FOOD : Review of the Chop House, Bruntsfield, Edinburgh
The weather outside was balmy. Unusual for Edinburgh but if this was all the Summer we would get, I was gonna take it. We were heading to Bruntsfield to the steak house - Chop House to try out some of their latest Summer dishes, new on their menu.
Eating steak is perhaps one of my favourite foodie past-times next to eating burgers, seafood, sushi, pasta…. I do love a good steak, preferably a fillet or a T-Bone if I’m pushed hard to choose, but this Edinburgh Food Blogger and carnivore will eat any cut of steak with a smile on my face.
REVIEW OF THE CHOP HOUSE, BRUNTSFIELD EDINBURGH
The Chop House Bruntsfield is located on Brunstfield Place over looking Bruntsfield Links. It offers a charcoal grill over which the steaks are cooked and a bespoke cocktail menu.
The restaurant is very light and bright with large floor to ceiling windows and is a mixture of bar stool seating around the bar and raised booth seating. I was a little anxious about sitting on their high chairs but they are extremely comfortable with foot rests and don’t leave your legs dangling!
STARTERS
Everything on their menu sounds mouth watering and I could feel the thoughts of flavours starting to vibe in my mouth. Their menu isn’t extensive, and by that I mean it doesn’t come with pages and pages of dishes. There is a good range of dishes from each section of the menu including a few dishes suitable for vegetarians.
Tempura Prawns with a hot citrus slaw and a chilli jam (£9.50) caught my eye as did the Buffalo Mozzarella with heritage tomatoes and burnt oil (£9.50).
In the end we chose the Sticky BBQ Ribs with sesame and spring onion (£12.50) and six Oysters with coriander and jalapeno (£21.00).
The BBQ ribs were my favourite dish of the meal. Sticky n sweet, with plenty of meat on the bone cooked to falling off perfection. The sliced spring onion added a nice freshness to it. All in all, just a yummy dish.
The Oysters were decent - a good size although one of them had turned milky which is not the best to eat so we left that one untouched.
MAINS
The Chop House use the very best of British beef, butchered and dry aged in house with Himalayan Salt for a minimum of 35 days before being cooked over the coals. The dry ageing helps the meat become more tender. The longer it is dry aged, the more tender it becomes. The taste develops in the dry ageing process, really enhancing those deep rich umami flavours and making it easier to eat as the steak has a more buttery texture. Sounds delish right??
The Chop House has four single cuts of steak available - rump, sirloin, fillet and rib-eye.
They also have three sharing cuts - tomahawk, chateaubriand and porterhouse.
We decided and were also recommended to try the Tomahawk Sharing steak (£95.00). This is a 1kg cut of steak (including the bone) and is usually the thickness of the rib bone around 5cm/2 inches thick. The Tomahawk Steak is an on-the bone Rib-Eye Steak, cut from the fore-rib with the entire rib bone left. The long bone is french-trimmed allowing for an amazing presentation.
As it is a bone-in Rib-eye Steak, it has quite a large amount of fat around the edge, which gives it a load of flavour when cooked, as flavours are released from both the huge bone, and the fat during chargrilling giving it a sweet gelatinous flavour.
We requested our Tomahawk steak medium rare; and on arrival it was more rare unfortunately meaning that the fat hadn’t been rendered down and the flavour of the fat imparted into the meat. However, the Chop House are so accommodating that as soon as we mentioned this to our server, the steak was whisked away and returned within a short time, perfectly cooked and so delicious.
If a large steak doesn’t tickle your fancy perhaps the new vegetarian dish of Wild Mushroom with potato dumpings, crispy enoki and truffled pecorino (£17.00) might.
SIDES
For sides we ordered the new Chilli and Lemon Broccolini (£4.50) and the Fennel, Caper and Rocket salad (£4.50). We were going to try the new Fried Nduja Potatoes (£5.00) and possibly the Mash n Gravy (£5.00) but decided to skip the carbs and stick with healthier sides (only due to the size of the steak and the fact that I wanted pudding) of Sesame Slaw (£4.50).
All the side dishes were fresh and zingy, plentiful and complimented our steak.
DESSERTS
There are only two desserts to choose from and a cheese course. Dessert one is the Toffee Apple Pudding with vanilla ice cream and caramel (£8.00) and the other, which I decided to have, was the Salted Caramel Cup with chocolate mousse and caramel popcorn (£8.00).
If you are a great chocolate lover, then the Salted Caramel Cup is the dessert to choose. The mousse inside the cup is smooth and creamy with the only salted caramel taste coming from the layer of caramel ontop the mousse inside the cup. The chocolate ganache was deep and rich with the sticky popcorn a nice touch.
There are also some new wine additions too such as the gorgeous Spanish reds; Bodegas Arraez Mala Vida and the El Pugil Tempranillo - both available by the glass or bottle. Their barman is very knowledgeable and made me a lovely mocktail based on some flavours that I love - ginger, spice, apple. Perfect!
All in all, our dinner was enjoyable, our food good and the service excellent.
Things to note
A few dishes offered are vegetarian but no vegan dishes. They state should you have any allergies or food intolerances, to contact them; so they may be able to swop items out to accommodate your requirements. Do ask first.
Disabled access - street level entrance and a disabled w/c. Do check for wheelchair access though.
No dogs allowed.
The Chop House, 88 Bruntsfield Place, Edinburgh, EH10 4HG. www.chophousesteak.co.uk
My Spoon Award : Silver 8/10
I was invited by the Chop House to review their menu. Food and drink were complimentary but the views are very much my own.