Flat Iron

Flat Iron started life on Beak Street as a deliberately narrow proposition: one cut of steak, the flat iron, cooked well and priced low, no menu decision fatigue involved. That single-minded approach is still largely how the original Soho branch operates, even as the group has expanded to multiple sites across London since.

The steak itself, a cut most restaurants ignore in favour of sirloin or ribeye, comes with a simple salad and a choice of sides and sauces, historically priced low enough (around £13 for the steak) that it undercuts nearly every other central London steak restaurant by a wide margin. Beef dripping chips are the side most people order without needing to be told, and they hold up against the meat rather than playing a supporting role. A handful of sauces, peppercorn, chimichurri, bearnaise, are offered alongside, and the format leaves little room for the kitchen to go wrong given how narrow the menu is.

Reviewers consistently rate the cooking as precise, medium-rare done properly and consistently rather than as a lucky outcome, and the friendly, efficient service gets repeated praise, including small touches like complimentary popcorn while you wait and ice cream to finish. The industrial-chic room, exposed brick and simple wooden tables, matches the no-frills approach on the plate.

The trade-off for the low price and simple format is a no-bookings policy at most branches and a genuinely small, tightly packed room on Beak Street, meaning queues form quickly at peak times and there is little space to linger once you have finished eating. This is fast, good, cheap steak, not a leisurely steakhouse evening.

For the price point, it remains one of the better value meals in Soho, and the model’s popularity has clearly justified the expansion across London. Anyone wanting a lingering, formal dinner should book elsewhere, but for a genuinely good steak without the ceremony, few places in the West End do it better for the price, and the format has proved durable enough to spawn branches well beyond the original Beak Street site, a sign that getting a narrow menu right and sticking to it can beat marketing every time.