Oh the sun, the sun. I spent most of last week in Norway, and happily returned to a gloriously sticky London on Friday, feeling utterly like a tourist in my very own city. There could be no better than now to loaf around in a restaurant designed for oysters slurping and scoffing seared slabs of beef. My first visit to a Mark Hix restaurant

Only the most romantic of cities could have given birth to the L’Entrecote restaurants. It has remained firmly a family business for the better half of the 20th century. The legacy belongs to the family of Paul Gineste de Saurs, the founder, who was then searching for an outlet to sell wine from his family château. He had bought out an Italian restaurant known as the Le Relais de Venise in Porte Maillot, Paris. The Venice Inn. Instead of offering pasta and pizza, Paul’s grand idea was based on an entirely menu-less concept of serving the bistro classic of steak-frites. The entrecote cut was used, sometimes known in France as the contre-fillet, which in this case refers to the sirloin. All diners start their meal with a lettuce and walnut salad, bathed in a mustard vinaigrette. And then, the two servings of steak-frites would follow, the second half kept warm while you ate the first. The formula would be completed with their special butter based sauce smothered all over the steak – a secret recipe

I have vivid childhood memories of tagging along to the supermarket with my mum and her methods of judging if a piece of meat was fresh or whether it had gone off, she would always sniff the meat – if it smells good, it can’t be bad. Growing up in Brunei, everybody has a passion for beef, so much so that the government owns a cattle farm in Northern Australia, over 2000 square miles and just a shy larger the country itself – completely dedicated satisfying the appetite of a nation. Ironically enough, quantity doesnt equate quality as the produce is of largely forgettable quality; so bad that I would say it’s some of the worst beef I’ve ever eaten. Local supermarkets would use red tinted fluorescents to light the glass counters so as to make the beef look more appealing. My mum would always hold it up against white light, and she almost always opts for the tenderloin and nothing else because that was the only cut of beef tender enough not to turn into a rubber tyre after searing. This meant that all beef had to be tenderised before cooking. My mum started out with powdered tenderisers, though it soften the meat, it gave it a horrible plastic taste. Later on, she switched to a more ‘direct’ approach to tenderising with a studded steel hammer designed to pound

I like steakhouses. They are great for mea(e)ting up with mates being a halfway house between a restaurant and a pub – plus food is uncomplicated too. My mate is getting married soon (Matt I’m so proud of you geezer, sob.) and we thought it would be a great place to catch up. Steak and beer I said? (I also added some scratching which blokes can relate to… but let’s keep that within Twitter.)

The internet is in agreement: The Hawksmoor steaks are to die for. But let’s not jump to conclusions just yet. Bring on the mandatory steakporn and let the procession begin

Sophie’s Steakhouse & Bar Official site 311-313 Fulham Road SW10 9QH 020 7352 0088 Express Lunch 2 courses £11.50 , Ala carte £30pp I wish I worked closer to central London (or anywhere that does half decent food) because as much as I enjoy the usual paneer tikka, I do daydream about a ‘come and and laze around’ steak house. Luckily, I get Friday afternoons off and I was in the mood for some real ‘come laze around and read paper’ action along the Chelsea strip. I had heard great things about Sophie’s – in particular – their express lunch menu: 2 courses for only £11.50 and that includes a choice for a small slab of ribeye (me favourite cut). This steakhouse is abit of a cult favourite and it’s high time I paid a visit. Freebies For a bon vivant, I can be a cheapskate sometimes. Though, I’d like to think of myself as the post-credit crunch non-yuppie who has displaced excessivity with conservativity and has become a seeker of true value. Well, something like that anyway. The free salami appetiser was surprisingly good, it was silky and soft, it’s nuttiness melted in my mouth and had me wanting more, though my pride stopped me from ordering another one. I spotted a table of newspapers, and they have the Times! Extra salami points for that