Blacklock (Soho)
The room takes its name from the Blacklock foundry in the American south, and the antique irons it made are what the kitchen uses to press chops onto the grill.
Why go
Three people out of the Hawksmoor group opened this basement in early 2015, and the menu has stayed almost comically short ever since: chops, a few sides, one dessert. Beef comes from the Warrens in Cornwall, who keep the Blacklock herd and dry-age for the group, and the kitchen cooks it over charcoal (venue). The Good Food Guide reads the whole idea as the old London chophouse brought back with a trendy spin
3. The site itself has form: a former brothel and then the Le Reims lap dancing club, on the Great Windmill Street that carried the Nosh Bar, a salt beef counter, for forty years. Mondays are the day to come, when the big cuts go at butcher price and get written on the board and crossed off as they sell. The night's cuts are chalked onto the pillars, which is how you find out what the boat brought before you sit down.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the all in, a heap of lamb, pork and beef laid over charred flatbread. Jay Rayner on the lamb:
The lamb tastes of proper animal, and the ribbon of fat at its back is good and crisped
(The Guardian). The porterhouse if there are two of you, with the chilli hollandaise. Pre-chop crackers with egg and salted anchovy. The sweet potato, still smoking from the ash. - Avoid: the Sunday roast, which is the one thing here two separate critics have marked down. Go easy on the sides. And do not plan on the stairs if steps are a problem, because the room is a basement with no lift.
What locals & experts say
- Sinéad Cranna, The Infatuation, 1 February 2024, scoring the Soho branch 7.8, with the warning attached to the recommendation:
Know that some of the sides are underwhelming and the Sunday roast is disappointing, but the likeable, lively spot is perfect for when you just want an excellent steak (the chilli hollandaise is the superior sauce).
On the roast itself:The beef is pleasingly tender but the pork and lamb are lacklustre. Sides like watery cauliflower cheese and soggy roasties feel like an afterthought.
2 - Jay Rayner, The Guardian, 8 March 2015, reviewing 24 Great Windmill Street five weeks or so after it opened. On the founders:
Blacklock is founded by three veterans of the Hawksmoor steakhouse group, so the quality of the meat need not detain us. They're using the good stuff.
On what the pile costs you:The only issue is that, piled up like this in the gloom, one bit of flesh begins to taste much like another.
And the complaint that has never been fixed:But there are no chips. Given all the filthy talk, this seems prim. You're doing chops. Where are the chips?
His verdict:It's there to make life simpler. On those terms it works.
1 - The Good Food Guide, rating it Good on uniqueness, deliciousness, warmth and strength of recommendation:
Named after the vintage Blacklock irons used to grill its skinny chops, the original branch of this meat-loving mini chain channels the spirit of London's old chophouses but gives the whole idea a trendy spin.
3 - No industry voice found. Nobody working in a London kitchen has been found on the record naming this room, which for a chophouse cooks are known to use is a gap in our research. Searched 30 July 2026.
Good to know
- Where: 24 Great Windmill Street, W1D 7LG, in the basement, a few minutes from Piccadilly Circus and the West End theatres. Phone 020 3441 6996.
- Timing: Monday to Friday noon to 3pm and 5pm to 10.30pm, Saturday noon straight through to 10.30pm, Sunday 11.45am with the last seating at 8pm.
- Booking: online, with a few tables held back for walk-ins. Parties of eight to ten go by email to soho@theblacklock.com.
- Butcher Price Monday: the big cuts, porterhouse, prime rib, bone-in sirloin and lamb rump, at eight pounds per hundred grams, all day, lunch and dinner.
- Access: a basement with no lift. The group's Shoreditch and Canary Wharf rooms are ground level.
- Hygiene: Food Standards Agency rating 5, inspected 21 April 2026 by the City of Westminster.5
- Diet: the venue publishes no allergen or dietary statement, so nothing is flagged here. This is a chophouse; call ahead if it matters.
- Michelin: checked on 30 July 2026 and not listed.
- Sites: Soho is the original. The group also runs Covent Garden, City (Philpot Lane), Shoreditch, Canary Wharf, Manchester and Birmingham. Hygiene records are per premises and they differ: this room holds a 5 from April 2026 while the City branch holds a 4 from October 2025. Every review cited on this page is of the Soho basement.
Verdict
should-visit — Worth the detour for the chops and only the chops. Three people out of the Hawksmoor group opened this basement in early 2015 and named it after the Blacklock foundry in the American south, whose antique irons they use to press meat onto the grill. Beef comes from Philip Warren in Cornwall, who keeps the Blacklock herd, and it is dry-aged in house. Jay Rayner reviewed it five weeks in and said the lamb tasted of proper animal with the back fat crisped, which is the whole proposition in one line. The value plays are real: the all in piles lamb, pork and beef over charred flatbread that catches the juices, and on Mondays the big cuts go at butcher price and the staff cross them off a board as they sell. Now the part the listings leave out. The room's most famous dish is its weakest. The Infatuation, scoring it 7.8, found the beef tender, the pork and lamb lacklustre and the sides an afterthought, and Rayner had already complained that a chop house serves no chips. So come on a Monday for a big cut, sit at the counter, order the chilli hollandaise, and eat your Sunday roast somewhere else.