Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecôte

Unbeatable simple steak and frites! Our go-​to place for steak dinner.

As the others mentioned, there is only one item on the menu, which is salad followed by steak and chips, all for £24. Was looking forward to having some amazing steak, but it came so drenched in peppercorn sauce, that you really couldn’t even taste the meat. This is usually the trick used to mask poor quality cuts, so I’m not sure why the restaurant felt the need to do this here. The fries were good, but the salad was really simple — just leaves, a bit of chopped walnuts and mustard dressing.
The whole thing just didn’t seem special — the décor of the restaurant was kinda French (a couple of murals and lines of bottles) but not really, the service was efficient but in a Henry Ford style, the food was decent but I could have had much better for the money elsewhere.
Will not be coming back.

Simple menu — just a salad and steak with chips. A great location for lunch (note that you cannot reserve). Full of atmosphere and the sound of people chatting away. Friendly staff and quick service. Cost is reasonable for the location. Clean and no background music. I will go back. This is now on my list of places to go.

Looked this place up before coming here, and was surprised to see that it essentially doesn’t have a food menu. You get steak frites (and a side salad to start). That’s it. I’ll be honest, the food was pretty good — but it didn’t blow me away at how great it was.
Your meal is served in 2 portions, half the steak each time. It’s already cut for you (which is odd I think), and smothered in a sauce that really is the steak saver. It was very good, but it wasn’t the best steak I’ve ever had.
Service was very attentive — and due to the size of the menu it really did seem quite rushed. Decisions were fast, the food was fast, clearing was fast, the bill was fast… No reservations accepted — so turning tables is key to avoiding a long line I guess.
Given the price, I’d expect a little more pace to the meal, allowing us to drink our wine and savor the food. Instead it feels rushed. I’d come here for a quick steak, but it seems to expensive to make it worthwhile — really overall an average experience.

This place is a very nice spot to come if you don’t want to make any decisions or if you are with a group and want to make life easy. It’s already pre-​set and all you have to do is decide what you want to drink and how you would like your steak cooked. Because it is so easy breezy, I did feel a little rushed to finish each portion of the meal. I am a fairly slow eater, so I almost expected that, but it was pretty serious. Half way through my salad the first half of meat and chips came, then again before I was half way done with the first portion the second came right along. I didn’t love that part, but suppose it is part of the pre-​set deal. Other than that, our experience was pretty good. Very nice waitress and decent meal. Nothing to blow my socks off, but solid.

Loved this restaurant sooo much and came here very often. Painfully leave extremely negative feedback because of the ridiculous French menu. Why serving menu in England with French, especially even staff do not speak French. It remains a ever-​lasting myth to me to understand the menu and I absolutely hated it! Well, we Union by attraction, depart by familiarity. I hate the arrogance of attitude, every time desert taste like a bitter melon in my heart. Au revoir~

Steak fries and the most amazing sauce. 25% off at weekends at this branch (mainly because it’s deserted as all the city workers go home for the weekend). Get a good bottle of red with it. This was one of the first places in London to come up with the ‘simple’ comcept of menu dining. And good for them. They do it well.

Just one ‘menu’ (actually there is no menu, except for dessert), steak and chips with a salad starter. Clever marketing because the food plates are quite small, so it looks like you have a lot of food in front of you and also that you get your main course in 2 helpings.
Notwithstanding that, the salad with mustard dressing was fresh and tasty. The steak which I had medium rare, served with a ‘special’ sauce was tasty. The service is excellent and very friendly. The house wine was also good and reasonably priced.
Reasonable value restaurant especially if you can find the discount offering. Approximate cost for 2, sharing half a bottle of house red and a dessert, including service £55 after the 25% discount.

Le Relais de Venise does one thing, and it does it well — steak. For a fixed price. You are only asked one question: «How do you like your steak to be cooked?» A small baguette basket and a portion of a simple green salad with walnuts is served as a prelude to your meat feast. Followed by a succulent entrecôte beef fillet with a «secret» green sauce in two servings. And «that’s all folks».
Good portion size, prompt service, well-​priced meal. If that’s still not enough for you, you can «balance your pH» with an additional cheese course and a pretty good selection of desserts: lemon tart was fresh and delicious.
French-​style brasserie takes no bookings, so there might be a queue in some of their venues. The one in Canary Wharf usually has plenty of tables even on a Friday evening.
Would visit again? Yes.

The food here was superb. So was the service. Everyone was smiling and seemed happy to serve us. They never rushed us even though we took forever to finish our drinks once we had paid the bill. My favorite part is what you already know — there’s no menu. So there’s no possibility of being annoyed by fussy/​picky/​annoying fellow diners. Its salad with a mustard vinagrette (perfect, fresh and scrumptious), steak and fries/​pomme/​frites. The only question they have is how you want your meat cooked — and no, there’s no dual temps like ‘medium rare’ or ‘medium well’. Either Medium or Rare or Well. LOVE this place and will come back when I’m back in London. (Imagine the excitement when I found out there’s a location in NYC! Down the block from my office! Wuhewwww… This chick is dancing!) Would come back. Would tell my friends to come too.

Well this was a pleasant surprise, I must say, and cause for me to break my tendency to not review places with only one visit.
I have no idea how many times a friend and I have walked past this place from opposite the water… it wasn’t until someone in Newcastle mentioned that the only eatery they really liked in Canary Wharf was a place that only did steak and fries that I became intrigued.
Like many we were finally lured in by a voucher… I think they do 25% off on the weekend generally, or at least through Jan. 2015, but occasionally you can find people handing out vouchers in the area for weekday use… having one of these, being in the mood for a steak, and having nothing in the flat, we made our way here last Friday.
First impression is that it was very busy, and being mostly bankers, etc., had a posh feel to it… especially in comparison to my friend and I, myself in a hoodie and him in a t-​shirt, but we were very pleased to have been treated like we were dressed in tuxes upon arrival… and, here’s the kicker, when we asked to make sure our coupon was still valid (ha, how embarrassing!) they seemed genuinely excited that we were there to use the voucher. Given the way we were dressed and having a coupon, versus the other clientele, I wouldn’t have been half surprised for an imperceptible eye roll at least, but there was none of that… I can honestly stay that the staff were wonderful the entire time and that always puts me a great mood.
You need to be in the mood for steak here, it’s all they do! (Although they do offer a vegetarian option of some sort if you must.) For everyone else you get a wonderfully light salad starter which is then followed with ²⁄₃^rd of your steak and fries with what can only be described as a wonderful sauce of some sort. After you’ve finished wave one they bring you the rest of your steak, and some more hot fries, to finish it off… I love that idea! It’s so nice to have the rest of your meal nice and warm and not be battling rate consumption versus warmth. My only grip, which probably wouldn’t be a gripe for most, is that we were almost given too many fries on the initial serving… despite hearing how they do things I almost wondered if that was the full serving, which it wasn’t… still, we managed the second helping just fine in the end.
The steak itself was definitely good… would I place it above Hawksmoor? Nah, but it’s not priced like Hawksmoor either. I don’t think the steak will blow your mind if you’re a steak aficionado, but I can’t imagine it will offend most. As mentioned, I simply loved the «secret» sauce they use as well… and I love that even the choice is taken away from that to be honest. (I did salt things, sauce included, but I always do so can’t detract for that.)
A huge plus for me, and the reason I can see myself back here many times being in the area, is not having to choose… all I do is choose how I want my steak done, and maybe, just maybe, what type of dessert, but that’s it… when tired or just not in the mood for a lot of travel or trying to figure something out this place will be a lifesaver, especially if they continue the discounts on the weekend. (For us on the Friday, with a 25% off voucher and 10% service incluced, it was £30 a piece with a house bottle of red, a bottle of sparkling water, and one split dessert… not bad!) You can easily spend £30 on a bad meal, with bad wine, many places in London so to have enjoyed everything at that price makes me a happy camper.
I’m actually eager to return on a weekend when I’m hoping it will be a bit quieter, minus the weekday night after work crowd, but am definitely going to be a repeat customer… good food without the hassle and pleasant service have assured that.

Not as popular as its Marylebone sister, but nonetheless fabulous. Plus if you go on the weekend, you’ll more than likely get a 30% discount, so why not? It’s just like the Parisian one — same sauce, same steak, same frites, friendlier staff (really!!!), so go for it.

Maybe it was because of our high expectations, maybe it was because we went to the Canary Wharf location which could be different from the other — more popular — ones, maybe it was because we went on their discounted Saturday … but we were quite disappointed.
The good part: the quality of the meat. The steak was really well cooked and very tender. Great job (that’s the only reason I give it 3 instead of 2 stars)
The bad part: everybody was raving about the size of the portions. I honestly thought it wasn’t enough at all. The steak indeed came in two sessions, but each time only a few pieces — where did the rest of that piece go? I normally am no wine-​snob at all (you can almost serve me anything), but I found their house wine to be of very poor taste. The green sauce was too watery and has little enhancing flavour for the meat, I barley touched it.
No, I rather spend my £20 somewhere else …

The 30% off deal enticed us to go to Canary Wharf to try this chain for the very first time. Lots of people have raved about their steak and we were really excited to try the meat with green sauce. Unfortunately our expectations were higher than what we got.
The place itself was a bit sterile. Not very cozy, a bit like a fast-​food joint. The house wine was completely awful. The starter salad was tiny. Then we got the main course and the meat was not enough, not even for me. The steak was really good but for the price we really expected more meat and less fries. The waitress also gave us the bill too soon.
It was good to try this place but we really don’t know if we’d come back, we definitely expected more from such a reputable place.

Steak. It’s like salad but made of meat.

Three tips:
1) The first one is easy, have a salad as a starter and then steak and frites as a main course.
2) The entrecôte is actually better medium than rare.
3) Take a vegetarian friend and eat their steak too!

Let me preface this review by saying that I love the concept of «Le Relais de Venise». In fact. my first encounter with it was back in 1998 in Paris during an exchange program in high school, when my host family took me to their Paris location. I was fasciated by the extremely limited choice (you can actually only choose how you’d like your steak done — everything else is non-​negotiable) and I still remembered their green pepper sauce for a long time…
Then I moved to London — pretty much ten years late — and I eventually connected the dots and realised that «Le Relais de Venise» back in Paris and the ones here in London are of the same family. I’ve since been several times to the Marylebone branch and happily reconnected with the past memories…
Yesterday, I visited Eltham Palace with a few friends and afterwards we were longing for some comfort food. I browsed the Unilocal App and saw that there’s a branch of «L’Entrecôte» in Canary Wharf and that they even have a check-​in-​offer for 50% on weekends… perfect!
So, we headed there while the food was delicious as usual, the service was lacking friendliness left and right:
* first of all, upon check-​in I realised that the check-​in offer was only valid until January 27^th. This is false advertisement, as we’d specifically come here for that reason. The waitress, when I showed her the voucher, couldn’t care less and I was actually shocked about how little she cared.
* we ordered a bottle of wine and when the waitress (a different one) brought it to the table, she opened it, poured a tasting into one of the glasses… and left! What??? She didn’t wait to check and see if we liked the wine, nor did she bother to pour wine for all four of us.
I was really not happy with this experience — I’d give this visit 2 stars, but the steak, the frites as well as the ice-​cream for dessert were delicious. Nevertheless, in the future I won’t be bother coming out to Canary Wharf anymore…

That sauce is amazing! I must have it again soon. We arrived just before opening and were seated straight away so try to do the same if possible as 20 – 30 minutes later the queue was huge! Just go, you won’t be dissapointed!

Caught what they are saying is the last Saturday/​Sunday of the 50% deal. Holy heck is this a great place. Perfect thin fries are one of my reasons for living and these were if not perfect they came close and were more interesting for what little they left wanting. The salad and its dressing were lovely and memorable. Free refills on fries, (I got two, 4 Hour Body cheat day) and one re-​up of steak (medium) which was flawless though presumably not premium. The? basil sauce? on the steak/​fries was divine, I can’t help it, I strive, but remain a simple man.
We got to the place at 9:20 and waited in (or «on» I guess, ugh!) line in the rain and heavy wind for 30 minuets before getting inside and seated around 10:00, cheerful buzzed Brits kept it pleasant. The service was excellent even if she knew very little English. Desert was good enough for half off, but would probably skip it at full price.
***the house wine is the only wine that is 50% OFF***

Not the normal destination for a Saturday lunch but we had heard that they were offering 50% off the full bill (inc house wine)
The venue is reasonably large and quite comfortable. There were plenty serving staff all wearing matching outfits and all female. Although one of our party had previously been, the concept was simply explained to us. A simple salad starter with mustard dressing, then you choose steak either rare or medium and then it’s served with «special» sauce and a very generous portion of French fries.
I choose medium but seeing the rare I would have been happy either way. The meat was very tender but I found the sauce a little bit bland. One of us (an ausi!!) asked about some ketchup… But we’re politely informed they didn’t have any in the premises. The meat comes out into servings both with a top up of fries.
The main let down were the deserts, nothing inspired me and the chocolate desert we had was quite stodgy.
For the small faults you really can’t complain when the bill comes in with 50% removed.

OK Tip #1: Saturday nights, this place is 50% off EVERYTHING! Yes, everything, including your meal, bottles of wine, dessert and so much more!
One of my younger friends came to visit me for dinner and i found this amazing deal which is seriously one of the coolest things i’ve heard about in a REALLY long time.
Like others say, its a very simple menu. You only get two options: salad, steak and fries or if youre vegetarian, salad, cheese, fries and dessert.
We started out with a bottle of red wine to start out (the house bordeaux) to warm us up.
The waitress came and asked us how we wanted our food prepared and there are only a few ways: Blue, rare, medium, and well done.
We were brought out our salad, which is a green salad with chopped walnuts and a dijon mustard dressing. Next time I’ll likely ask for the dressing on the side
Half of the steak with a creamy sauce was served to us right away with hot yummy fries (but wierd they dont have Ketchup!), which was really done well even as Medium– i usualy dont like steak but i actually really liked it.
By the time the second serving was to us, we ordered another bottle of wine with another serving of hot fries. YUMMY!
Dessert– we ordered the chocolate fondant cake and another chocolate cake. Paired that with a port, which was so tasty.
All of this was 67 Pounds!!! Best meal ever! This is going to be my staple for a longggg itme.

Pretty much everything about this restaurant has been said in the reviews for its sisters in the City and Marylebone, but I thought I would add it here too as this branch just opened recently.
They have one meal on the menu:
A green salad with walnuts and a mustard dressing to start.
Steak frites for main course.
(plus a few different desserts — but this is the only course they let you choose)
The Steak comes in a green herb sauce and is very thinly sliced. Your only decision is Rare, Medium or Well done — theres no intermediates like Medium-​Rare in this place!
You also get a second helping of the main course which is nice!