STK London

Waste of time. Terrible décor, and sub-​standard fquality of food. Service tried but failed. Wouldn’t waste a second here…

I’ve heard that STK wants to appeal to female steak lovers and if the décor and cocktail list is anything to go by, they’re doing a great job with the London outlet of the American chain.
I felt super swanky and glamorous in this restaurant, which is sleek, polished and seductively lit. I sipped on a martini as I browsed the menu while my sister had some lavender cocktail creation.
Between us we shared a steak and a seabass as the portions are huge, A steak each would have been too much. The fish was flavoursome enough, but I recommend ordering steak as it was more special.
But it’s the thick cut chips that are a must here. It’s rare you can get thick cut chips with steak in London and often they’re overcooked and hard in the middle. These are crunchy on the outside, fluffy in the middle and come with a generous portion of truffle on the top if you desire. We loved them!
A lot of people criticise STK because they say you can get tastier steak elsewhere in London, but that misses the point of the restaurant. For me, going to a restaurant is about an experience and if the atmosphere, décor, location and cocktails are perfect then I’ll enjoy my night more than if a well cooked steak is served in an empty, chilly room.
Oh and I’d give the truffle chips five stars in their own right. They were that good. Long live the thick cut chip! Chips not fries!

Thoroughly unimpressed. Visited STK London for our 2 year wedding anniversary. Our reservation was 45 min past time and when they finally called us our food was terrible. I live in Manhattan and frequent STK meatpacking. The ambiance was quite similar to that of STK meatpacking but the food and service did not make the cut. Food came out cold and extremely salty. I made reservations in advance and asked them to write happy anniversary on our dessert, which they forgot. The steak was tough and almost not edible. The only good part of the meal were the drinks and bottle of wine. Service was lack luster and forgetful. Everything was pretty terrible. Would’ve rather went to a British pub. Will never come back again.

Definitely the place to be late in a Saturday night.
Good service, average streak house food, but a ton of fun with a great DJ, beautiful people watching and dancing on tables.

Oh STK… could have been SO good and all went SO wrong! Ok so I booked STK after trawling the London restaurant week menus and decided that a place called STK must do a cracking Steak — right?! Wrong. Our menu was £30pp for 3 courses and a glass of bubbles on arrival. From the get go I was underwhelmed — we were seated, then waited 25 minutes for some attention… anything — our bubbles, menus, water… anything?! I caved and called over a waitress to ask if we could at least get the bubbles. Our waiter reappeared and we finally ordered 35 minutes after being seated. At least the deco is nice so you have something to look at! Starters of a tuna tatare and mini beef burgers arrived under seasoned and the burger well done (we asked for medium rare) very average but looked great. mains of the steak (again came well done when requested medium rare) and chicken were equally as disappointing. We ordered sides of fries — soggy, oily and for £6 possibly one of the worst food purchases i’ve ever made. Dessert offered a glimer of home — both looked absolutely stunning. However again both dishes went back half eaten. Too sweet and sickly. So we voiced our concerns, and credit to them they removed the service charge from the menu — which is the least I would have expected but I am still left with a bitter taste and I would not return. Sorry STK — STINK is more appropriate

STK has created a brand thats recognized globally. I live in Los Angeles and have been to that location numerous times. When I lived in NYC, same amount of frequency. When I was in London on business last week, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that they opened a UK location.
Ambiance — Top notch. The décor was very modern and the lighting was great. Booths were very large and accommodated my party of 7 with room to spare.
Staff — Excellent. We had one main server, but numerous other servers from surrounding sections constantly checked in on us. Rarely did we have to ask for a refill on our drinks– they were there prior to them being empty. There’s pretty much nothing more they could have done. A++ here.
Food — disappointing. The only memorable item we ordered were the back truffle sliders. The truffle was what made it memorable, the burger itself, was OK. Everything else we ordered was sub par and not what you would expect from STK. The braised beef was as tender as one could ever want, but the marinade was so strong, it overpowered everything in the dish. The fish wasn’t as fresh as we would like (numerous ceviche dishes and sashimi style dishes). Whenever a seafood item is described as «chewy», is not a good sign. The baked bread came over and looked like it was too good to be true. It was fluffy, glistened, and looked fresh from the oven. We discovered it was far better looking than it tasted. The savior for the bread was the tapenade that accompanied it.
At the end of the night, we all had a great time, but the food and drinks were not worth the 500 Pounds ($ 850 USD) the dinner cost for 7 of us. In all honesty, I would have still been disappointed if it were more than 200 considering the quality.
If they can get the quality up– I’ll try it again. Until then, many other options in that price range that would leave me far more satisfied.

This was so close to a five star it hurts.
Let me explain, I’m not a glamorous food eater, dim lights, delicious cocktails and impeccable service will only get you half way. For me, the food is the essence and sole purpose of a restaurant. I thought, «Restaurants like STK, they’ll never satisfy the foodie in me.» Knowing it’s an imported chain, I expected a gaucho-​esque experience, and even those are varied.
However, I was thoroughly — thoroughly impressed by the spread at STK. Let’s start with the good stuff (I didn’t order half of it so forgive the vagueness). The bread, this sets the tone for your meal really. And my tone was ‘full’ after the first 10 minutes. I literally could not keep off the bread. It was a sweet brioche-​like bread, baked into the image of a chef’s hat, what’s not to like? Just to add that extra dimension to this sweet bread, there was a delicious green pesto dip. I wanted to take ten home and be done with it. This was hands-​down the best bread I’ve had. Okay, enough bread-​fan-​boying. Next up was a steak, you wouldn’t feel right ordering anything else at a restaurant named ST (EA)K, it’s practically egging you on. I went for the 200g ribeye cooked medium rare. Bearing in mind I filled myself with bread, I ploughed on destroyed the meat. It was cooked perfectly pink in the middle, the meat was tender and marbled with fat in all the right places. It was incredible! The sides — the last thing I expected was pak choi, but I wasn’t going to say no to my Chinese roots, nothing special but created a well-​balanced meal. The chips — delicious and triple (?) fried in their own right, but the seasoning — this perfected chips for me. Chips will never be the same again. Mac’n’cheese is… well, Mac’n’cheese, I never got the allure or disdain here.
So far so good, this is 5 star-​stuff I think to myself. I ordered what looked like an amazing apple cake pie. It had apple mousse in a glaze and in the shape of an apple top. It looked beautiful, underneath the mouse was hard pastry filled with baked apples. It seemed like a recipe for success, but I found it sweet and one dimensional. It could’ve been so good and I’m sure it’s other desserts were, but this didn’t tick the box for me sadly.
Drinks — had the Malbec, it wasn’t write home good, but it would’ve been better if the waiter let it breathe and didn’t decide to fill everyone’s wine glass — so that it can breathe… Let’s park that — the cocktails — had a perfect G&T, this was perfect, literally. Mojito — my standard cocktail — very happy with it, was in bread heaven at the time so details are a bit fuzzy.
You can find me here when I make my bucket of gold… buying the place.

First time at STK on The Strand. Amazing food, great service and atmosphere. Usually I’m a bit hesitant when it comes to eating steak in a place I’ve never been to before. STK was great. Exactly how I ordered it and with amazing sides. Wine was amazing also. Will definitely suggest this to friends and family.

Awesome! I took some clients here for dinner and all of us were very impressed with the experience. The food is amazing, the mini burgers as a starter are to die for and then the fact you can top your steak with the likes of lobster is brilliant. One of our party is vegetarian and the waiter catered for him really well and showed him some of the best dishes to have.
Also when we ordered our first cocktails we requested just small changes; no straws or cherries in the old fashioned, and they still remembered this when we ordered them again 2 hours later.

With the TOWIE crowd getting papped outside you do get the sense that it’s geared up for the orange tan fake Laboutin crowd.
The food was awful. Truly. Too salty, chewy uncuttable meat. Forgetful waiters.
The other annoying thing was that this is a place that bills itself as female friendly but the women’s bathrooms were filthy and had no toilet paper!
For £88 per head I expected more