Blacklock was in the building that housed a former brothel and lap dance club.  The area of Soho, where it’s located was known for its “night activities” and bars.  It’s below street level and open daily but now serves steaks and chops as the original chop house in this chain of restaurants.   Each of the restaurants is a little different, but they feature “Butcher’s Cuts” where irregular shapes and imperfect edges make up these more generous cuts.  Each day the available sizes are written on the columns in the room and marked off when that size is bought.   There were also chalkboards listing available regular and butcher cuts and wines on tap and a printed menu.  I found it a bit confusing to tell the difference in the same named cuts written in many places but customers seemed to know the system and servers were quite helpful.  They are also known for their chops which the server tried to talk us into, particularly the chop plate that comes with different meat selections.  We really wanted to try some of the butcher’s cut options which we did and they were okay, but nothing to ‘write home about.’  The place has character, the servers are friendly and you can get inexpensive wine in a jug but I think if you’d be able to find tastier meat and fries at another place.

Set-up

 

Food

Rump fillet was supposed to be 300 grams but seemed much bigger.  It was ordered rare and came out nicely cooked with some salting on the exterior.  It was tender and beefy but really needed a sauce which you buy in addition to the meat.  With the chop sauce it was much better.

 

Ribeye was supposed to be 350 grams  but seemed smaller.  It came out pre-cut which was nice but was cooked more medium than rare.  The server marked it medium-rare when I said I didn’t want a cold center.  It wasn’t cold but it wasn’t rare either.  It also didn’t have the big fat globs you usually see in ribeyes which made the meat drier than a good fatty ribeye can be.  With the sauce you could save this but without a sauce it would be dull.

 

Chop sauce was a black peppery garlic brown sauce that was perfect for the meat.  It was also good on the potatoes and so we ended up ordering a second container of it.  It really helped and flavor and zest.

 

Beef dripping chips were a larger cut of coated fry.  One order was enough but the server suggested 2 which we did and left some on the table.  They were crisp on the exterior but like a mashed potato on the interior.  It made them dry and not that tasty – sauce to the rescue.    Broccoli and walnut salad was another server recommendation and here they excelled.  One was plenty to split and it was terrific.  The sliced broccoli was mixed with red kale tossed in a mayo based sauce.  The addition of toasted walnuts was delighful and the slicing made the broccoli very edible.  Good one here.

 

Bread and Butter pudding came with custard or ice cream and the server recommended the custard – good choice.  It was a large portion of currant stuffed softened bread surrounded by warm liquid custard.  The bread easily soaked up the liquid which was spiked with some liquor and turned into a lovely tasty dessert.  Winner here.