'One of the finest dining rooms in London': TOM PARKER BOWLES reviews Hawksmoor's latest grand location

Sometimes, only steak will do. It’s a primal, fundamental urge, a taste as old as cold water, and a reminder that for all our so called ‘civilisation’, we’re only a few faltering steps removed from the most savage and brutal of beasts. And while the grain-fed, buttery American cuts have their place, it’s British, grass-grazed beef I crave, served charred and bloody, smeared with a sinus-clearing blob of Colman’s English mustard.

And so to Hawksmoor, that magnificent bastion of British beef, currently celebrating its 20th anniversary. Has it really been open that long? Dear god, it seems like just yesterday when I first visited Spitalfields, the restaurant that started it all. Tempus fugit and all that. Since then, Will Beckett and Huw Gott have gone on to open not only 11 British restaurants, but one in Ireland and three in the USA, too. All of which are eternally rammed. They’re ethical to their core, obsessed with sourcing the best (and best brought-up) cows and looking after their staff as well as they do their punters. In short, their success is both hard earned and utterly deserved. 

Hawksmoor St Pancras: ‘one of the finest dining rooms in London’

Their newest place, in London’s St Pancras, is a beauty: Sir George Gilbert Scott’s Gothic Revival masterpiece, all gilt-topped marble pillars, soaring ceilings and some very serious stucco. One of the finest dining rooms in London, with some of the finest staff, too. We drink good claret and eat fresh boiled pink prawns, disrobed from their shell and dragged through a classic cocktail sauce. Scallops, still bubbling from the grill and served in their shells, are covered in breadcrumbs and torrents of garlic butter. Sublime.

Then beef, oh, that beef: a kilo of longhorn porterhouse, cut from the rear end of the short loin so you get a chunk of fillet on one side of the T-bone, and a large piece of sirloin on the other. Lustily seasoned with a glorious crust, the flesh has a hint of minerality before descending into a deeply beefy baritone. There’s chew, succulence and a slight whisper of tallow. Cheap it ain’t, but you pay for quality. Because the creation of good steak is a true art, a combination of breed, feed, finishing, ageing, butchery and cooking.

Hawksmoor is not your everyday restaurant. Rather an occasional blowout, a glorious treat, and not just a truly towering tribute to great British beef. But to the art of hospitality, too.

About £70pp. Hawksmoor St Pancras, Euston Road, London NW1; thehawksmoor.com/locations/st-pancras