Historical version 4 of Grill On The Market, EC1A 9JX (view current version)

A bar and grill just south of Smithfield Market.

bob, elvum, billy, Steve and Phil visited on a Thursday evening in January 2009. The bar and restaurant were full when we turned up at 8:30pm. Thankfully we had booked a table, so we could take advantage of the January 50% off sale on food.

Since it is also bar there is quite an extensive cocktail list. Billy had a Manhattan (£6.95) which he described as almost as good as the ones he makes himself. Steve had a litre bottle Duvel (£10.50) - one of only two or so non-lagers - which he found to be quite good. We also had a decent enough bottle of Malbec for £18. They brought us two jugs of iced tap water when asked.

We had some acceptable bread (£2.75) and olives (£2.75) while deciding what to have.

bob had some really good calamari (£5.95) to start. The flesh was cooked was just right, and the batter was light. Tentacles are always fun. Phil and Steve had the chicken satay (£5.95), quite a large piece of chicken with quite a decent spicy peanut sauce, although a little dry for Steve's tastes. Billy had beef carpaccio (£7.50), while elvum had a hot mushroom salad (£5.95).

For his main bob had an 11oz fillet steak rare with chips (£25) and peppercorn sauce as an extra (£1.75). The steak was really good, charred on the outside and red and warmed through on the inside. The chips were fine. The peppercorn sauce actually tasted strongly of peppercorns. Elvum didn't seem to impressed with his 10oz Sirloin (£18.50). He also had a small avocado salad (£5.50). Phil had a Chateau Briand (£39) to himself. It looked somewhat small but the bone had been removed, and Phil seemed happy with it. Phil also had some roasted beetroot (£2.95). Billy had a lamb steak (£15.95).

bob was happy enough his apple crumble (£9.90). Steve had sticky toffee pudding (£5.75) which came with ice cream and was very good without being overly sweet. Elvum had melba mess (£5.50), while Billy had lemon sorbet (£3.50).

Verdict: bob feels it was really good at 50% off. At full price it would have been fine, although the space was noisy and cramped and there was live music later (a guy playing 90s indie hits on guitar).

See also:

Last visited by bob, elvum, billy, Steve and Phil, 29 January 2009. Prices verified at that visit (and shown above before the discount was calculated).
OS X co-ord: 531775 OS Y co-ord: 181646 (Latitude: 51.517862 Longitude: -0.100570)
This is version 4 (as of 2009-02-02 12:57:57). View current version. List all versions.