REVIEW: Hawksmoor Guildhall, Basinghall Street, Bank

Tucked away next to the guildhall, Hawksmoor is very easy to walk past, especially if you don’t know what you’re looking for. If you spot a swarm of city bankers in white shirts then you’re probably heading in the right direction.

Stepping through the enormous door you’re transported into a grand entrance, very dimly lit and manned by extremely quirky staff, who fit in with the restaurant well. Head down the stairs and you arrive at a lovely tiled bar where you can sip on delicious cocktails before you head into the main restaurant.

I apologise in advance for the quality of the photos/lack of them. The restaurant is so dimly lit my camera struggled, I did switch my flash on at one point, but that didn’t go down very well with my fellow diners once I lit up the whole restaurant.

The food at Hawksmoor is by no way cheap, but given its city location, prime cuts and with a power breakfast hailed by GQ magazine, it doesn't really need to be cheap. Monday nights at Hawksmoor are BYOB for only £5 corkage so if you want to keep costs down then this is the night to go.

We started off with some cocktails, which Hawksmoor do very well. Shaky Pete’s Ginger Brew (gin with homemade ginger syrup, lemon juice and London Pride) was the star, a generous froth of ginger foam, ice cold and had a lovely tart sweetness. I highly recommend.

Hawksmoor has two menus, the bar and the restaurant. The burger was the obvious choice. Made with 100% longhorn beef, intertwined with nuggets of bone marrow to give the burger a buttery richness while keeping it succulent and juicy. Finished off with lettuce, tomato and your choice of cheese, either Ogleshield or Colston Bassett stilton, I opted to add bacon for an extra charge. It’s a truly delicious burger. Using beef from the famed Ginger Pig butchers, which I personally think is the best around. I asked for my burger to be cooked medium rare but it came out more medium. Despite being slightly overcooked it was still a delicious burger none the less which stands out from the crowd, especially considering the competition in London these days.

The triple cooked chips were large, crispy and very fluffy with a good helping of salt and pepper, the best I have had in a while. The fries cooked in beef dripping were not as impressive.

The steak fillet was well cooked and literally melted in the mouth; it was like cutting through butter. Cooked on a flame grill gave it a lovely rich smokiness running through it. Whilst expensive, it’s definitely worth the money. Order a side of roasted field mushrooms, fat, juicy and had so much flavour, who knew a field mushroom could taste so exceptional.

Desserts unfortunately are definitely not Hawksmoors strong point. The chocolate and salted caramel tart was rather basic, nice texture but it wasn’t shouting flavour. I could taste ordinary caramel but not salted, which is a shame as its one of my guilty pleasures.

Strawberry ice-cream was sub-standard while the classic sticky toffee Sundae was probably the best dessert on the table. The eton mess had a nice zingy freshness with fresh strawberries, but I can’t remember it too well, which is not saying much.

I highly recommend Hawksmoor and it’s not just about the meat, it’s also the Lobster in hazelnut butter i’ve heard so much about and buzzing atmosphere, oh and did I mention the amazing selection of Chateau d’Yquem? Skip dessert and head straight for the dessert wine would be my tip, just don’t expect it to be cheap!

8/10