I know Flat Iron is a chain. I know. You don’t need to email me.
But what they do is very, very good.
And I’m slightly surprised more restaurants haven’t figured this out.
Because your average restaurant menu these days is basically a small novel. It wants to be all things to all people. Fish. Meat. Vegetarian. Vegan. Gluten-free. Healthy. Unhealthy. Breakfast. Kids. Starters. Snacks. Bread. Mains. Desserts. Cheese. Small plates. Large plates. Things to share. Things not to share. Things that are apparently designed specifically for people who don’t know what they want.
By the time you’ve finished reading it, you’ve aged six years and it’s past your bedtime.
Flat Iron takes the opposite approach.
Popcorn.
Then steak.
Then some sides.
Then ice cream.
That’s basically it.
And there is something enormously satisfying about this. In a world where every app, website, restaurant and supermarket is screaming for your attention, Flat Iron simply removes the cognitive load. It has made the decision for you.
You are here for steak.
Good.
Let’s get on with it.
I first went to a Flat Iron in London about 12 years ago and remember thinking, this should work everywhere. And, to their credit, they’ve proved me right. They’ve popped up all over the country and are now doing exactly what a successful restaurant chain should do: take a very simple idea and execute it consistently well.
The Bristol restaurant is cool without trying too hard. Stylish, but not the sort of stylish that makes you frightened to put your elbows on the table. The popcorn arrives warm, which is already a promising start.
Then there is the steak.
Obviously.
There are a couple of other options if, for some inexplicable reason, you have arrived at Flat Iron and don’t want the thing Flat Iron is famous for. I’m sure they are perfectly good. But ordering something other than the steak here feels a little like going to a pub and asking for a glass of warm milk.
The sides, however, are another matter.
Mac and cheese with truffle is the sort of thing that makes you feel slightly more grown up than you actually are. Chips, creamed spinach, mash, all the familiar supporting cast, all done properly.
Nothing is trying to win a Michelin star. Nothing is arriving under a glass dome accompanied by a story about a foraged leaf from the side of a mountain.
It’s just good food.
And that, increasingly, feels quite radical.
The service is friendly, the room has a nice buzz and the whole thing moves along without making dinner feel like an administrative exercise.
And then, when you leave, they give you ice cream.
Free ice cream.
Creamy, cold, slightly naughty ice cream that feels faintly bad for you, which is precisely why you want it.
And really, that’s Flat Iron.
It knows what it is.
It knows what you came for.
It doesn’t need to impress you with 47 different things it can cook. It has picked a few things, worked out how to do them properly, and then does them.
There is something rather grown-up about that.
Simple. Focused. Very good.
Very, very good.
Leave a Reply