20 Oct 2023
James Cameron and son take the plunge and order a tomahawk steak at Prime… but did it deliver on expectations?
It is a rare treat to get to visit Prime (or a medium-rare treat at least). It’s a very difficult sell to the vegan members of the family to visit a restaurant that is so whole-heartedly dedicated to beef. They do in fact offer a vegan burger, but going to Prime as a vegan would be similar to visiting London Zoo if you disagree with keeping animals in captivity. Sure, you could hang out in the gift shop but you will be missing out on a lot.
Tonight, however, was a magical night when it was political for the carnivore half of the family to be absent from the house so we leapt at the opportunity to visit Prime. We were eating early and I was expecting it to be quiet, but actually the place was both packed and vibrant.
It was only when almost the entire restaurant exited en masse that I realised (after a brief moment of panic that the place was being raided) that they were pre-Odyssey diners and the trailers must be coming to an end. It is in fact ideally situated for pre-film dining, though make sure you leave room for a cheeseboard.
Due to the busyness we were led down to the basement, and although it is slightly less glamorous than the upstairs room it is certainly cosier.
As the weather begins to turn this becomes more of a priority so we were perfectly happy down there.
The staff were exceptional throughout, and at no point did we ever feel abandoned or have a need that was not met. We were possibly slightly under-dressed compared to some of the finery on display, but were not made to feel uncomfortable for it.
After making our orders from menus that were for some reason attached to incredibly hefty drawing boards (do they suffer a lot of menu theft?), we were presented with a little taster of a couple of small cheese scones each.
Things always taste better when they’re free, but these would have been amazing even if paid for due to the addition of a whipped horseradish sauce, perfectly light and in no way over-powering.
Next to come was our starter of Burrata. This somewhat confused my son who thought he was ordering bruschetta and was then presented with something that resembled a poached egg.
Once I explained that it was just a very creamy mozzarella ball he was delighted, as was I once I tasted it.
Creamy it certainly was, but to avoid it being too one-note there were delicious shards of pickled red onion. Who knew cheese and onion was such a successful flavour combination?
Then the main event. We had decided to share a Tomahawk steak, 900g of rib-eye, and this had created a great deal of excitement as the big day approached. When we were a day away it was Tomorrowahawk, then it was Todayahawk, it didn’t really work. The Tomahawk steak is so called because it resembles an axe, however I was slightly disappointed when it arrived to find they had already cut it up for us, like we were children.
This diminished the pure visceral joy of being presented with a giant slab of meat, but also probably saved us messing up the restaurant.
As it was we received a series of chunks of meat arranged beside a slightly redundant bone. There were slivers of beef still on the bone but you really had to work to get them off and I drew the line at picking up the bone and gnawing on it.
The little steaklets, as well as making me feel a bit like a giant, were amazingly tasty. I would probably say this is the second nicest steak I have ever eaten, beaten only by a barbeque-your-own restaurant in Australia. It was cooked to perfection and paired happily with a rich bearnaise sauce.
Accompanying the steak we had a couple of side dishes. There were some ultra-umami truffle fries, and some Asian-style broccoli. This was on the firm side, but the sesame dressing created a lovely little stir-fry style interlude to all the meat eating.
I try to avoid red meat as a rule, for both my health and that of the planet, so when I do indulge I want it to be special (we’ll gloss over the three bacon double cheeseburgers I bought from McDonalds after an evening’s drinking last week). Prime fills this remit in spades, with service, setting and most importantly food all delivering at a very high level. Of course you have to pay for this, and dinner for the two of us with drinks was £120 (remembering that we did order the most expensive item on the menu). Memories like this are precious, though, and I would choose it even over 43 bacon double cheeseburgers.
