A La Cruz - Stacy's Review

It was my turn to host Steak Club once again and so it was time to put into practise the lessons I had learnt from my first evening as host.

We met for pre-drinks at the Old Bank of England on Fleet Street with Wassie arriving just past the 15min curfew. This is developing into a trend which I am okay with seeing that I was always the one who arrived last but unfortunately for Wassie it meant another strafdop was added to his already significant tally of 5. The pub was a grand venue both in terms of its size and prices with a beer costing £4-5. Despite this the place was busy but there was sufficient space for us to take over our own little area. Roger “Frank the Tank” Dietrich attended his second evening as a guest in the absence of Andre, and it was a pleasure having him along again despite Roger forgetting to invite Frank along.

It was time to see if I had learnt lesson #1 “Don’t organise pre-drinks too far from the restaurant especially if you have to catch a cab through central London”. Well we exited the pub and the timing couldn’t have been better as an empty cab was sitting in the traffic outside. We all piled in, unfortunately for me I felt like Pat Lambie at hooker, sitting between Gary and Roger, one of the golden rules of catching a cab that I haven’t mastered yet. The cab ride thankfully didn’t last very long so I think I can say I learnt my lesson.

Lesson #2 “It is preferable to be dropped outside the restaurant to avoid any unnecessary panic”. I had a little flutter of the panic and the same sense of dread I experienced on my first evening as host when the cab seemed to drive away from all the action of the high streets and took a couple of turns down some very quiet and almost dodgy looking streets before stopping in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. The cab driver announced that we had arrived and I immediately had an OMG! Where the hell are we moment. It was only a matter of seconds though before I realised that we were right outside the restaurant so the panic was thankfully short lived.

We were greeted at the restaurant by a group of hooded youths who were acting out a session of WWE Raw, or at least I think they were acting. We weren’t going to hang around to check so we quickly entered the restaurant and were pleasantly surprised. The restaurant was laid out and decorated quite simply but with an air of refinement. We were seated in the more relaxed informal section of the restaurant in view of the open fire pit (Asador) that is a unique feature of the restaurant.

The menu had a respectable selection of cuts that you would normally expect to find but one item in particular caught Wassie’s eye which was the A La Cruz Parrilladas. This consisted of 2 x 400g cuts of beef with pork sausages and black pudding so needless to say I didn’t need to be asked twice and agreed to share this.

As part of the Parrilladas our steak was served on a small hot grill which meant that the steak continued to cook at the table. As a result we ordered a medium rare rib-eye and a rare sirloin. The rib-eye was unfortunately a little on the tough side but it made up for this with great flavour. The sirloin on the other hand was quite bland in comparison but was very tender so both steaks had their pro’s and con’s. The black pudding was particularly good but I wasn’t a fan of the pork sausages which seemed to have a lot of walkie talkie gristly bits.

On the wine front we had a La Linda Malbec to start which had a light but very fruity taste with a distinct after taste. It was a good wine to start with and seemed to go down pretty well. The second wine which we had with the meal was a Tapiz Syrah which I personally preferred. It was a much smoother wine which wasn’t too overpowering so it was the perfect accompaniment for the steak.

Unfortunately the restaurant employed only one waitress who did briefly help serve our food so needless to say I am not expecting the ratings to be generous. The ratings would be helped though if the service from the waiter was top drawer but unfortunately he didn’t really come through for us. He wasn’t particularly attentive so I unfortunately had to check with him a couple of times on orders that seemed to be taking their time. At one point we had started eating our steaks but the sides were nowhere to be seen. When I enquired about them I was immediately told that I hadn’t ordered any. After a couple of moments he suddenly remembered the order and apologised saying he thought we were another table. On the plus side the waiter was very pleasant and he did help negotiate a reduced rate for our post dinner shots.

I am not sure if it was due to the service and it wasn’t officially stated but our bill came to £46 per head which is a real steal for Steak Club. There was a gratis bottle of wine and our one round of half tot shots weren’t charged but even if these had been included the meal would still have been very good value.

After dinner we walked down Exmouth Market which had a good vibe and a decent selection of cafes, restaurants and drinking holes. In the end we settled for the “Mr. Potato Head” Pub, The Wilmington Arms, for our post dinner drinks where all outstanding debts for the evening were settled and a couple of us were conned once again in a round of shot roulette.

All in all I think I learnt from my previous lessons as host and everyone seemed to have a good night out. Unfortunately A La Cruz didn’t match up to my first venue but I would probably give the service the benefit of the doubt and give the restaurant another go. A word of warning though, only sit near the Asado if it is a cold winters night.

Steak – 6.5 x 5 = 32.5

Venue – 7

Menu – 7

Waitress – 4

Wine – 7

Value – 8.5

Total – 66