where we’re eating or who has cooked it – if it’s beef, he isn’t going near it. So he opted for a House Special: Lamb Shank (with potato puree and lamb juice). I didn’t take a picture of his plate but it looked very impressive and elicited an “Oooooohhhh, look at that” out of my niece.

My brother said his lamb shank was tender and full of flavour.

KID’S MENU

My eight-year-old niece can never finish a whole steak. She tried bits of ours but her own meal was from the Kid’s Menu. She went for chicken strips with salad and fries. She likes her fries cheesy and the waiter was more than happy to see to it that her fries were loaded with cheese.

Cheesy fries are enough to make any kid smile – she was chuffed with her meal.

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About half way through our main courses,  my niece started crying. She had a terrible toothache and she’d been chewing on bits of tough steak that evening which is never a good combination.

I think the brother that went for Lamb Shank was still hungry and he wanted dessert but my niece was very distressed with her tooth and wanted to go home as soon as possible. Her Dad dried her tears and distracted her with a joke and it didn’t take long for a half-smile to appear on her face.

You know what turns a half-smile into a very big full smile though? Friendly waiting staff. A waiter nearby saw my niece cry, came over and asked if he could help in any way and then told us there was an extension to the restaurant where they have a floral room. It’s decorated with flower walls, is very aesthetic and he was sure it would make her happy. He was right. It was enough to distract her while the bill was paid.

THE BILL:

The bill came to £210 and a couple of odd pence. This was for four adults and one child (including drinks). 

MY THOUGHTS OVERALL:

I really enjoyed the steak, service and ambiance at Elvet Steakhouse.  Are they “The Rolls Royce of Restaurants”? Debatable. 

Are they the most Instagrammable Steakhouse in London? Quite possibly.

Did they make my dining experience great? Absolutely.

For that reason, I have no doubt I’ll be back on my merry way to Elvet Steakhouse in the not-so-distant future.

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Update (01/10/20): If you follow me on social media you will have noticed that since my first time going to Elvet Steakhouse, I’ve been back since. Some restaurants have great food but lack good vibes. Elvet Steakhouse has both. It’s such a family-friendly restaurant and the waiting staff really do go out of their way for you. I think we might have found a family favourite restaurant for special occasions.