Le Relais de Venise l'Entrecôte.

Le Relais de Venise l'Entrecôte, City

Two questions at the table, how you want the meat and red or white, and after that the kitchen decides everything.1

Why go

You do not choose here. Salad with walnuts lands first, then entrecôte and frites under the sauce nobody will explain, and then a second plate of the steak arrives without anyone ordering it, already inside the price. Harden's survey reporters call it an excellent, no-choice menu of salad, steak & frites, all of which are delicious at an extremely good price (including a second helping if you'd like one).1

The cost of that is queueing. The same reporters record no booking and a permanent queue at both London branches, and their advice is to get there early.1

Order this / avoid

• Order: the entrecôte, which is the only choice, and say how you want it cooked when asked.1
• Order: the second helping when it comes round. It is included.1
• Avoid: the middle of the lunch hour in the City, when the queue is longest and the turnover is quickest.1

What locals & experts say

• Harden's survey, on the sauce: What's in the addictive secret sauce? and the answer reporters settle for, who cares when it works so well!1
• The same survey, on the room: bustling and tightly packed, and A bit bish, bash, bosh but great fun.1
• Scope: Harden's writes about the Marylebone and City branches together. No bylined review of this door alone exists.

Good to know

• Where: 5 Throgmorton Street EC2N 2AD, a minute from Bank.
• Sites: two in London, this one and Marylebone. The operation is Paris-based.
• Booking: none taken. Queue.
• Price: the second serving of steak is in the price, which is the arithmetic that makes this cheap.

Verdict

could-visit — One dish, asked two questions, served twice. You sit down, somebody asks how you want the meat cooked and whether you want red or white, and then salad arrives, then entrecôte and frites under the sauce, then a second helping of the steak that is already in the price. Harden's reporters call it an 'excellent, no-choice menu of salad, steak & frites, all of which are delicious' at 'an extremely good price', and they are equally clear about what you trade for it: 'no booking and a permanent queue', tables tight enough that the same reporters call the place 'a bit bish, bash, bosh'. It stays mid-ladder because the format is the whole idea and the format is now in Marylebone, the City, Paris and New York. Go for the mechanism and the price, not because this door is different from the others.