Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecôte

That green sauce! The restaurant concept is simple — you get two servings of the steak and fries. That also means you can ask for more of the sauce to drown your fries in and get that fry-​kick you’ve been craving for all week. I think it has cilantro, parsley, and some other magic that renders it so addictive. The one star off is for the price, as I think there are cheaper steak & fries options in the vicinity.

This is my FAVOURITE restaurant! I’ve introduced it to so many friends that didn’t know it existed.
Simple menu of salad, steak and chips with a secret sauce.
House red wine is delicious.
Note that you can’t book; its first come first serve and can get really busy so the earlier the better.
Like how they give coupons for free bottles of wine on Mondays! Nice touch.
All in all, great restaurant!

Love it here — Waldorf salad to start then steak and chips for main, topped up when you finish. I like the fact you don’t have a choice — everything is so well executed and not having a menu is surprisingly refreshing!

Good but expensive.
Came with work colleagues for lunch, but this is not a normal lunch spot. It’s for an occasion.
£24 for a steak and chips, with a leafy salad to start. £9 ish for wine. It’s reasonable. But places like flat iron are on a par and cheaper. But the ambience is better in this place.
Food comes with this mustardy fantastic sauce and they serve it to you in two rounds. Sounds weird but it’s exactly what you want! You’re finished and still hungry. Then you have MORE FOOD.
I recommend this place for a business lunch style thing. I wouldn’t go in the evening probably… Too many cheaper places that are more exciting and just as good

I came to this place on a busy lunchtime in early November. The menu is incredibly simple as they only serve a small salad and steak frites which was priced at £23 per person when I visited.
I wasn’t particularly impressed with the salad but the steak frites offered a hearty lunchtime fare. As a bonus they keep coming around refilling your plate until you are full.

Finally ended up here after a few work drinks on Thursday in the City, after hearing about it for ages as the revered steakhouse in London. I called ahead and they said that there was no queue but that they didn’t take reservations… when we showed up 45 minutes later closer to 9, there was a queue of about 15 people in front of us, but it moved quickly and we were able to be seated within 10 minutes. The food is one of those brilliantly simple fares: you simply order how you would like your meat, which comes sliced with the most beautiful sauce and plentiful fries on the side, and a French style salad for a starter (and bread of course). The steak and fries also have automatic refills, which makes sense for the 5 – 6 small slices of steak but not entirely necessary for the fries. In addition, there are no sauces for the fries besides mustard– no ketchup or mayonnaise or other options, for that matter. And the service is also so terribly French (aka minimalist at best)

Ordered: Steak and fries :)
Price: circa £27
Review: Have been here on NUMEROUS occasions and have been to the one in Paris too. The servings are enormously generous. Some say they split the portion into halves so it looks like extra serving, but I don’t want to think so cynically. Definitely a worth while trip for the INCREDIBLE sauce they pour over both the steak and fries. Have been trying to figure out what goes inside it! A co worker and I have been asking one ingredient at a time to figure it out, but can’t figure it out exactly! Great place for a healthy and hearty meat serving. A must for people in the area!

I was looking forward to this place and I was stunned by the fact that you cannot choose your cut for the steak! So you’re forced to choose whatever cut is on the menu and that day they only had sirloin. I’m not a huge fan of sirloin but I had no choice. I did like the fact that they keep half of the meat and fries hot on the side table for you (they put it over candles to keep it warm), but the meat just didn’t hit the spot. Besides, for an average sirloin steak like I had here — I find £29 excessive. The sauce to the meat wasn’t good at all. It wasn’t even average, it was just not good, bad actually. Didn’t suit the meat whatsoever.
You have no choice in salads either — there was only one type of salad — it was good, but I didn’t come here for the salad. It was parmesan, walnuts, rocket and leaves.
Also, do NOT go here with vegetarian friends — my friend had to take a whole plate of cheese instead of steak… for £29 as well! It is a rip off to be honest. It was just cheese, a good cheese, but not exceptional to justify the price!
Service was alright, but when I asked the waiter what is the chef’s recommendation for the bloodiness of the meat — I got a response: ‘He recommends taking whatever you like’… Erm no? That’s a poor recommendation and wasn’t chef’s — I had to ask the waitress about 3 times to go and ask chef instead. He recommended medium and it was a fair recommendation though — suited the meat probably best.
Verdict: dissapointed.

I’ve had the Marylebone branch of this restaurant bookmarked for ages but was put off by tales of its queue. After a last minute decision to come to this branch on a Thursday night, I was similarly apprehensive but maybe because it was quite late by this point (circa 8:30) and we were only 2, we only had to wait a few minutes.
Salad had a bit too much dressing for my taste but I just steamed through that course to get to the main event. Steak was perfectly cooked and fries were good too. I was expecting the green sauce to taste like crack/​angels’ tears (like the green sauce at Sophie’s Cuban) but instead it’s just quite a normal, but nice, accompaniment.
I did have a second helping of steak although I was quite full by this point and had to decline more chips. My date said last time he was here he had the entire thing, including salad, twice!
Service was pretty good and we weren’t rushed out, although the restaurant was emptying by this point. This is a great option if you’re in the city, recommended.

Ate here last night.
What a surreal experience! I didn’t really know what to expect, and thought my friend was joking when he said there was only one thing on the menu but he wasn’t!
There was a queue, on a Tuesday night, and I’m told this is the norm. In fact it can get longer than we had to wait (there was only one group in front of us) and they operate a ‘no seating until your whole group arrives’ policy to keep things moving.
The service was very nice. Smartly dressed waiting staff who were all smiley. But then they didn’t have much else to do other than ask how well done we wanted our steak and whether we wanted any drinks.
First up was a salad. Very simple, just some leaves with a dressing, but it was lovely.
The steak itself, served with fries, is very good. It’s covered in a delicious green sauce that looks disgusting but tastes fantastic. And when you finish what you think is your meal, they come to your table and give you a second helping!
I went for ice cream for dessert, which was nothing to write home about, but my friend’s crème brûlée was one of the best I had.

Great concept; great food. If you’re in the mood for steak of course!
The meat they served was very well prepared (I got it cooked exactly as I ordered) and definitely of the highest quality. Chips were good. However, the restaurant was very crowded and quite loud.
The desert menu, which ironically is much more complete than the main courses single option menu, was good too tho definitely not the highlight of our evening.

This French restaurant only serves steak and frites — with some real attitude thrown in for free…
It’s seems like the crazy trend at the moment in London, with places such as Lobster and Burger, Meat and Whiskey: two-​by-​two affairs — a two option menu, veg or non veg, £21. Don’t even think about ordering well done steak — or even worse — ketchup (as the unwitting lady to my left found out) you will only get a look that makes you feel like you’ve been slapped.
The L’Entrecôte i ventured into was the city branch and was super busy. Having arrived and sat down already, hunger seeping in it was too late for us to leave and i was far too curious about the steak sauce which everyone was talking of. The food comes in two portions, you finish half and they will bring out the other half. The steak was decent, the sauce was nothing worth noting, and the service left you feeling as if you were an inconvenience. The staff barely look at you let alone ask if you need anything (i found this experience the same with other friends)
A mid range priced menu for food and wine, food is served is served very speedily as is their expectation for you to part with your cash as soon as possible (and help you out the door, with a kick if they could I’m sure)

One word to sum up my experience: YUM. I was skeptical about going here because of the limited menu (really, a restaurant that only serves steak and fries?!) but a friend suggested we have lunch here so I decided to give it a try. Arrived at about 12:15pm on a Wednesday and there was already a queue. Not long though, only took a few minutes to get seated. Once you sit down, they ask you how you want your steak done (they don’t have medium rare, just rare or medium). A place that only serves steak that doesn’t have medium rare? I opted for medium.
Shortly after ordering, they bring you a salad to start. Pretty good salad. Then they brought out a small plate of steak and fries with some strange looking sauce on the steak. Okay, still not convinced this is worth the 21 pounds I’m paying for it. I take a bite of the steak with the sauce and it is AMAZING. I don’t know if it’s the steak or the sauce or the combination of both but it’s so fantastic. I dipped the fries in the sauce and ate that with the steak and it was all just the perfect combination. Little did I know, that they will continue to bring you more steak and fries until you are too full to eat anymore.
It’s too bad that I discovered this place on the last day of my trip or I would have eaten here every day. Get here early to avoid the lines.

Steak is probably one of my favourite meals — easy to cook at home too! L’Entrecôte is underwhelming at best to be honest — well-​known name that doesn’t live up to expectations or hype.
First off, the quality of steak is good but is nothing compared to places like Hawksmoor or Goodman! Although the secret sauce is tasty, I feel like the amount they slather on just ruins/​masks the taste of beef. Fries are okay, but I personally prefer thick-​cut chips.
Portions are also on the small side — the plate they serve everything on isn’t big. They separate the steak into two servings creating a false illusion (to me at least) that you’re getting a sizeable portion… when in reality, it’s not that much!
Service is okay, and very prompt to get you in and out of the door as soon as possible so they can seat more of the City work crowd. Probably wouldn’t come back though.

Mmm MAN food.
And not just man food, but business/​finance-​man-​in-​bespoke-​suit food.
I am none of those things, but I still like this place. This location is less busy than the other one, so in that way I like it more because I would say the food is just as good and the service just as brisk and French as the other one.
Note the weird (but typical for the City) hours before you go.
I want green sauce. Mmmm. Green sauce…

Mmmhhmmm… steak…
Who doesn’t like a good steak? Especially at a place where ordering it blue meets with a nod of approval as opposed to a pitying shake of the head as if they expect you to carve it out of the cow yourself before you fall down dead as a culinary heathen.
After my entrecôte adventures in Paris, I’ve been craving a good steak frites meal for a while and luckily the visit of a good friend from up north gave a perfect excuse. As I’ve heard that this place gets quite busy, we timed it to walk in just as they opened for business.
As you might imagine, Relais doesn’t have a menu per se. Rather, you merely tell the waitress what level of cookedness (yes I know it’s not a word!) you require. They then proceed after about 15 minutes to bring out a sizzling platter and serve you a good portion of meat cooked (or in my case merely slices of bloody beef that had seen merely a reflection of fire… yum!) to your order and a solid helping of fries. Then they cover everything in that special green sauce.
So you dig in, gorge yourself, and feel pretty good about where you are. Then it’s round 2. Yep, that’s right, they only brought out half your steak and now it’s time for the rest served with plenty more string fries and a generous helping of more green sauce.
It may not be healthy, you may feel like you just ate a cow, but the food is delicious, the service friendly, and the atmosphere as chaotic as one could hope for. Yes the place gets packed within 15 minutes of opening and there is about a 30 minute wait at times. So get there early, get there hungry, hell just get there.

Really great place if you like steak, don’t like to read long menus and have enough time to wait (this place is popular!!). They serve one thing only — steak with fries. You’ll also get a little salad but that’s it. Add a bottle of red wine and that’s really all you need. Simple but delicious.
Located in the heart of the City (between Liverpool Street and Bank), this place is very popular and we waited 45 minutes for our table for lunch on Friday. So definitely not a quick lunch, but if you have the time and crave steak with fries, I recommend it!
PS — they don’t take reservations!

Went again last night for a catch up with a girlfriend.
EPIC steak frites accompanied by great service! Need I say more?

I am a little torn how to rate this place so I am just going to say it how it is. On entry I could not help but admire the clean, upmarket décor. The clientèle is 100% city suits, and the service reflects this: Minimal warmth, minimal fuss and minimal smiles. Your options are simple, you have to have steak. How’d you like it and what do you want to drink? That’s all you need to know Within 5mins we had bread and salad. 10mins later a side plate with several slivers of steak drenched in an unnamed by tasty green sauce with fries arrived. The steak was tasty and the fries reminded me of McDonalds. (This is a good thing) My eating buddy on seeing my crestfallen face on account of the side plate of food quickly informed me they replenish the side plate with more steak and fries once I finish the first plate. This indeed happened, yet when I think of a steak dinner, I think a heffer of a T-​Bone, not prissy slivers.
The French certainly know how to cook and Le Relais De Venise does not disappoint with the food. I can understand why the city folk flock to this place, it is reserved quality. I though prefer gluttonous feasting. Give me more meat people!
One thing I certainly applaud, is the offer of a 20% discount if you go back and dine again within the same month. Just keep hold of your receipt.
This place is not a hotspot for me, but it is quality and for that, regardless of the emotionless service, it deserves its four stars.

Interesting concept — just one main course on the menu, steak and fries. We were in a group of three people and the waitress asked us how we would like our steak: bleu, rare, medium or well done. Medium rare did not seem to be an option. We ordered two rare steaks and one medium; some of the medium slices looked identical to the rare (presumably due to the steak not having been of uniform thickness), but these were taken back to the kitchen and replaced without fuss.
As mentioned before, the steaks arrive thinly sliced and the fries are of the thin (French/​Belgian?) variety, but are not overly salted, so you can taste the tarragon-​butter «secret» sauce and meat juices. The sear on the steak was evident, but delicate — unlike the extreme crust common in US steakhouses. Overall a somewhat different way to enjoy steak than the usual steakhouse (or home grilling) experience.
The steak and fries were served in two portions — the second portion being kept warm in the meantime. The portion was large enough for a main course, but we felt like pigging out, so we opted for a cheese platter, which costs GBP7.90, or around GBP8.70 (i.e. less than one pound more) with a glass of port. Originally, we wanted to share the cheese platter among two, but when we found out that another port wine would have cost almost GBP5 for the same size serving, we opted for another cheese platter instead. Surprising pricing strategy, but the business model works.
The total cost came to around GBP45 per person, but it was a lot of food. No need for breakfast the following day.