THE MEAT PEOPLE BAR & RESTAURANT

London Steak Boyz Volume 3 took place in August 2016 at a little known spot just off Islington on the green in the heart of Angel. The fact that it was not well known by the group did not seem to raise any alarms bells as the host had lined up some pre and post activities to coincide with the event at his penthouse overlooking the London skyline, so there was no doubt that bets were being hedged between steak quality vs. pure entertainment and fun.

After some pre-dinner activities at the host’s bachelor pad, the Steakboyz and the guest for the evening ventured downstairs and across the street to Meat People, a small venue with around 8 tables. It became apparent that If it wasn’t for the name and the silver Cow head mounted outside, one could have easily walked past this little French bistro looking venue without realising it was a popular local steak house.

Our waitress welcomed us to the venue and took us directly to our table of 8 which was in the corner, which was comfortable, given the size of the place as a whole. Before the final person had sat down, a round of drinks was already being captured, clearly the boys were quite eager to continue the pre-dinner dinners without delay.

FOOD
The menu was pretty straight forward with all the regular cuts - Bavette, Rib-eye, Fillet Mignon available as well as Chateaubriand and a Flat Cut Sharer to share. There were no off menu special cuts available.

Starters including grilled squid, beef carpaccio and sea bass were the first food orders to be made along with another round of drinks. During this time, it became quite obvious that our waitress for the evening was beating to the sound of a different drum. It was not so much what she did, but her expression when questioning her, which made it clear that although we were the customers, she would be calling the shots for the evening.

When the starters arrived, the Steakboyz took a step back and looked around to make sure we had not been transported into a fine dining establishment, because they were small and barely touched the side. This is when the relationship with the waitress began to deteriorate with cheeky comments dispersed amongst complaints, there was a clear apprehension for the quality and the size of the steaks to follow.

With the temperature medium rare across the always popular rib-eye and Fillet took centre stage across the table. To great relief across the table, the steaks arrived and on the surface looked like the advertised size with a lovely charred colour across the board. Unfortunately, that were the compliments stopped, because as the Steakboyz began to walk through the steak, some found it lacked the flavour of a quality cut and 2 actually required further heat to bring the cut from rare to their order of medium rare.

SERVICE
Service was poor with the waitress having no sense of etiquette when dealing with customers and the missed drinks, sour looks and I know better attitude not being well received by a group of slight intoxicated Steakboyz looking for a laugh at other people's expense.

VERDICT
Overall London Steakboyz Volume 3 at Meat People was another great night out with the pre and post activities lined up by the host being the saving grace in an evening where Meat People failed to cover itself in any glory.

Steak – 6.6
Sides – 5.2
Value – 6.4
Service – 5.4
Ambiance – 5.6
Total – 5.9

THE MEAT PEOPLE BAR & RESTAURANT
www.meatpeople.co.uk
4-6 ESSEX ROAD, LONDON
N1 8LN
0207 359 5361
[email protected]