Blacklock City - The City, London

When Blacklock first opened its doors in a former brothel in Soho it was quite difficult to get past them as the queues were extensive and no reservations were accepted. However, once we did, we were smitten. Going from strength to strength, founder Gordon Ker has opted for an erstwhile electrical substation in the City's Philpot Lane to launch the next arm of his meaty empire and this larger location is happy to accept a booking. The only thing that remained was seeing if it lived up to its predecessor…

The dining room is much larger than the Soho location, however it carries through the same design scheme that won the original a devoted coterie. Industrial chic is the name of the game, with both parquet and mosaic tile flooring paying homage to its original iteration. Otherwise there are plenty of mid-century grace notes interspersed, including crystal chandeliers and lamps, brass topped bars, green leather banquettes and dark blue leather rosewood chairs around cosy candlelit tables.

There are an array of delicious and inexpensive cocktails, however we opted to cut to the chase with a bottle of Castilla y Leon Tempranillo. This turned out to be the perfect complement for the pre-chop bites, served on crisp crackers topped with blue cheese and pickles, chicken salad spiked with horseradish, and egg garnished with saline anchovy and sharp onion. We also opted for the pig's head on toast with gravy. Whilst the description may sound a bit divisive, it was one of the most coveted dishes of the evening and an essential order.

We went all-in and ordered all of the chops as well as two sides. The meat arrived stacked in a miniature mountain and were incredibly toothsome, with special acknowledgements going to the perfectly rare beef sirloin and a deeply charcoaled lamb cutlet. On the side we enjoyed a ten hour ash-roasted sweet potato and barbecued baby gem lettuces drizzled with anchovy dripping. Sauces also desrve a mention, particularly the excellent green sauce and chilli hollandaise. We rounded our meal off with warm, doughy bread and butter pudding with sweet raisins at the base, as well as a white chocolate cheesecake served from a giant dish, with a crunchy, buttery biscuit base.