Hawksmoor Guildhall

We kept hearing about Hawksmoor during our stay, so we snagged an early 5pm reservation so that we could check it out. The first thing I noticed is the very creative menus which outline the anatomy of the cow you will be dissecting for your dinner. For drinks, I ordered their signature beverage, the Ginger Brew. It was fantastic, and I quickly ordered a refill.
Dinner was the beetroot salad to start, followed by the rib eye with onion rings. I would not put it in the «best steak ever» category, but everything was really good (especially those rings). Service was brisk & friendly, and it was a leisurely meal in a great atmosphere. I would definitely come back.

By far, one of the BEST breakfasts ever!
First off, you walk into this beautiful restaurant. The wood paneling, leather, and hardware. The interior design is beautifully done. The place oozes with class without feeling stuffy and overly masculine. The setting alone really adds the power to the power breakfast.
Second, the food. Seriously, wow. The full English breakfast with short rib bubble and squeak. Extremely well made and beautifully presented in a heavy cast-​iron pan. I also had a cornflake milkshake. Why? Because I’m an adult, and no one can tell me I can’t have my cereal in milkshake form. It was SO delicious. ;)
Finally, the staff was so pleasant, like everywhere else in London. Such a lovely city!

If you’re planning world domination, or even a more modestly scoped project, I recommend starting your day at Hawksmoor, as they can efficiently provide you with the breakfast of champions. Far and away the best cooked breakfast in London, I would posit, with an accompanying cocktail list other establishments can only aspire to. Not cheap– expect to part with £30 or more to do it properly — but definitely worthwhile.
Of course, Hawksmoor does lunch and dinner too– but since I’m rarely free for either, I must scope my comments accordingly.

Great food, excellent service, and an atmosphere with character. I think they are going to improve the acoustics which is needed.

Hawksmoor these days has almost reached «legendary» status with its combination of prime steak and top notch cocktails. It has always been a debate among the Londoners which group has the best steak in town, Hawksmoor or Goodman. I tested for myself when I visited Hawksmoor Guildhall and went for the Porterhouse steak, the same cut I had when I was at Goodman. The Porterhouse was indeed pretty special, really moist and rich, but perhaps too smoky for my liking, and it wasn’t as tender as Goodman. For almost £50 per head, steak should be close to perfection, but that wasn’t the case for me with Hawksmoor.

Breakfast. It’s one of the most important meals of the day and also one of my favourites.
When I do breakfast, I like to go BIG and you don’t go bigger than the breakfast at Hawksmoor.
Now I’m sure you’ll have heard all about their UNREAL steaks but did you know they also do breakfast? It’s only available Monday to Friday and it’s only served at the Guildhall branch and it’s literally ah-​mah-​zing!
I took Tom for his birthday as a little treat. As it was a treat and a friday and because they were called anti-​fogmatics we started our breakfast with a cocktail. Who cares if it was only 9am?
I went for the manliest drink of the menu with shaky pete’s ginger brew, made from gin, ginger syrup, lemon and London Pride ale (£9.75), while Tom went for the girly Marmalade Cocktail (£9.50)
In terms of breakfast. We were there for one thing and one thing only. The breakfast to end all breakfasts. The Hawksmoor Breakfast for two (£35).
It’s made for two to share (clue is in the name) but it’s enough to feed a small family for days! You get a huge smoked bacon chop, sausages, (made with pork, beef, & mutton), black pudding, short-​rib bubble & squeak, grilled bone marrow, trotter baked beans (incredibleeee), fried eggs, grilled mushrooms, roast tomatoes, HP gravy and unlimited toast — and breatheee.
It is quite literally huge and it tastes incredible!
Bone marrow on toast was the highlight for me but the trotters beans were incredible too. Home-​made smokey baked beans with pulled pork — seriously as good as they sound.
There are very few times Tom has not been able to finish a meal and this was definitely one of those times. I mean just look at the sheer size of it!
If you’re ever in the city mid-​week, you should definitely stop by Hawksmoor for breakfast. If you’re not quite up to the big breakfast challenge, there’s loads on the menu to chose from including eggs benedict, steak and eggs and lighter options like grapefruit or granola.

Never disappointed. I’ve been three times and every time is a treat. The cocktails are superb, as is the service and lastly, the steak is the best in London. In the three times I’ve been, I have had the chateaubriand which was literally melting in my mouth, the porterhouse which had great flavour and lastly, the t-​bone which was cooked to perfection. The waiters are knowledgeable and don’t ‘sell’ to you and the atmosphere is intimate and cosy. It’s quite dark in the restaurant (low lighting) which adds to the ambience; saying that, I’ve only ever been in the evening but I hear their Sunday roast is equally as good as a steak. I would definitely recommend his place — on a final note, it’s pretty pricey.

Love it! Have been for breakfast, lunch and dinner several times and it is always a treat! The staff is amazing and the food even better! Always perfect for any occasion!

Devine, delish, amazing, mouth wateringly fantastic! A group of 6 of us went here for a January «Christmas» lunch and I can’t fault the place. The customer service is superb, as in off the scale, the staff are an absolute credit to the chain. The food was out of this world. We all had various dishes and all were superb. The wine list compliments the food that they serve. Nothing is too much effort. Although sometimes you can feel rushed in these type of restaurants, we were left alone and took as much time as we wanted. I will definitely be going back here at any available opportunity. Thanks to great food and outstanding team.

Wow wow wow. As a treat we went out for a breakfast just before xmas. We decided to share the meat eaters breakfast platter. It came with toast, creamed butter, bone marrow (amazing), black pudding, eggs, beef fat fried potatoes, beans, sausage and the best pork chop I have eaten in my life. It was one of the best breakfasts I have ever eaten in my life. Clearly we couldnt finish it as the portions are massive. It was awesome, I can wholeheartedly recommend this place.

Drinks are great here. They didn’t have the smoked tobacco bourbon this time but we tried the butter smoked bourbon. Interesting but in a good way!
If there are two dishes you get at this restaurant, please do get the scallops and the steak tartare. Phenomenal!

I went to Hawksmoor with a friend for the famous Hawksmoor breakfast. The menu pointed out that it was for two people.
Sadly the meal is padded with the unlimited toast and potatoes, with very little meat for what you’re paying. The carbs fill you but not in an entirely satisfying way. There was also just one chop to share, which seems like a mistake for a meal meant for two people.
Our drinks orders were also messed up and to at the end of it all we were charged a 12.5% «optional» service charge, however we were never given any option to pay it, it was just stuck on at the end of the bill. Basically all the prices on the menu are incorrect, everything actually costs 12.5% more than what it says.
All in all I was disappointed with my experience at the hawksmoor and won’t be returning.

Excellent t-​bone stake. Perfectly cut and cooked. You can’t go wrong with this place.

Gross, laut und fantastische Steaks! Ausgezeichnete Weine und trotz viel Stress eine nette Bedienung. See you again!

Came here at 7am for a power breakfast with the coworkers in celebration of a milestone achievement, staying alive for 26 years. We paired up and everyone went for the Hawksmoor Breakfast — a selection of meats with sides paired to perfection.
The presentation was amazing, the spread filling the entire table. All the meats came in a big griddle over hash browns, allowing a bit of the flavor of each to absorb into the potatoes.
Smoked Bacon Chop (⁵⁄₅) — very flavorful and a hearty chop at that. Two grown men could only manage about ½ of the serving.
Sausages (³⁄₅) — probably the most mediocre thing in the selection, but don’t take that as insult. They were still far above average, it’s just that among the company of giants the sausages fall a bit short.
Hash Browns (⁵⁄₅) — beautifully done. Didn’t think that potatoes would outrank the meats, but the hash browns were probably my favorite selection from the breakfast. There was consensus around the table that these were very very well prepared.
Bone Marrow (⁴⁄₅) — bone marrow for breakfast is heavy. Only had a bit, and it was delicious.
Mushrooms (⁴⁄₅) — the necessary non-​potato, non-​meat to pair with an overwhelmingly meaty breakfast. Did the job, and did the job well.
Black Pudding (-/​5) — never made it this far. Looked decent but there was no room left.
I will definitely find an excuse to have another power breakfast here. It did get quite packed by the time we left around 9am, so calling ahead for reservations might be the best way to secure a table.

enjoyed the roast bone marrow and rib eye but to be honest, I prefer the steaks in USA. And this place was not cheap. Good thing it was on the company!
I may try again to give another compare but I wasn’t completely crazy about it.

We came with a large group of people and given how loud the restaurant was, probably not the best idea. Despite that, we had a great time. The service was good and we had some great cocktails.
Despite hearing all the hype, I forgot that it’s just a steakhouse with typical steakhouse fare. It’s all very good — started with the half lobster and ordered some bone marrow for the table to share. The lobster was good but I felt partially guilty that some fisherman had caught and killed the poor thing rather than throwing it back into the ocean. It was tiny!
I then had the rib eye. We ordered a bunch of sides for the table. Nothing stood out as amazing. Typical steakhouse fare: chips, creamed spinach etc. It was all well prepared and good but I didn’t walk away from it completely wow’d. The steak was flavourful but it was on the chewy side.
Overall, a good experience. I’m not sure it was worth the expense though.

There must be something wrong with me, but to me it was just OK.
I didn’t like the setting — at all. I mean — it looks like some old 70s hall basement made for secret government meetings. You know — it has to be safe, so no windows, but they still tried to make it look pretty — with all the wood panels on the walls.
For starters we had bone marrow, and it had this strange note to it — like the bone has been there for a while. It wasn’t nice.
My friend and I went for the bone in prime rib. And it was good — three stars are perhaps due to very high expectations I had about it. It was slightly overcooked for medium rare.
Desserts were great (toffee pudding and eton mess) — but I didn’t go there for desserts!
Honestly, I’m disappointed. My friend loved it though, so I might end up going there again to check it out and finding out that maybe I was wrong.

Visited the Hawksmoor on a Friday night and with its location close to the city it seemed to be full with a lot of people from the city. The place was packed so really glad we made reservations. Had a look at what people were eating around us and the dishes looked huge so we opted not to have any starters.
We ordered some wine, many to choose from by the glass but had a difficult time finding anything that I fancied so asked for a recommendation. Was not bad but not great either so a bit disappointing. That can however not be said about the food, we went for the smallest cut they had which at this night was around 700 grams and shared that. We got side salads, fries and bearnaise sauce. The fries should be skipped — nothing special and still plenty of food. The meat was prepared exactly as requested (medium rare) and was both flavorful and extremely tender.
The food was just so filling so there was no chance that we could have room for dessert but all together still very good food. To give the place a top grade the sides would however to be slightly better as well as the wine. The place is also too loud — to some extent it is the fact that it was full but also the fact that the music was fairly loud so people have to shout to make themselves heard. All in all still one of the best places for steak in London.

Speechless. Top quality food and drink, incredible service and a stylish, cosy interior. Awarding 5 stars almost seems stingy.
I came here for a best friend’s birthday party on my recommendation after the superlative experience I’d had at Hawksmoor Spitafields with the Unilocal Steak Club. Right from the off, the service was friendly, polite yet also informal enough to put us at ease. As one of my friends there remarked, Hawksmoor seem to make a point of recruiting affable yet professional waiters and waitresses.
This being a celebration, we ended up having a rather boozy dinner, kicking things off with a round of their excellent cocktails. Each was superb — I tend to be a cocktail sceptic, but the well-​chosen combinations, quality of ingredients and sparing use of ice won me over.
Then it was on to the wine. Despite the wtf prices (see photo) found at the higher end of the wine list (designed to prompt impulsive splurges from bonus-​rich city boys?), Hawksmoor deserve a lot of credit for having a wine list that starts at under £20 a bottle. We chose the second cheapest one, and it was perfectly decent.
The steak, of course, was as heavenly as ever — pink, and melting in the mouth. We accompanied it with their triple-​cooked chips and some veggies, all of which were excellent.
Finally, the dessert. Having reassured my introverted friend that this was unlikely to be the place to bring attention to it being his birthday, once we were done with our mains, our waitress suddenly appeared with a sticky toffee pudding complete with candle and a personalised happy birthday greeting written elegantly in toffee sauce on the plate! I couldn’t quite believe it.
The place looks stunning too. Plenty of wooden panelling, leather chairs, low-​lighting but at the same time quite restrained too: it’s classy, but unpretentious. Refreshing.
Next time I have something to celebrate or guests to wow? I’ll be heading right here.

Amazing steak, great atmosphere with lots of wooden paneling and dim lighting makes this the ideal chilled out restaurant for a romantic or relaxing after work meal. The steaks are amazing although I really did expect more from the waiter when I asked what the difference was between the porterhouse and the Chateaubriand. Telling me they are different cuts is like stating the obvious and not being able to describe the differences in texture, as well as the fact that porterhouse includes two types of cuts, was slightly disappointing. The meat was beautifully cooked though with just a hint of smokiness which tantalized my tastebuds. The cornflake milkshake is also quite unique! Triple cooked chips were nice, but average. The London Insider