MPW Steak & Alehouse

Dined here on a Sunday afternoon, whilst the traders on Petticoat Lane and Middlesex St were clearing up the street market. I bet the restaurant loves the banging and crashing!
Notwithstanding that, I had booked a ‘star deal’ 3 course menu, which was faultless. The food was impeccably cooked, tasted absolutely divine and was surprisingly very filling.
My recommendations would be the seared tuna salad and haddock fishcake. The basic food offer is exceptional value for money, although I must confess that side dishes, £4 for a small bowl of salad and £10 for a large glass of wine (not just you MPW) is highway robbery in my opinion. In fairness nobody made me choose either of these items but I’m just leaving my honest opinion.
Service was pretty good, although probably one notch off being in tune with the food experience. All in all well worth a visit and I would return in the future.

We went to this eatery through design rather than choice as we had been given a voucher as a Christmas gift and it was soon to be running out.(one thing to bear in mind is that if you are coming with a voucher it only includes the Steak with the main course, all the sides are added extras.)
Cleanliness
On arrival first impressions were very good, the establishment is clean tidy and well presented. (both eating area and the ablutions) and remained the case throughout the experience.
Staff.
The staff were courteous when we arrived and service quite prompt, the drinks order was slightly muddled but not a show stopper and were asked «are you not paying the optional service charge» when paying for the meal (they have 12.5% opt Serv charge on the bill, a bit of an Americanism which I don’t believe in. I do tip if a tip is warranted. In this occasion not 12.5%) so a stupid question when she was told how much to take off the card which did include tip.
On leaving the front of house had a couple of customers there so we were ignored when leaving which seemed to lessen the «individual» experience.
Food
On the whole the food was edible however like a lot of reviews on here the steak was over done on all counts, the rest of the dinner however was satisfactory and do recommend the pecan pie.
Drink.
As I said earlier the drinks order had a drink missing which was not a show stopper but a school boy error like this should not happen in a restaurant with a high reputation like this.
The rose was an acquired taste too (unfortunately no one on our table had acquired it) and cost £12 per glass
Conclusion.
A mediocre run of the mill restaurant with a higher class branding where the food, drink and service is massively outweighed by the cost.
4 steak dinners + 7 drinks = £200

Horrible — clumsy, lackadaisical service (after entering, we stood at the front for some time before being acknowledged by anyone — my boyfriend commented, «This is awkward,» — then had to wait for 4 – 5 other tables to be given their coats and seen out of the place before we were seated), business meeting-​room ambiance (too brightly lit, no warmth to the décor, awful music played far too loud), and revolting, uninspired, overpriced food. The quality of the food is about on par with a self-​service cafeteria, but with the prices of a high-​end restaurant. You have to pay extra for any of the «nicer» cuts of steak but it’s not worth it. For the extra cost, I received the driest, most flavorless sirloin I’ve ever eaten in my life. The salad (just some mixed greens that could easily have come out of a bag from the supermarket) arrived wilted and soggy. I couldn’t finish the starter soup (honey-​roasted parsnip). It was bland, sweet, and tasted a bit like dirt. Honestly, I hadn’t expected it to be very good, as it didn’t sound like a good idea, but it was the least disgusting-​sounding starter, so I had to go with it. You’d think any chef with some self respect would not want his name associated with this disaster, let alone emblazoned over the door and on the menus, plates, etc.

Lovely restaurant! Came here as part of a deal which included a meal here and a viewing atop the shard in London, the food was delicious and the waiting time was good! Everyone was dressed appropriately and the staff were kind! Food was expensive but that’s because it’s delicious! If I had the money, I’d return!

Found this place by chance while just exploring the area. Would have Unilocaled this place out before entering if I had wifi access. Probably the least satisfactory meal I had in my week in London.
The wait staff were not very attentive and I had to ask for a menu twice. After which it took them a long time before anyone actually came over to take our order.
Steak was ok, tasty but nothing to shout about.
Thinking about dessert after the meal, I had to ask 2 separate wait staff before someone actually did show us the menu. Dessert was served promptly and by this time I couldn’t wait to just finish my cheese cake and leave.
Give this place and miss and head to nando’s just across the street. The peri peri sauce would be absolutely more divine.

We had an excellent meal in the marco pierre in newcastle and as we were in London for 2 days we thought we would treat ourselves
BIG MISTAKE .
When we entered into the restraunt we were shown to our table and handed a menu, 1^st problem. No fixed price lunch menu. Oh. «It must not be on for lunch «we thought .
So we ordered from the a la carte and waited for our food.
Only while we were waiting did we notice that the other tables were using the small fixed price menus. So my wife asked the guy who seated us why we didn’t have the fixed price menu he just shrugged and handed her one. So he asked if we wanted to cancel our original order. We said yes and we ordered off the new menu.
1.5 hrs later we were still waiting on our main. The head waiter came to our table and he said quote «it’s because you cancelled your first order «to which I replied «we didn’t see the proper menu «. To which he replied «it’s outside on the wall»
Now I have a decent memory but I’m sure I’d be struggling to read a menu outside a restaurant then go inside and order exactly .
Service here was really bad, food was better but because off the terrible service it just felt good to get out there.

Good ambience and setting but overall I was disappointed, perhaps expected more from how MPW lords himself on TV. Starters excellent, mains good quality but steak over cooked (in a steak house?) though charging for chips seems cheap.
Main complaint was service. Restaurant was busy and clearly not enough staff working. Had to ask numerous times for drinks, which in some cases simply did not arrive.
Much better steakhouses in London — try STK for a much better experience.

Steak wasn’t cooked right, in what is supposed to be a high class speciality steak restaurant, the staff were cold, they cared more about presentation and speed than an enjoyable dining experience.
The atmosphere was awful, and I was just utterly disappointed, especially for the cost!

We went here for my friend’s 38^th birthday. We were given a private room, which were dark and cold. But that was not the worse part of the appalling experience.
First off, Marco Pierre is a steakhouse, so when you order steak and you expected it to cook the way you like. Not so, my T boned steak had to be cooked twice and so did my other two friends’ steak. The birthday boy ordered a cheese platter, but 3 kind of cheese were missing from the plate so he complained. Instead of giving him the missing cheese, he were given more of the same cheese that were on the plate.
So ok, they messed up with the starter and main course, we thought it couldn’t get any worse. And it did.
We all ordered desert and tea. I ordered the Eton Mess, which was not bad. Much better than the steak I had by a long mile. But my tea came 20 minutes after I had eaten my desert. They somehow managed to get my tea order wrong twice.
We complained to the manager about the food and service after. We got this classic reply from him «Marco Pierre is classy restaurant, you were lucky to get the private room.»
I won’t ever go back here again. Not recommended, service is poor, the steak are over cooked. Money is better spent elsewhere.

So I should preface this by saying that I did not pay for this meal, which was probably the difference between a two star and three star rating in this review.
As it was pre-​Christmas the whole place was rammed. There is no bar area, so the only option is to stand awkwardly in front of the coat rack and toilet doors waiting to be seated. We had booked into the later seating time of 8:15pm and arrived on time, but there was no table ready. The staff had to ask an earlier seating to move so that we could sit down, but the table was not big enough for our party of 11 at all, and we were bunched up under the bar and the noisy coffee machine.
It was a 3-​course menu and we ordered all three courses at about 8:30pm. Each course took about half an hour to come out, until dessert, at which point we were told that they had run out of the burned cream. 8 of our party of 11 had ordered this so we then had to re-​order and wait some more. By the time we had received our desserts it was 11pm.
In this time an enormous party of 20 – 30 people had been seated down the middle of the restaurant floor, and the excess round tables and chairs were haphazardly piled up beside our table.
The staff seemed harassed — and as it was a very busy night I can sympathise, but it made for a somewhat uncomfortable dining experience.
The food was tasty, but nothing amazing. The portions were substantial, and the wine was good. I was pretty excited since it was Marco Pierre White, and I’m a fan of a good steak, but have to say I was left disappointed.

7 months in the making, I’ve been dying to finish my review on MPW and its finally done.
Rewind to Feb/​13: my friends and I came here on a promo, order 1 appy and get the main for 50% off. Unfortunately, the 7 of us who ordered raw oysters got sick, 1 was in the hospital. After bringing it to MPW’s attention, it took 5 months to resolve (they took their sweet time and I had to keep hounding them). Compensation was a £150 voucher, which seems generous but its only about £20pp.
So finally, me and the bf decide to use the £150 for a date night out. We made 9pm reso’s because the same 50% deal was going on. And we kept an open mind on the food, but here’s a breakdown and review on the experience that evening:
— beef carpaccio: absolutely bland and tasteless.
— potted duck with green peppercorns: texture was similar to canned tuna, and I didn’t think it tasted anything like duck.
— 16oz t-​bone steak: for some reason, my bf didn’t have a bone in his t-​bone, but mine did! I think I preferred his though, it was cooked fine, but his was a lot more tender than mine.
— onion rings, chips, and green salad with herbs — all was OK except the greens were really plain. Maybe thats exactly how its meant to be: greens + herbs. But I don’t think there was dressing on it (or maybe they forgot?). But definitely not worth £4.
— burnt cream — good, crispy sugar crust on top, I think I finished it all
— sticky toffee pudding —. errrm, I don’t remember!
Service: at 9pm on a Friday night, it was extremely packed, probably b/​c of the 50% promo. I think there were 2, maybe 3 servers at most running the show. We didn’t get much service, had to wait quite a bit to flag our server down. He was nice, but its not his fault that it took a long time — I would say management is the one in charge of staffing! In any case, come 11pm, we were ready to go, and are one of 4 tables left in the resto. Our waiter had already gone home so another waitress had to help us — we tried to get our bill, which took 20 minutes! When we were ready to pay, the girl was busy chatting to the bartender. This whole time, we kept looking over, raising our hand, etc, but its like we were invisible. It was only when we finally got up and started walking to the exit, she said «Oh I was going to come check on you». By the time we left, it was 11:45, so we were at the resto for nearly 3 hours! I don’t have issues if the workers socialise with each other, but make sure the customers have been taken care of first!
Overall, I’m glad I didn’t dish out any money on this mediocre meal. Yes, the price point is OK for a steakhouse, and yes they have lots of deals and set menus, but I think the quality goes down with it. The service was really lacking, and IMO, there are several better places to go for steak.

We
booked a table for 3, but what a disappointment, it was a celebration birthday for 13:30 Sunday 3^rd March
2013. I have never in all my life (and I am 63) had such an experience in a
restaurant. We arrived, greeted at the desk, but reception could not find the
booking. During discussions her colleague joined us who could remember the
booking, she then went off and left us standing there waiting, however I thought
this should not be a problem as there were only 3 tables with diners. Looking
back I can now see why the restaurant was empty. After about 5 minutes of
weighting and weighting, weighing up the shambles I felt it best to leave, my
experience of customer service is if there are problems within the first few
minutes which cannot be resolved, then matters will only get worse. We found an
excellent restaurant a short taxi ride away so the experience of a celebration
meal turned out to be a very enjoyable time. I can only wish you drastically
improve your front of house quickly if you wish to raise your diners experience,
and good luck with that one. I did send an email to Marco on 3^rd March, but to date I have nad the courtesy of a reply, I live in hope. Thank goodness there are decent restaurants about, unfortunately not this one.

Our experience here started off really well — the nice décor and buzzy atmosphere was a treat after the dark, cold evening outside.
The first indication of the poor staffing was the long wait to be seated, followed by the blunt interrogation that my friend was subjected to regarding the booking. His succinct response of «You emailed me this morning to confirm the booking, I am sure it should be there» was treated with an almost petulant attitude from the unfortunately overwhelmed young lady.
This minor ordeal was soon forgotten when we were seated and presented with a really well crafted menu. A fairly concise offering, but all of the items on there looked great. To start, I went for the Beef Carpaccio and my companions went for Asparagus with Hollandaise and the Salmon Gravadlax.
I must say, all were delicious. I was especially enamored with my Carpaccio. However, the Gravadlax, although lovely — only presented three tiny slices of salmon, which felt more than a little stingy.
The main courses stepped up the game though — three Rib Eye steaks (medium rare) and a portion of Fish and Chips for my companion who is allergic to beef. Seriously. Beef.
I ordered the triple cooked chips out of interest. I «liked» the way it is a «fixed price menu» but you have to pay an additional £3.75 per (very small) vegetable dish and, of course, they are unable to made the triple cooked chips for less than £3.95. Yup they need that extra 20p. I can imagine the argument that happened between the accounts department and the head chef answering in his best Star Trek/​Scotty accent «It just cunny be done for £3.75!!! I am a chef not a miracle worker!!!»
All three Rib Eye Steaks were excellent, however the Fish and Chips arrived on the small side, but were tasty enough. I found it funny that they did not even feel the need to provide triple cooked chips with the fish.
Desserts were all great, but, much to the dismay of my strawberry allergic friend, two out of four came with «stealth strawberries», which were not mentioned at all on the menu.
Service of £17 was added to the bill, for monosyllabic treatment all evening from surly waiters and waitresses, who at each point of the dining needed prompting for what came next.
In order —
Huge wait for the mains to materialize.
Plates part cleared while fellow diners at out table were still eating.
Had to ask twice for dessert menus.
Table staff did not take menus when the desserts were ordered.
No further drinks or coffee were offered.
Had to ask twice for bill with a long wait to leave.
Lackluster service, great, yet not bountiful food.

Marco Pierre White Steak & Alehouse delivers lovely food, as it should, and is an enjoyable evening, but the prices add up quickly and I’m not sure if it’s worth the dough. Not a single wine option under £24 was a bit discouraging, and not much of a cocktail list to choose from. –Highly recommend the chicken liver and foie gras parfait starter.
–Crab mayonnaise starter is really nice
–You can’t go wrong with a fillet of lovely beef, although I didn’t enjoy the charred exterior.
–The lamb chop is lovely
–Triple cooked chips are awesome and onion rings are pretty good.

I had high hopes of this place as being one that Marco Pierre White would lend his name to and it was nice. Couldnt really get any more exicted about it then that though if im honest.
It was just nice.
Food was nice, service was nice, wine was nice.
Just nothing exemplery.
Was hoping to be blown away and just wasnt.
Cant fault but cant gush over it either.

Went here years ago when it was Lanes, and was ‘OK’. Went along for a special meal on Saturday with a Groupon voucher.
They have put a few more tables in, but it still managed to feel quite intimate, even though it surprisingly filled up quite a lot (surprising as it is slightly off the beaten track just off Bishopsgate and the city at the weekend is often a bit dead!).
OH went for the oysters to start which bumped the price up but made him exceedingly happy. We both had the rib-​eye (when in a steakhouse, you HAVE to have a steak) — and I can honestly say this was the best steak I have ever eaten. Mine was perfect medium rare whilst OH went for blue (yuck!). Meltingly tender, unashamedly meaty with the wonderfully flavoursome tomato & mushroom and a rich buttery bearnaise.
You MUST try the triple-​cooked chips — an additional cost, but well worth every penny as they are amazing!
The menu is in no way cheap, but good honest food of the highest quality cooked to perfection. I also love the way that the condiments are in their original bottles/​jars on the table, with no pretention at all — so you can enjoy your steak & chips with heinz kecthup and colman’s mustard!

Tucked away near Spitalfields is Marco Pierre White’s meat fest! I really liked Wheelers his fish restaurant and thought this would not disappoint, and it didn’t!
There’s a great set menu which is really reasonable. I had gravadlax to start, followed by ribeye (£6 supplement) with chips and spinach and my boyfriend had the kipper pâté and liver and bacon. Everything was fantastic. As the sun had had his hat on all day we had a large Pimms to wash it down.
My only gripe is that the sides are extra so the price isn’t as fixed as you would like, but hey you can’t have steak without triple cooked chips!

This was my first encounter with a Marco Pierre restaurant and there were some big positives in my book but as well some negatives.
First off, it is called a steakhouse, so when you order steak and your order it cooked the way you like (in my case medium-​rare) you’d expect to receive it that way. I mean they are a steakhouse! They can’t mess up their signature dish! Well, sigh, they did for me, my filet was much more on it’s way to well done then rare which was quite a disappointment. I’m always the slowest eater and I was with a group of 6 so didn’t want to send it back but seriously? Call me a steak snob if you must but It does make me a bit angry.
The good thing is, we told them anyway and they apologized profusely, offered me a side of my choice (triple cooked chips yum!) and with my dessert gave me a free glass of prosecco. I do appreciate that they realized how important it was to have your main course right and even though I didn’t sent it back, they made sure to let me know that they care about their mistake.
The dessert I got, the Eton Mess, was DIVINE. So divine that 2 other people at my table ordered it as well once they had a taste of mine. Not such a huge fan of what I thought was a rather pushy waitress (poured the wine too much in everyone’s glass so we were forced to order more, we didn’t mind as we were in the mood to drink but to empty the bottle we ordered without giving a portion to everyone seated is a big no-​no).
Soooo… my final verdict: I think I’d give it a go if there was some good deal (a la toptable) but if my steak wasn’t cooked the 2^nd time around the way I like, this place will be forgotten.

I went here for a work dinner with a fairly generous budget so that will bias my opinion. I think if I was paying on my own I might be less enthralled by worries of value for money but the food was still delicious.
I ordered a 16oz T-​bone steak (32 quid) rare that was seasoned perfectly to enhance the flavour of the meat rather than overpowering it. For once, the steak was actually rare rather than either approaching the well done side of medium or being so rare I’m pretty sure the cow hadn’t realised it was missing. I’m pretty critical of steaks at restaurants with my thinking being i could spend the extra money on a better cut of meat and make it myself but this was a good argument for eating steak out.
The second surprising hit were the chips. I’m not sure what they do to them but they were crispy without being chewy and the inside potato flesh was soft and fluffy. Sprinkled with salt and pepper, they were such a hit with our group we ended up order a couple more rounds.
The wine list is a bit of a let down given the reputation of the chef but has some good choices to complement your food.
The service was friendly and attentive but a bit slow when we decided it was time to pay. Perhaps they were hoping we would order a second round of drinks after dessert?
Overall, I would recommend if going out for a special occasion or for a work do (where you aren’t paying) as the atmosphere is relaxed and quiet enough to talk without raising your voice.

Disappointed sums up my opinion of this restaurant.
With Marco Pierre White’s name on the door and many favourable reviews my expectations were sky high. I dined here as part of a £22 three course meal offer, although those wanting steak for their main course had to pay £29.
My starter was a beef salad, with beef so tender I can’t have any complaints. For the mains I chose the Shepherds Pie, which was dry and could have benefited from some gravy. For dessert everyone opted for the chocolate moose.
The food is of good quality as you would expect from a MPW restaurant but for the prices charged I would expect more value for money.