Rowley’s restaurant, located on the prestigious Jermyn Street, is a St James’s institution ideal for business lunches and pre-theatre dining. Housed in the original Walls butcher shop building, Rowley’s celebrates its heritage with an emphasis on high quality steak and grill dishes.
The interior at Rowley’s is traditional with gilt-framed mirrors, wood floors and original tiling creating a charming atmosphere that befits the historical 19th century building.
To start I had the smoked haddock and salmon fish cakes with parsley sauce, making for a nice, light starter pre-steak.
The house specialities at Rowley’s are the chargrilled 28 day matured Entrecôte steak and Cumbrian chicken supreme that both come with unlimited fries, a green salad and Rowley’s own herb, Roquefort and butter sauce.
The menu is relatively short, a real positive in my eyes, so the Entrecôte steak was an easy choice. The Entecôte was placed on a burner in the middle of our table and sizzled away while we tucked in – the flame did need turning down slightly to prevent our medium rare steaks from continuing to cook.
The quality of the meat shone through, delicious and tender, enhanced by the Roquefort and butter sauce (we asked for it on the side as there is a lot of butter). The unlimited fries did not disappoint, crispy and fluffy and perfectly salted, we went back for seconds, refraining from thirds to save that all important pudding space.
The presentation of the dessert, a ‘Luxury Chocolate Brownie’, was rather bland and it was flatter than your average brownie, but the taste more than made up for it: rich, dense and fudgey.
Teamed with homemade vanilla ice cream it is an indulgent dessert. A return visit is on the cards to try the other desserts – the Bailey’s bread and butter pudding is next on the list!
Rowley’s is a real British treasure, steeped in local history, with a pleasant buzz about the place at lunchtime, a popular choice, it seems, for local office workers. I think I’ll tie in my next visit with a trip to the theatre to sample this haven for carnivores at night.
[…] in London’s St James’s area housed in the original Walls Butcher, Rowley’s oozes history and the traditional design further compounds the sense of […]