Flat Iron, Covent Garden – tried and tasted The pioneers of great value steak have just launched their third restaurant — and it’s a biggie Friday 8 January 2016 17:30 BST Flat Iron launched onto London’s restaurant scene in summer 2012 via a residency at The Owl and Pussycat pub in Shoreditch. The brainchild of Charlie Carroll (former operations advisor at Wahaca), it’s aim was not just to serve excellent steak but to do so at an affoordable price. He achieved this by making use of a hitherto underrated cut: flat iron. It’s well-marbled, juicy and tender, but more difficult to butcher and was — at the time, at least — little known in the UK. At that first pop-up, the steaks went on the menu at just £10 a pop (including a side salad) and as the third restaurant opens, it’s still that price today. A unifying feature of the first two Flat Iron restaurants, on Beak Street and Denmark Street, both in Soho, is size — they’re teeny. It’s a different story here;

the two-floor Covent Garden site provides over 4,000 sq ft of room and allows for 180 covers. The extra room not only means you’re more likely to get a table (there are no reservations) but also allows for some new features — such as a glass-fronted butchery room that shows off the beef as you enter, a working on-site microbrewery and an ice-cream counter.eclipse curtains merlot First and foremost there’s the £10 flat iron steak — juicy, richly flavoured and tender, served medium-rare. ikea lappljung curtainsIf you’ve been to a Flat Iron restaurant before, you’ll know what to expect. ikea lappljung curtainsIf you haven’t, then come and try it.2nd hand curtains kirkliston

New for this flagship site is a host of special cuts, straight from the butchery. Check the blackboard or ask your waiter what’s on — we tried a tender sirloin with unctuous melting fat and a vivid pink, juicy chateaubriand, both from a 50-day-aged Galloway cow.curtains nailsea The specials are charged per weight and ended up around the £30 mark, but the gutsy flavours are on a par with those of London’s higher-end steak spots, such as Hawksmoor.vern yip curtains Sides include outstanding potato action in the form of beef dripping chips, along with some salad and veg options.curtains nailsea Here’s a nice touch. Flat Iron doesn’t do desserts as such (nor starters), but when you pay you’ll get given an itsy metal butcher’s cleaver of the sort you’d wear on a charm bracelet.

If you can bear to part with it, you can hand it in on your way out in exchange for a salted caramel ice cream in a cornet to go. The best food in London The headline drink is Flat Iron’s own beer, which is made in partnership with Yorkshire craft brewer Copper Dragon and is a traditional Northern-style beer. The style has apparently been chosen due to the lack of this style of ale in London. A host of other craft beers, wines by the glass or carafe and a short selection of cocktails also feature — try the blood orange Old Fashioned for a subtle twist on a classic. Flat Iron: The Lowdown Final flavour: Superb steaks that are cheap as chips.It depends what you order, but the £10 steak has to be among London’s best value dishes. If you upgrade to one of the specials you’ll pay more, but it’s still good valuie compared to other places. Cocktails range from an ultra-reasonable £5 to £7, though aren’t the largest serves. Visit if you like: Zelman Meats, Foxlow, Hawksmoor.

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In the Moment: with Ben Miller Ever since I can remember, comedy was the thing that I wanted to do,” says comedian, writer, actor and director Ben Miller. “I loved studying for my PhD [in solid-state physics], but I never really had any intention of having a career in it, so I started doing more writing, stand-up and acting, taking part in lots of student plays – all while I probably should have been researching electrons. I can remember walking to the lab in my final year at college – it was a very long walk, probably about four miles – and I had an idea for a one-man show about the former Blue Peter presenter John Noakes. He had disappeared, so I decided to leave my PhD and go and find him. I tracked him down in Mallorca, where he was living on a boat, took photos and incorporated them into the show, which I then took to the Edinburgh Festival. That was my first professional success. “I met Alexander Armstrong [Ben’s partner in the comedy double-act Armstrong and Miller] on the back of that and knew immediately that we were going to work together.

It was an amazing thing to happen and I’m so grateful that it did, because I now realise that it’s very rare to come across somebody and for there to be such trust. You’re throwing in your lot with each other and you know that you’re probably only going to have one shot and that you’re taking that shot together. They were really exciting times. We had a good five years of playing clubs, trying to get our material right, going to Edinburgh and taking aOne year, the reviews said, ‘Armstrong and Miller have created a new kind of comedy – one which isn’t funny and has no jokes.’ That was a bit brutal. “Just as we were on the brink of making it, Alexander was offered a big part in a musical at the National Theatre. He was saying, ‘Should I do it? Should I not?’ and I was thinking, ‘Please don’t take the part!’ I went out and found a review of the play in the newspaper and sat him down and said, ‘If you take this part and it’s a hit, there might be a picture of you and a sentence about your performance but that’s all you’ll get.

Whereas if we do our act and we’re successful, the whole article will be about you. It’ll be about things you’ve written – your comedy – and it will have a life beyond just a little flicker in a newspaper.’ And good for him, he turned it down and we got our break a few weeks later. “I’ve had so many career highlights since, things that I can’t believe I’ve had the chance to do. I try and push myself to do comedy in different forms: movies, TV, comedy books about physics – whatever way I can, really. Winning a BAFTA for The Armstrong and Miller Show meant an amazing amount. To think we’d come that distance, from writing sketches on scraps of paper to having our own show on TV! I’ll never forget watching Rowan Atkinson at work on the first Johnny English film, either – that’s the sort of moment when you think, there’s no better place for me to be than here.” From scaling the heights of the Shard to revisiting his comedy beginnings in Soho, Ben enjoys a perfect day in his beloved London

I love that old tradition of Carnaby Street – the mods, the rudeboys and a real sense of pride in looking sharp SOHO “Soho means everything to me in terms of who I am and the world I work in. It’s the place where people start out, a space where you can be yourself, and I love that. There’s a beating heart to it that’s continuous” STYLE “I don’t particularly believe in being on trend, especially at the age I am – I’m moving towards the classic items in my wardrobe rather than trying to get my pedal pushers a certain length” FAMILY “It’s really hard to fit in being a dad, but you just have to juggle and if you generally put your children first, you’ll never go far wrong” TRAVEL “If I could, I’d have my morning croissant in Soho, be in the Cotswolds for lunch, Edinburgh for the afternoon and Malibu in the evening with a sundowner” ICONS “I really admire Steve Coogan. There’s something so unique about him and he’s such a funny person in real life, too.