STK London - Covent Garden, London

The Aldwych / Covent Garden area has undergone a culinary rebirth over the past few years, with Frenchie, Balthazar and Barrafina serving as viable dining options for hip gourmands. However, one of our favourite, go-to restaurants in the area has to be STK. Located in the ME Hotel, housed in what was formerly the BBC's Marconi Building, STK is the hotel's flagship restaurant and could very well be London's sexiest steakhouse, delivering a fun time every time. It blends the late night lounge experience with the traditional carnivorous indulgence that has won so many flag wavers at Hawksmoor and Goodman. The results? Both divine and bovine.

The dining room at STK shares the same DNA with many of London's top nightclubs, with a dark ceiling, dark carpets and dim lighting. Guests take their seats in white booths as a DJ spins tracks live behind a podium, the volume gently increasing as the night progresses. The design scheme features an abundance of curvilinear black platform seats and booths with a separate lounge area to kick back in, and the room is replete with mirrored surfaces to aid and abet people watching. During our visit there was a mix or young and old, with a number of well-dressed groups of ladies. 

With a laidback yet buzzy atmosphere of this calibre, one might suspect that style could trump substance, yet it's patently not the case with food that fires on all cylinders. Starters succeed at arousing the tastebuds and setting the tone for the meaty lavishness that is to follow. This includes dishes like the Lil' BRGs which are essentially Wagyu sliders nested between miniature sesame seed buns. If you're feeling particularly self-indulgent add foie gras or black truffles. Other standouts include prawns rice crispy, which are immersed in a shellfish bisque as well as an incredibly rich foie gras French toast or tuna tartare with sesame, jalapeno, wasabi and coriander. 

The main event is the steak, all of which are USDA prime with portions running from the diminutive (a 150g featherblade) to Texan-sized (the 750g behemoth 'cowboy steak'). The beef is cooked with precision and can be complemented with a variety of toppings including black truffle, lobster, foie gras and crab as well as sides like sweet corn fritters and crispy parmesan truffle fries. We went all out and opted for lobster mac and cheese. The desserts play on the fun ambience, with the most forceful demonstration of this being STK's 'a taste of the fairground', presented to the table in the form of a pint-sized Ferris wheel freighted with candy floss, mini toffee apples, popcorn and apple-impregnated donuts. It was the ideal conclusion to a delicious meal.