I am so very fortunate to be able to visit not one, but two Gordon Ramsay restaurants on my London trip. The Maze Grill is a smoothly run, very impressive operation. Without question, this was the best meal I’ve had on my trip this week.
While most of my team flew home last night or today, my friend (and my boss, too) David and I stuck around London for a vacation day. We made it to Maze Grill five minutes before our reservation. We were promptly seated, and after sitting for a few minutes, we were greeted by our server who took our drink order (the easiest of the entire week, one coke, one tap water with ice). Strangely, the menus weren’t given to us when we were seated or during the drink order, but instead afterwards, and by someone who it appeared was his specialty to bring the menu and step us through it. I only saw him repeating this process in the restaurant at other tables. Our drinks finally arrived, our orders were taken, and things were pretty snappy until just before the end.
As a starter, we split a sushi grade tuna tartar with avocado, caviar, and ponzu dressing for £14.50. Molded into a small biscuit shape, the tuna was bright red, the avocado bright green, both were very fresh, and the ten pixels or so of caviar and sprig of green added a nice color contrast to the top.
There were five steak categories, each with multiple cuts of beef available. From the least expensive, there was grain fed aged 21 days, grass fed aged 25 or 28 days, corn fed aged 35 days, or Wagyu beef. I selected a 10 ounce grass fed Aberdeen Angus ribeye aged for 28 days. The cow’s name was Horatio; he liked hoof painting, sampling various species of Kentucky Bluegrass, and once auditioned for a Chick-Fil-A commercial. The rib eye was about a quarter of an inch thick, seasoned and cooked perfectly, and seemed larger than 10 ounces. It was £25. For sides, David and I split an order of french beans with shallots and an order of garlic fries, both at £3.50. The steaks were presented on their own wooden cutting boards, the green beans in a tiny skillet, and the fries in a stainless steel cup with a wax paper liner. The cutting boards were interesting, they had a gutter all the way around to catch the steak juices, and were slightly tapered to draw everything to the top left corner where there was a golf-ball size divot. The steak knives were delivered with the cutting boards, stuck perpendicularly into a gouge across the top of the board. The thinness of the ribeye made it look a lot like a tampiquena steak, just without any mariachi music in the distance. It was unfair to judge this book by its cover, it was GOOD.
We opted out of dessert but did ask for two Cafe Americanos. Each arrived as two espresso shots in a large coffee cup, and water was added tableside to dilute the espresso. We asked for cream for the coffee, and this yielded about a five minute wait. This delay was consistent with the unusual wait for menus and drinks at the very beginning, but to be fair, the latency was the only operational imperfection. Seated at six sharp with a receipt time-stamped at 7:15, this was the fastest dinner of any night since our team arrived Sunday, proving quality and speed are not opposing forces.
Because we were seated just around the corner from the kitchen, we could hear the orders going in followed by the chorus of “yes, Chef!” as they were captured. After dinner, I asked to see the kitchen and was happily escorted to meet those who engineered the meal. The team was all smiles, shook my hand, and seemed genuinely enthused to let me take a peek.
All told, it was perfect except for the handful of nagging short delays in the very beginning and ending.
Out of a possible five stars in each category, Maze Grill scored:
Atmosphere:  | Food: |
Service:  | Value: |
My opinion: Book it!
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