M Threadneedle street is a multi award-winning grill restaurant in the City. It’s a fairly large establishment which also houses a cocktail bar, a members’ den and private dining rooms. The restaurant is by Martin Williams – the M stands for Martin – who was previously at Gaucho steakhouse. The restaurant décor is luxuriously modern. It’s very creatively designed, with low lighting and artful light fixtures. Steak is at the core of the restaurant. It heavily dominates the menu with an extensive expensive selection, and cuts of steak are prominently showcased in a giant glass ‘meat locker’.
We were sat at our table for 6:45pm on a Friday night and the restaurant was already busy. We were handed our menus but noticed everyone else had a different menu, which was a set menu. I was intrigued and had a look on their website but the set menu is not available online (apart from a lunch menu). When our waiter came over to take the order I asked about the set menu. He informed us that it was a 4-course menu with unlimited prosecco for £36. Wow. That’s a great bargain! BUT, its only available on Friday and Saturday, which is such a perfect idea since the city is a ghost town for restaurants on weekends.
For drinks, I ordered a Strawberry Virgin Mojito and Amen ordered water with lemon and ice. For food, there were a few choices for me. I was very surprised as Amen had chosen the restaurant and from previous occasions, he hasn’t done so well by me lol.
The menu is clearly divided into different categories – bites, starters, mains, beef, beef/rest of the world, toppings, sides and sauces.
Review of the Food
Before our food arrived, we were given an octopus and caviar amuse bouche. Amen had both and enjoyed it. We were then also given potato bread and beef fat butter, which was enjoyable.
Bites
From the Bites we ordered, morcilla croquette, black taramasalata and goats cheese croquettes (not on the menu, but the waiter offered it as the puffed beef was out). Both croquettes were delicious. I absolutely loved my goats cheese as did Amen from the little bite he had of mine. He thought his morcilla croquettes were tasty but smaller than other restaurants. I didn’t enjoy the taramasalata but Amen happily finished it – though we wouldn’t order it again.
Starters
For starters, I had the buttermilk fried chicken and Amen had the cobia peanut sashimi. The fried chicken was AMAZING. Hands down the best fried chicken I’ve had. It was lightly breaded, crispy yet tender. It had a subtle delicious taste by itself and also combined well with the hot sauce. Amen loved his sashimi. Fish and peanut? Perfect for him. The fish was light but meaty and the peanut snow was uniquely delicious. The presentation was also beautiful.
Mains
For mains, I had the corn-fed chicken – breast and leg with carrots and onion. I loved it. The chicken was tender – even the breast! It wasn’t particularly seasoned, but I ordered chimichurri and firecracker sauces, which gave the chicken an added flavour. Amen of course had two mains! The braised USDA Prime short rib (off bone) and the pork neck. The beef was delicious and rich, especially with the sauce that accompanied it. He wanted more, but thankfully he had the pork neck. The pork neck was good too. It was not as succulent as he expected, but also not too fatty. The plums were unusually delicious, gave the pork a subtle sweet infusion.
Desserts
For desserts, I had the passion fruit and brown butter cake with passion fruit sorbet (no whiskey) and Amen had the Snickers. I was extremely disappointed with mine. The passion fruit was overpowering! From the passion fruit foam over the small pieces of brown butter cake, to the passion fruit sorbet. I couldn’t eat it. Hated the passion fruit. I did ask if it was possible to change the passionfruit sorbet but our waiter wasn’t sure so we just went with it as we had waited a while to order desserts.
However, Amen’s Snickers dessert was amazing! It tasted exactly like snickers – which we love! I was being way too nice as I let Amen have this dessert on his own. He’s trying to eat less sweet stuff during the week and this was his treat so I let him have enjoy it. But I did dip my brown butter cake into his ice cream, after scraping off the passion fruit, and it tasted much better!
Verdict
We really enjoyed our dinner. Minus my dessert, the food was delicious. The décor is beautiful. The service was not perfect, a bit slow and we didn’t have a regular waiter as all the waiters seemed occupied with keeping the prosecco flowing on all the other tables. We would definitely be going back though because beyond the average service everything else was spectacular. We highly recommend the restaurant especially for romantic dates and special occasions. On weekends, it the perfect start for a night out with the set menu, which also makes it ideal for large groups. The a-la-carte menu can be quite expensive though, but it has good choices.
Cuisine: Steak, Grill, Raw fish.
Dress Code: Smart casual/smart elegant
Amen’s Star Dish: Cobia Peanut Sashimi
Shiima’s Star Dish: buttermilk fried chicken
Price: £40 and over (excluding alcoholic drinks)
Rating: 4.8 out of 5
M Threadneedle Street
https://mrestaurants.co.uk/threadneedle/
M, 2 & 3 Threadneedle Walk
60 Threadneedle Street, London, EC2R 8HP
Book at OpenTable
or call 020 3327 7770
