It is quite clear the steak club boys are busy. The strafdops owed have grown out of control mainly due to late arrivals and late reviews. We have also had quite a few carry over strafdops due to work commitments. Andre made a very good suggestion… that we should clear the slate and from this point onwards, a strafdop equates to £5 in the kitty and a strafdop penalty. This way the culprits will drink and pay. This event was organised by Gary who hosted the pre-drinks at the Hoop & Grapes in Aldgate. Unfortunately Andre was pre-occupied at home due to a severe case of ‘Poep-spuit’ and therefore could not be too far from his toilet. I suggested a large steak would perform a similar function to a plug, but he did not buy it.
Gary found a newly opened Argentinian restaurant called Omnino, which I knew about and was probably the top of my list for my next hosting. The restaurant’s decor is stylish, ambient and cozy with nicely spread out tables and a view of the chefs in action in the kitchen.
The menus provide a vast amount of choice across the cuts (including 2 wagyus), the sources of the steaks (from the US, Argentina and Australia) and good sharing platter options. We were all enticed by the sharing platters (in particular the rib-eye) which included a 300g cut of Picana Wagyu, Prime US and Argentine rib-eyes.
Not only were the options good, the advice from the very attentive and helpful waitresses was better than we have experienced in the past 7 years of steak club. The head waitress was extremely knowledgeable about cuts (all types including theirs), the different countries (pros and cons) and also the best cooking methods. We were in awe of her advice and therefore followed it to the T (excuse the steak pun) with regards to the cooking of our rib-eye platters and the sequence of eating the 3 steaks. She suggested we started with the Waygu (being the most delicate), then the US and finish with the Argentine. We all agreed that the US cut was our favourite. It had the best flavour and was still very tender. Saying that, they were all very good! We were all a little shocked that once again the wagyu was over-hyped and not worth the inflated price.
Gary choose two really good wines for the evening by going safe with ‘fail-proof’ Malbec’s. He first ordered the Argentinian 2011 Joffre e Hijas followed by the 2012 Atamisque.
The only slightly negative part of the evening (other than Andre not joining us) was that the bill came to £90 a head. A few factors contributed to the higher than normal price; the two sharing samplers costing £95 each (£47.50 each), Andre missing so the wine costs were shared between 4 instead of 5 members (however there was one less steak to pay for) and a round of Dom Pedro’s at £7 each.
At this price, would I recommend the venue to someone wanting a great steak experience…. Absolutely! It is one of those recommendations to rather skip another average meal to save for a special experience of quality.
Steak 8x5=40
Venue 7
Menu 8
Waitress 9
Wine 7
Value 5
Total: 76
