My old friend Bruce was back in town so I decided to book an afternoon off so we could catch up and have a bit of a boys day out culminating in seeing Guns'n'Roses at O2. I've seen plenty of reviews on this site about the non delights of eating at the O2 so we opted for lunch in town followed by a few drinks at Canary Wharf. By the time I had got home, met Bruce and had a restorative pint it was after 3 so we needed somewhere that was open all day for food. I was struggling slightly to think of somewhere without going for a generic chain place when suddenly I remembered that my great favourite "Sophie's Steakhouse" had a branch in Covent Garden so off we went. I've been a big fan of Sophies on Fulham road for years. The food is great, the service really friendly and they are open all day.
We arrived about half 3 and were quickly shown to a nice big corner table. Being this time on a Wednesday it was very quiet inside though after we sat down a party of 20 came in for a post sales meeting meal. Bruce went for the very reasonable set menu and choose the sardines followed by steak and chips. Predictably I went for the black angus burger with the iceberg wedge as a starter. We were served by a very friendly waitress and it was good to see that the nice staff ethos of Fulham had been replicated at Covent Garden. the food was very good Bruce who being half Portuguese was very impressed with his grilled sardines and he said his steak was spot on. My choices were as usual spot on. We washed down lunch with the great Angus the Bull Cab Sav.
We skipped dessert for some restorative coffee to fire us up for our evening out. On balance I wished we had stayed at Sophie's for the evening. The gig was terrible, awful acoustics , bad set list and they came on very late. At least our day started well and I can heartliy recommend Sophies Covent Garden. It may lack a bit of the charm of the original as it is so much bigger but the food is just as good, nice service and the same good value. If you are in Covent Garden this is a no brainer. The no booking policy may mean you wait for a table but it's worth it. Lovely stuff.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8