Its been a while since I’ve been out to dinner with Jules and Sandra (with the two of them together that is.) They certainly keep themselves busy, especially with Jules training constantly for his latest interest (triathlons) and with the both of them filling their weekends with either training or actual races! So we decided it would be nice to go out for a meal – especially as how they were both going away for a week’s leave and also I thought it would be nice to see Sandra before her birthday on Friday… We ended up going to Smithfield’s Bar and Grill which is actually only about five minute’s walk from my brother’s place!

Normally on weekends the area around Farringdon, which is where Smithfield’s Bar and Grill is, is fairly quiet until evening falls and then it starts to become quite a big party – especially with clubs like Fabric in the area.
Smithfield’s Bar and Grill is what is says – a bar at the front and a grill (restaurant) out the back. The bar bit, which you have to walk through to get to the Grill, was fairly busy and very noisy but as soon as you got to the restaurant some magic meant it was fairly calm and you could actually talk to each other without having to shout. A pleasant change.

Smithfield’s Bar and Grill is very attractive with very modern dark colours and bright lighting and white throughout. On corner tables they had round leather booths which were pretty cool. I quite liked the look and the toilets were pretty cool too – each one is individual with its own sink and air dryer.

The menu is described as Modern European with pretty much a mix of everything on their. Being situated across a meat market you’d expect there to be a lot of meat on the menu – and there is in the form of steaks and meaty pies but surprisingly also a huge variety of seafood offered on the menu. There are so many options its almost too overwhelming to make a choice. Funnily enough despite the variety both Sandra and Jules went for the same starters and the same mains (steaks – but different sizes!) ha ha. But this situation is not that unusual and actually normally I would have gone for the same things as they did except for some reason tonight I felt like going for completely different things but with similar themes (seafood followed by meat.) We all obviously have great taste. 🙂

Before our proper food came we had some bread that didn’t come pre-sliced. Sandra wanted me to point out that because of this it went absolutely everywhere!

Our starters – Salt & Pepper Calamari for Sandra and Jules and Mussels in a Coconut, Chilli, Lime and
Ginger broth. Looks pretty tasty right? I don’t how Sandra and Jules felt but I actually felt quite full after finishing with my mussels! Probably a good thing that I didn’t indulge in any of the bread to start with.

For my main I opted for the Ostrich (I can never resist unusual meat on a menu – even if I have tried it before.) It was served simply just garnished with caramelised onion so I also ordered a side of broccoli and cheese & chive mash. Mmmm … As I mentioned before Sandra and Jules both ordered steak (beef) with the difference being in the size. Unfortunately Jules steak was cut very thickly and as a result it was more rare than medium – it was very bloody though that didn’t stop him finishing it. The ostrich for me was just okay but didn’t really have that gamey flavour I’ve tasted previously in ostrich. It could have been beef steak for all I know. The mash was delicious however I couldn’t finish it because I started to feel really full and still wanted to leave room for dessert. Heh heh.

Dessert was delicious though Sandra’s grilled bananas with toffee and ice cream were literally bananas grilled – before peeling! Be warned when ordering this dessert though as there is a 15 minute wait it them.

Smithfield Bar and Grill was excellent value at 50% off. For all our food plus a round of softdrinks and service it only came to £26 which is pretty good considering what we actually ate. Good atmosphere too and fairly good service. The only minor complaint was that we were sat under an air-conditioning unit which was blasting the cold air straight down on us. Until they turned the temp up a bit it was a bit uncomfortable.